Actually, the best place to learn more is to visit IHCenter's website at http://ihcenter.org. An alphabetized listing of all projects can be found at http://ihcenter.org/groups. People may be amazed at the breadth, depth and diversity of those groups that have incarnated under our stewardship.
The economic crisis has surely had all kinds of unforeseen and far reaching ramifications. How does IHCenter run with the top guys reduced to part-time? That must be so challenging. Can any small, non profit be a part of IHCenter? Could you ultimately house 500 or 1,000 of them under your umbrella?This has been a challenge... and that is an understatement. Tough times call for tough decisions. The folks remaining full-time at IHCenter are highly qualified and dedicated. Those of us on sabbatical (myself, as Executive Director, and the Project Liaison) continue to work as much as possible unpaid. Yet the reality is that working without pay only lasts so long. So there is a juggling act between IHCenter responsibilities and finding other sources of income. I'm at that stage now.
The irony is that last Summer (2008), IHCenter was invited to submit a grant proposal that will provide three years of capacity building and infrastructure development. We were approved for this funding, right at the exact moment the economy backslid. The grant has been delayed ever since. We still hold out hope and vision that it will arrive. In this grant package, we forecast into the foreseeable future and estimated that we would be sponsoring in excess of 1,000 projects by 2012. We could absolutely handle this type of influx with appropriate staffing and infrastructure. At that point, we envisioned employing a small team of project liaisons to handle the requisite site visits and project oversight. Alas, without outside funding, this will never occur.
That is a major bummer. One more reason to hope the economy recovers, and fast. Anything else would you like to tell our readers, Steve?
Nope. I think we've covered everything.
Well,
I hope things turn around soon and that you finally get the promised
funding that you so richly deserve. It'll be great when even more small
grass roots organizations are able to benefit from your services,
encouragement, and good will! Thanks for talking with me, Steve. Good
luck to you and International Humanities Center.
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