March 23rd, 2026: Another Tuesday, I woke up at 6:30am and took the bus into work. I got in and had tea before getting seated for the Monday meeting. From which I recorded all of this:
“…Planning in case the enthusiasm is here, something they have this meeting set. [clears throat] So happy Eid. Are we still celebrating that? Oh, yeah.” - the Latinx lady
“Oh, that one was dead.” - the CEO
“We're done?” - the Latinx lady
“Yeah.” - the CEO
“Okay, so it was this past weekend?” - the Latinx lady
“Yeah.” - The CEO
“Maybe it depends on who you were asking.” - Edgar
“Yeah. If the celebration is continuing?” - Lillehammer
“Yeah.” - Edgar
“Wow. Well, no, there was, there was-- everybo- everybody-- there was different groups had different days, I think. I think it started on-” - Edgar
“I thought there were like three days, you know.” - the Afghani man
“Yeah. Thursday, Friday- Yeah, yeah ... and then the weekend. Mm-hmm. So congratulations for celebrating that. So Mauer is out today. The Polish lady is still on vacation. Um, she's coming back the next Monday. But we have Portia here, that is, uh, taking the lead on, uh, with the visitors. Mm-hmm. Uh, Lu, are they here already?” - the Latinx lady
“No, they're gonna be arriving on Wednesday, and then I'll be out accompanying them on Thursday and Friday.” - Portia
“Okay. So I'll pass it on to you before I do my update.” - The Latinx lady
“Well, morning, folks. Sorry I'm a little late. I, I forgot my medication, so I'm fully medicated now…” - the CEO
[laughs]
“...So, um, yeah, it's, uh, it's good to-- good that we're back. Um, we're still doing really good. Um, just remember to i- i-- we have low clients, but make sure that you support anybody who touches the clients so that they can actually put in effective, uh, quality notes. It's real important that we actually continue to show quality in everything that we do because as the time rolls on to, uh, May through July, that's when the granting agencies take a closer look at us. So, uh, we're doing really good, but let's just, uh, not let up. And, uh, I don't really have anything more to talk about. Our, our funding is stable so far, and we'll just keep on, uh, looking for, uh, more funding. I, I hear that there's some movement on some of the grants we've been looking at, so we'll probably talk about those as those evolve. So any questions for me? Thank you for what you guys are doing with the clients and for each other. It's really good.” - The CEO
“So this week I'll be here until Thursday. I took a PTO on Friday to go with my son for a field trip. I don't know where, but I think I'm, um, gonna be chaperone for the field trip. Um, [clears throat] we do have a full board meeting on Wednesday that we are planning for it right now. Um, today I have a meeting with, uh, uh, people from Holiday Fundraiser. We are on the planning already for it. We already selected the theme. And then we just received some, uh, save the date magnets that we're gonna pass around. So hopefully you guys take it and put it on your fridge. Um, and let us know if you guys, um, would like to send it to any, uh, any other contact that you may have in particular so they can, um, prepare for it. Um, [clears throat] the website guy is helping me with the design, so I really like the vibe, that it looks very fresh. Um, we are also in the process of looking at proposals for a new PR company. We have had, uh, Dave A’s company for the last probably fifteen years, but it's, uh, it was gonna-- it's that time now for us to kind of look for different ideas and see what other companies may offer. So the Polish lady took the lead on sending out, um, requests for proposals. We got probably like six, seven…” - The Latinx lady
[laughter, I sigh]
“Um, so, um, we are in the review process right now. We haven't, uh, said no to Dave A’s, but we did mention that we are gonna be looking for other options. Um, website guy is also taking the lead on updating the Holiday Fundraiser website, and I know Anthony is on fence as well with supporting that. So thank you guys for doing that. It's, it's looking very, very good. Um, for next week, um, we are gonna be closing the office on the third. We do have holiday for Good Friday, so please don't come to the office. It's not gonna be open at all. Um, and then, um, the system for notifications, it has been approved, so hopefully the next time that we do get to notify you about an emergency or situation, it's gonna be a quick text message, um, instead of a voicemail. Um, but I noticed that we have like four people that haven't signed the agreement of receiving notifications. So if you did not sign that, yeah, form that says that I'm agreed to, uh, receive notifications from the institute, uh, please, um, look for that email and then just sign the form. Um, submit the form, and there is a signature part, signature part in there. Um, otherwise you won't be able to get those notifications because I do need your agreement that I'm, I've-- that you give permission to us to send you a text message. Um, and again, this is not gonna be very often. This is just gonna be when we have to notify everybody about something that is very, very important. So that, that application was approved. We are also working on additional funding for the [2 letter acronym]legal. Um, we haven't heard back about the MOU, but apparently there was some extra funding that we, um, can get, uh, to it, but we're just waiting on more support on that. And it's more for [2 letter acronym] Afghan and [2 letter acronym] Ukraine. It's specific for legal and Ukraine. So I know we did have questions about that, but hopefully once the MOU is assigned, we'll get a meeting with the legal team and then, um, figure out what it's set for and what can we do for those Ukrainian clients. Questions? Okay, so I'll pass it on to Zach A first because again, they both, Yeilxáak and Zach A, have at ten o'clock with the state.” - the Latinx lady
“Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Happy August all week. Uh, Mrauku is out sick today, so is Shima C, and Threes will be working remotely today. So if you need anything from them, reach out to me. This week I have a couple meetings starting the one at ten, but I have two meetings with the state, uh, this week. Two meetings with [5 letter acronym]. Um, and I wanna give a big shout-out to the [2 letter acronym] because of the email that I received, uh, from [5 letter acronym]. They-- We sent two cases for, uh, the, uh, review, and after review, Kay, our program officer, sent an email requesting, uh, permission if we can allow them to use our [2 letter acronym], uh, file for their training, uh, to other agencies. So that's really cool. Uh, so thank you very much.” - Zach A
“Oh, thank you, Zach A.” - the CEO
[clapping]
“Wonderful. Uh, so I expect the same with the other programs. And thank you very much for, uh, all the hard work that you're doing. Okay. Arrivals, we still have-- We have a couple arrivals this week. I'll later talk more about that. We have, uh, reports due, uh, with the states. Uh, also [5 letter acronym] raised some documents that are missing from our side. They're being monitored by [3 letter acronym], so I'll be working closely with them to make sure that we have, uh, our documents up-to-date with them. So that'll be the main focus for this week. Uh, I also have, uh, Wun Wun and Threes and myself are working on some really cool, uh, people service program. Uh, so we'll finalize probably possibly this week and present it to Wun Wun, the Latinx lady and see how that goes. But thank you, Wun Wun, for the creativity. Uh, other than that, I also have a couple meetings, uh, regarding mostly, uh, immigration and, uh, how to save traffic, uh, victim of human trafficking and other meetings. I'll also be approving-- reviewing and approving time cards this week, or possibly tomorrow. And also be signing check request tomorrow. I already submitted four check requests this week. And that's about it. Questions for me? Thank you.” - Zach A
I went back to see the food available to us all, which was Jimmy John’s. Wun Wun picked up a salami sandwich and asked us if it was ok to eat but I told him it’s made out of pork, I had his, he grabbed a turkey meat sandwich, and I saved one for lunch. I helped work on the computers from the event and prepared them for use as intern computers. I grabbed a disinfectant wipe for the backs of 2 and got them labeled. I dropped off the computers at the Indian lady’s desk. I ate lunch in the break room with the Afghani lady.I got a notification from Rosen asking me if I saw what I sent on Instagram, I promptly re-downloaded it and found out that the Boris Johnson event was today, not tomorrow. I clocked out quickly and then ran out to the bus stop at the same time as Ahwahn was taking the bus home, I didn't sit with her but I got off at the stop for college; however it was 1:35pm at that point so I just walked back home and got better dressed, picking up my suit jacket with the fancy buttons and a brown tie. I ran over and then got to the busy building. I bought one bottle of milk for $1.99 and then went to the bathroom before getting in the car with Nichol and Rosen. Nichol beat me to the car.
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