Back at SAK

Well, here we are. Back from vacation, diving back into the swirling vortex. SAK got some great coverage between the article in the Orlando Sentinel and the article in the Orlando Weekly. Another silly semblance of myself appears there. Oh by the way, with me in the pic are Keith Dickerson and Mark Baratelli. I completely spaced when I sent the photo to the weekly and it published without any credit to Mark and Keith. Mark pointed out to me how important it is to have all the trackable credit you can on the web. "Potential employers google people all the time these days. The more interesting things that come up when they google you the better." He's right. So now, when potential employers google Mark Baratelli, they'll see this. Even if they don't get the Weekly story they can get to it from here. So, much of this aside is in hopes of making my gaff up to Mark. Mark Baratelli, that is. B as in Baratelli and Mark as in Mark Baratelli. (Whew, that should make for a successful google search for Mark Baratelli)

Of course I got a lot of calls while away with the family on the beach. Now that I'm back it's time to catch up and sift through all the calls and e-mails. We've got everything - from offers for potential space - in Orlando - near UCF - to offers to share our space to offset costs. Some have called wanting to do fundraisers for SAK. Some just want to know WHAT they might do. Of course, my first response is "come and see shows, and bring friends!" I also direct people immediately to helpsavesak.com which offers a growing list of ideas one might consider.

One tough thing is the response time. Already I've heard rumblings and comments that we're not responding fast enough to people's ideas. Hey! I was on vacation! Give me a break! V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. It's from the greek root "va" which means "to go" and "cation" which means "can't do everything cuz I'm on freakin' vacation."

There are many great ideas though, and it will take some time to work through some of them. There's only so much I can do even now that I'm back. I constantly have to remind people that SAK doesn't really have the budget to pay a full time Managing Director and Artistic Director, and we have a staff of 3 not including myself doing the work of 7. I do much of my SAK work without compensation. (There is a small stipend which I use for gas. I have a lot of gas) Anyway, or rather, unfortunately, I have to keep busy with other things to pay those pesky bills. My Disney Show Director work takes care of most of that. Sometimes, (unfortunately again) that work takes up a full week's worth of time. Stack on that SAK duties and I'm very quickly overloaded. I feel constantly pressed for time and definitely not as much as I'd like to spend with my family. That's why my family vacation was such an awesome treat!

So I've learned to take it all in stride. I go forth knowing the responses will be slow and trust that the Lord (and my Treo 650) will help me with those things I need to take care of today. In the next several days I'll be very excited to talk about some of the possibilities that lie before us. As each day passes, I feel more and more that SAK will definitely make it through the year. We'll have some lean times from now til then, and cross fingers we don't suffer any hurricanes this year, but somehow we'll scrap our way through. SAK usually does. I just don't know how much more of the scrapping I have left in me. I'm eager for this wonderful little improv company to thrive, and for everyone involved to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

More later.

I wish I was at the beach again. Love the sound of real ocean waves.