Project Office

This year I’ve been half time in the Project Office, filling in for someone on furlough.  I had about a month of very part time training at the start and have basically had the office to myself since then. Janet worked in the same room on a related role for nearly six months, but since she left I’ve had to pick up that work too. Thankfully my boss across the corridor has a good knowledge of my job and a seemingly endless patience for my seemingly endless questions.

The graduating class of one of many courses at least partially
funded with project money, with at least one of the staff at the
course funded through a different project, on the steps of a
building constructed through yet another project. Course
participants could also purchase subsidised computers
 through a project.

It’s been a challenging eleven months of office work, especially as I am not the office type. My favourite office is an open deck or a village or a regional centre. Answering emails and demanding…sorry, politely but firmly requesting…reports is work I can do, but it is just not me. I found I can do the work quite well in fact, but it is the sort of work which tires me rather than inspires me. I’m rather excited to have two half days left before my office time is done!

Problem is, the person who is returning from furlough is not returning to this job, meaning the office will be officially vacant as of Wednesday. As we have oversight and administrative responsibility for around 100 projects and a million dollars in funding, this is a problem. We do not manage all those projects, but keep an eye on them all. Some take more time, some take almost none, but responsible management of donors’ money means that someone needs to be in that office.

The problem is not actually the job, but the general lack of personnel to fill all the necessary support roles or to allocate to all the languages wanting translation work done. Most people on the field are already working more than full time, but somehow we have to cover one more critical need. Everyone who might be able to do the job is already committed. I won’t continue on the job as it is time for me to focus on language work again and get out to other regions. That is the work I’m trained for, inspired by and here to do.

VITAL  has two complementary projects associated with it and at

least two interns with separate projects involved. Funding for 

printing of their Scripture publications will also go through

the project office.

Although I’ve been a reluctant office worker for the year, escaping to the regions to do language work whenever possible, I’ve also tried to be a cheerful office worker, so I shall finish my office time by listing some of the things  I have learnt or appreciated about this role.

Sunniest office in the building: this may seem like a trivial thing, but I had a view of the mountains surrounding our valley and enough sunlight to rarely need the room light. I think if I worked in an office full of cubicles, instead of my sunny room, I really might have gone mad.

Friendly co-workers: not just my patient boss across the corridor, but a whole corridor of friendly people. The return journey to the far end of the corridor to get a cuppa could take some time as I stopped to chat.

Broad knowledge of the work we do here: I’ve been dealing with project details covering the spectrum of what we do. One email will be discussing technical details of 4WDs to access projects in difficult to reach corners of the country, the next will be about font size for printing the New Testament. A project may be training Nationals from around 100 different language groups, or renovating our clinic, or buying spare parts for a plane, or teaching Oral Bible Storytelling as the first step towards translation work. I’ve seen the beginning, middle and end of translation projects and a range of support projects. Printed word, recorded word, performed word...and more. After 18 months in the field I suspect I know a lot more about what goes on in the Branch than some people who’ve been here several years.

We have projects for remote airstrip maintenance, plane spare

 parts and hangar upgrades, as well as a travel subsidy project to

make it more affordable for language teams to reach their allocations.

Project managing is hard work: There was one project for which our office was the official project manager. This meant writing the reports, balancing the budget, writing the project renewal and all the other associated paperwork. When I was asking all the other project managers for something by a certain deadline, I was having to complete the same paperwork for the same deadline myself. It certainly taught me to have compassion on the people at the other end of the email.

Emails go to real people: The fact that we live in a small community means that emails go to real people, not just a faceless names. The people I communicated with were people who I would meet at the store, sit next to in church, pass on the road or who live over the back fence and agreed to feed the cat when I went away. Knowing people kept me polite in emails, as I still wanted to be friends when we next crossed paths… and for the cat to be fed.

The cat could feed herself, but the local

moth and gecko population would suffer.

She’s welcome to eat as many rats as she

can catch.

‘Custodial Room’: Politically correct American English for ‘Cleaner’s Cupboard.’ I had no idea what this was when I first read it in a project proposal and had to ask for an explanation. It is just one example of the challenges of communicating with colleagues and funders from around the world. Some nations express themselves very bluntly and I have to remind myself they’re not being rude, just to the point. Other cultures are always so polite and formal that I need to remember to respond in kind.

OptimiZation: As PNG is a Commonwealth country, we use Commonwealth spelling. This means ‘ize’ is out and ‘ise’ is in (optimise). The same is true for ‘or’ and ‘our’ (flavour) and ‘er’ and ‘re’ (centre). When a proposal written by a US citizen for a US funder had ‘Optimization’ in the title, and the most important thing the approval committee could find to discuss was the ‘z’ I knew the proposal was well written and that people take these things very personally! For the amount of funding we were applying for, I was happy to leave the ‘z’. Goodness, at that price you might even convince me to call it ‘zee’ not ‘zed’!

The NITI generator house: the new generator cost was split

between two projects.

I don’t like numbers: Those who knew me in high school will know that I am capable of doing maths quite well, but my favourite part of year 12 maths was quitting it to do an Arts degree at Uni. That is a decision I’ve never regretted and one that lead me into translation work. When budget revision time came up in the office, I was reminded of just how little I enjoy working with numbers.

Six week rule: In the future, I plan to not agree to any sort of temporary role that lasts more than six weeks unless I am convinced that it is something that suits me well, rather than just something I can do to fill a need, even if that need is critical. Someone may need to remind me of this along the way!