Well today I didn’t do anywhere near the amount of writing that I had set out to do. One of the clients that I had previously worked on has put out a request for proposal out. However, somewhat unreasonable despite this modern day and age, apparently these require hard copies to be submitted. Which requires type setting, a design team and an actual print shop. All of which takes no less than five business days - which doesn’t sound unreasonable until you find out that we have only two weeks to respond to the RFP.
Eliminate another day for the executives to proof read the thing and make any corrections. And that means I’ve got to submit everything ahead of Thursday.
Except that Thursday is the whole company, in-person all hands meeting, with no exceptions. Ahhh! So now we have the problem. I really have tomorrow to essentially write a multi million dollar proposal that will be the foundation for the next five year roadmap. So no pressure. Unless our CEO had personally waded in and expressed personal interest in the criticality of us landing this contract.
Oh!
So a lot of pressure then. No matter. Constraints are create the circumstances for our best work.
Maybe.
In other news, the secondary effects of Bill 96 rumble on. It was brought to my attention that the government of Quebec over the weekend has decided that in the name of French preservation has more than doubled tuition fees for any students that come from out of province and studies in English. Additionally, international students studying in English will cost the university $20k per enrolment.
Some quick back of the envelope math, says that the new bill would cost McGill $100M if enrolment next year was the same as last.
Seems like somebody’s number has been called and another nail has been placed in McGill’s coffin.
Which raises an interesting question, is there any point in hanging around for wifey’s tenure committee when there is going to be nothing but a ramshackle left. Even if there is a tenure committee. I mean with such a massive hit to university income, it’s not like any of the administration is going to walk the plank, so I suspect none of the retirees will be replaced. The whole place will be administrators and adjuncts on temporary contracts.
For the first time in my life, I found myself looking at real estate in Israel. In the middle of a war.