Hi Gregāfrom my perspective, CEA did discuss all of these points with you. For example, last week when you emailed and asked what the Hotel could have done better on media, I replied about something I saw as a mistake and what I thought should have been done differently. Weāve also discussed the staffing issue. Iām happy to discuss more by email or call if youād like.
I understand we may view these situations differently and that you may disagree with CEAās recommendations for improvements. We might also have different views about how much explicit direction (versus just advice) itās appropriate for us to give an external org. I donāt think itās accurate, though, to indicate that we havenāt provided feedback or suggestions.
Hi Julia, ok but to me the point you raised about media was tangential, i.e. it was not directly related to the PR situations themselves. For those curiousāI missed a meeting with a professional communications advisor at EAG London last year, on account of missing an email (in which the meeting was arranged for me) sent the day before whilst I was driving to London. I was overwhelmed at the time with interest in the hotel, and that wasnāt the only email (or meeting) I missed.
The point I raised was not about the round of media stories from Sept 2018, but was about preparing for future media inquiries. So youāre right that itās not about past media situations, but about how further situations might be handled.
Regarding explicit direction vs adviceāfor me it was the fact that something I thought had been dealt with acceptably seems to haveāunbeknownst to meāremained a live issue in terms of it effecting funding decisions. More explicit direction at the time in terms of āif you want to get funding from CEA you need to do thisā seems like it wouldāve been better in hindsight.
From my perspective, I repeatedly gave you information about a situation that I saw as a problem. How you decided to handle the problem as the manager of the project was up to you. We donāt see it as a good idea for funders to make ultimatums about the staffing decisions of potential grantees. But as Nicole said, this was one of the things among many she considered when looking back at the history of the project.
After talking more with Greg, I realized I should clarify that I donāt mean I think something went badly wrong at the Hotel.
As Nicole said above, CEA would be happy to help the Hotel with finding an excellent Project and Community Manager, and to consider helping to fund these roles if thereās another source of general funding.
I have no objections to other donors supporting the Hotel. The default is that projects donāt get EA Grants, and this situation should be seen as āthe default happenedā rather than āthe Hotel did something unusually bad to disqualify itself from funding it would otherwise have gotten.ā
As Nicole said above, CEA would be happy to help the Hotel with finding an excellent Project and Community Manager, and to consider helping to fund these roles if thereās another source of general funding.
We now have general funding for the next few months and are hiring for both a Community & Projects Manager and an Operations Manager, with input from Nicole and others at CEA. Unfortunately with the winding down of EA Grants the possibility of funding for the Community & Projects Manager salary has gone. If anyone would like to top up the salaries for either the Community & Projects Manager or Operations Manager (currently ~Ā£21.5k/āyr pro rata including free accommodation and food), please get in touch!
We are still happy to help with hiring and to consider helping to fund the role if thereās enough general funding. We havenāt received new info from Greg about whether there is enough general funding that itās worth moving forward hiring, so weāre currently on standby.
Hi Gregāfrom my perspective, CEA did discuss all of these points with you. For example, last week when you emailed and asked what the Hotel could have done better on media, I replied about something I saw as a mistake and what I thought should have been done differently. Weāve also discussed the staffing issue. Iām happy to discuss more by email or call if youād like.
I understand we may view these situations differently and that you may disagree with CEAās recommendations for improvements. We might also have different views about how much explicit direction (versus just advice) itās appropriate for us to give an external org. I donāt think itās accurate, though, to indicate that we havenāt provided feedback or suggestions.
Hi Julia, ok but to me the point you raised about media was tangential, i.e. it was not directly related to the PR situations themselves. For those curiousāI missed a meeting with a professional communications advisor at EAG London last year, on account of missing an email (in which the meeting was arranged for me) sent the day before whilst I was driving to London. I was overwhelmed at the time with interest in the hotel, and that wasnāt the only email (or meeting) I missed.
The point I raised was not about the round of media stories from Sept 2018, but was about preparing for future media inquiries. So youāre right that itās not about past media situations, but about how further situations might be handled.
Fair point, but Nicole refers to:
Also itās worth mentioning our actual subsequent track record over the past year (i.e. 0 further PR situations).
Regarding explicit direction vs adviceāfor me it was the fact that something I thought had been dealt with acceptably seems to haveāunbeknownst to meāremained a live issue in terms of it effecting funding decisions. More explicit direction at the time in terms of āif you want to get funding from CEA you need to do thisā seems like it wouldāve been better in hindsight.
From my perspective, I repeatedly gave you information about a situation that I saw as a problem. How you decided to handle the problem as the manager of the project was up to you. We donāt see it as a good idea for funders to make ultimatums about the staffing decisions of potential grantees. But as Nicole said, this was one of the things among many she considered when looking back at the history of the project.
After talking more with Greg, I realized I should clarify that I donāt mean I think something went badly wrong at the Hotel.
As Nicole said above, CEA would be happy to help the Hotel with finding an excellent Project and Community Manager, and to consider helping to fund these roles if thereās another source of general funding.
I have no objections to other donors supporting the Hotel. The default is that projects donāt get EA Grants, and this situation should be seen as āthe default happenedā rather than āthe Hotel did something unusually bad to disqualify itself from funding it would otherwise have gotten.ā
Is CEA helping out with this?
We now have general funding for the next few months and are hiring for both a Community & Projects Manager and an Operations Manager, with input from Nicole and others at CEA. Unfortunately with the winding down of EA Grants the possibility of funding for the Community & Projects Manager salary has gone. If anyone would like to top up the salaries for either the Community & Projects Manager or Operations Manager (currently ~Ā£21.5k/āyr pro rata including free accommodation and food), please get in touch!
We are still happy to help with hiring and to consider helping to fund the role if thereās enough general funding. We havenāt received new info from Greg about whether there is enough general funding that itās worth moving forward hiring, so weāre currently on standby.