Autumn hot on the heels of Summer
Howard Lake | 10 September 2010 | Blogs
I always look forward to autumn once summer is out of the way.
The fresh winds, the drop in temperature, the changing scene in the hedgerows as leaves fall….
At least, I have in the past!
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And I guess I am still looking forward to it this year, but there will be an awful lot of people that will be dreading it with the approach of the government spending reviews.
Many people will find themselves out of work. People will lose work colleagues and be rewarded with a greater workload instead. Others will find their project funding cut or done away with completely. While others will find they are expected to provide a greater range and depth of services without being told where the money is coming from.
In one degree or another we have been there before and the resilient amongst us will tighten belts and just get on with it.
And I do hope that a ‘can do‘ spirit comes out of all of this.
We have to collaborate, we have to support one another, we have to work our way through the situation we find ourselves in and make a positive future for us and the generations to follow.
But I also hope this will signal the end of the summer of nothing. That is what 2010 has been.
No-one in central or local government has known what budgets they have or have not. Things, good and bad, have simply been allowed to tick-over with no great momentum. I think we have suffered as a result.
Projects that could have continued unabated have have had to reign back on activities while everyone has stood around scratching their heads.
We will have lost probably 6 – 8 months of momentum and activity by the time we hear the outcomes and then it’ll be winter, just ahead of Christmas, and it will be impossible to build any momentum until the New Year!
I have high hopes for 2011 and strongly believe that everyone should start planning now for what they want to achieve in that year.
Aim high and you’ll be surprised at just what can be achieved.
But please please let us see the end of inactivity and get some sense of direction back in to everything we do.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.