A Lighthearted Look at Our Year-End-Closing
The 2009-10 fiscal year is ending and what a great year it has been. We've been blessed with a record enrollment and graduation class! With a hot Colorado Springs' summer upon us, online and campus are much quieter than usual. Much of what is going on is centered around students preparing for the fall. Still, critical year-end tasks must get done before the start of the fall session.
The NBC bookstore was closed for inventory. Counting books, notebooks, t-shirts, pens, Pop-Tarts, mugs, water bottles, and the like was a huge task. The staff showed up early and worked hard to get every push pin and designer H2O bottle counted. After one long day, things got a bit loopy and now we even have a count of the keys on the cash register :)
The IT Department inventoried hardware, too. Fortunately the hardware pretty much stays where it was placed or connected. When things go robotic and our equipment becomes mobile, this will be a much bigger job, no doubt. Still, I don't envy the guy who had to count all the wires on the phone switch. I don't know who laid out the paper clips end to end around the IT Department, but I will admit it made counting them much easier.
All of the departments have carefully watched their budgets. Pens, staples, tape, paper, toner - it all must last. No one is printing anything but the absolute essentials. Trying to be efficient, one person called the Office Depot to fax us some paper to hold us until the next session - the person is still waiting. Meetings have been held with staff writing down only every third word - it's a real ink and paper saver. Just kidding, but we do always try to be frugal with what God has given us, to keep enrollment costs down.
The business office is closing the books. Oh, the long and difficult accounting work. Can you smell the whiteout? Young whippersnappers may need to ask your mom what whiteout is, as well as the word "whippersnapper." Long ago, we had someone who used whiteout on their computer screen to fix errors. Fortunately, everyone is tech-savvy now. Sometimes, after a long day, the staff gets together and shares accounting jokes, like "An accountant visited the Natural History museum and says to his friend, 'This dinosaur is two billion years and ten months old.' Astounded, his friend asked, 'How do you know it that exactly?' He responded, 'I was here ten months ago, and the guide told me then that the dinosaur is two billion years old.'" You get the idea.
Around the campus, people are scurrying hither and yon with a look of expectant excitement, hair disheveled and eyes wide, rushing to finalize this or that task. Occasionally there is a collision, but fortunately no fatalities. This time of year is also used to wrap up upgrades and maintenance. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as do the squeaky printers and the squeaky chairs.
Getting ready for the new year, our regular task of ministry preparation is being prepared by the ministry preparation team in preparation for preparing a new group of aspiring ministers to be ready to prepare for the ministry. On a side note, our English programmer in the IT Dept was devastated by England's loss to Germany in the World Cup - he blamed the vuvuzelas' causing temporary blindness to the officials, which caused them to not count the goal near the end of the first half that would have certainly spurred "the comeback." He's been sedated, and is resting comfortably.
Seriously, we are very excited about another great upcoming school year at Nazarene Bible College, and look forward to working with each and every one of our students as they advance in their Bachelor or Associates Christian Degree program.
Published: 07/02/2010
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