The HIV Network

I continue to work with the HIV Network in Santa Barbara to help them coordinate joint activities between institutions that work with HIV. They have big ideas and ambitions but very little organizational or planning skills in order to realize their ambitions. Therefore I have tried to work with the president of the group to try to plan better and stress the idea that it is better to have small realizable goals. World AIDS Day is December 1st and the HIV Network plans to coordinate tons of events on and around the day, so we are trying to write up a plan and a budget right now so we can submit it to a local NGO for funding. As always the process is important but incredibly frustrating. The members just don’t have the planning skills necessary to do all the things they want to do. For example, many of them don’t understand the concept of a planning committee. We had a meeting to decide who would be on each planning committee for each of the activities for World AIDS Day. One activity we are organizing is a parade, in which all the institutions of the HIV Network will march. Because all the institutions would be marching the group thought all the institutions should be on the planning committee and didn’t understand the idea that just a few institutions needed to plan. I guess I just take so many things for granted and forget that these people never learned how to do this type of thing. Luckily we are going to have a training on administration and planning in a few weeks, so I am excited about that.