Ring! Ring! Ring!

Too many to count: The number of phone calls I've made today.


Remember lava lamps? The slow-moving, oddly-shaped blobs of wax that drift up and down in a tight clear container?


That is what my brain feels like right now.


Today has consisted of phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls. Kaitlyn and I have been calling:

• Soon-to-be Benefit Bank sites who still need to turn in their site user agreements or attend pre-training orientation


• Potential food drive sites


• Benefit Bank sites to see if they want to hold tax clinics


• Benefit Bank sites who still have to renew their organizational agreement and site profile


• Potential Benefit Bank sites in each of our seven counties.

And we are calling all of these people every other day.

Needless to say, we leave a lot of voicemails. And on the rare occasion that someone actually returns our call, things can get a little confusing.


I have put together a little skit to give you an idea of a typical phone call.


**DRAMATIZATION**

Cell phone: Ring! Ring!

Me: This is Alex.

Caller: Hi, this is John Smith from NonProfit Anonymous! I'm returning a phone call.

Me: Oh, okay, great. Thanks for calling back. Let me just...find your file... so you're interested in becoming a Benefit Bank site?

Caller: No....we're already a site.

Me: Oh, okay. *opens another spreadsheet* So did you recently become a tax site?

Caller: No...we just do benefits.

Me: Oh, sorry. Um...is this about the food drive?

Caller: Food drive?

Me: Crap.

I know that it says "Dramatization" at the top...but it's really not. I have actually had that very phone call, minus the "crap" at the end.

Tomorrow we are out of the office for food drive stuff, so it'll be nice to be away from our spreadsheets and folders. Phone calls can be so exhausting.