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12:19 a.m. - 2004-05-26
Busy-ness
There was a message in my Elections Canada e-mail addressed to our regional representative that somehow showed up in my queue. I called her just after 8 am to advise her of the problem. She asked me for an update since she had me on the phone so I just told her I was going to negotiate my lease and that that was my priority for the day. She asked for and wrote down the address then started asking whether I would be emailing reports every night. Well let's see - I already don't get home before 10 pm and I have to send a comprehensive daily report to EC in Ottawa. That is only one of several tasks I do once I'm on my "free" time between 10 pm to 9 am the next morning. Now I'm supposed to report to another layer of bureaucracy? For what purpose and why the assumption that I want to offer more volunteer time at the expense of, oh say time with my family or even some time to sleep.

Anyway, I did meet up with the owner of the office I wanted to lease today. One of my team leaders and the two real estate agents were in attendance too. The owner also brought in the gentleman who had been storing his office furniture in the warehouse part of the building, as well as his property manager and building maintenance officer. It took a bit longer than expected to hash all the details out, but it was very productive. There was a need for repairs to the entry sidewalk - liability - uncaulking one of the entry doors, and removal of some of their material that was also being stored in the warehouse. The gentleman storing the office furniture had been told he was evicted as of tomorrow, so the offer of cash to rent his furniture eased his problems as well as mine. I love win win situations.

The building manager wasn't very friendly at first, but my team lead said it was because he - being a Swiss immigrant - felt that our democratic process was less democratic than the Swiss system. As representatives of our system, he showed his displeasure to us, but was very easy to get along with once he felt he had his say. We were given permission to activate their electronic security system and to bring in a locksmith to rekey and upgrade some of the access points that Elections Canada requires to be more secure.

My team lead and I went straight over to the building after and the building manager followed shortly after. A lot got resolved with all of us on site for that one hour. The telephone company called while we were there about when they could install our telephones - 25 lines. I arranged to meet them in the early afternoon and arranged for the locksmith to attend at the same time. The one thing that really threw me off was that there was a man standing in front of the building waiting to speak with us as we drove up. He said he had been given our address by Elections Canada staff in Ottawa. At the same time the telephone company employees were telling us that EC was still giving out the old building addres of the lease I had lost on Thursday. I believe the Telus employees because that makes sense. However, only a few people even knew about this address or the time of the meeting so who really did tell him and why the attempt to deceive and the sneakiness on both people's parts?

Went home and reported my progress to Elections Canada. I asked them about the story the man waiting at the building had given us and they insisted that they had not given out the new address to anyone because I had not confirmed it. Hmmmmm. I printed out the official Notice of Election so it could be posted in the office as required by law, emailed all the parties and candidates that I know of and returned calls and e-mails from staff as well. My second in command called and then came by to pick me up for the afternoon shift. I packed a bag of essentials - coffee and washroom supplies while I was waiting for him to arrive. We stopped by the grocery store so I could pick up some of the essentials that I didn't have lying around the house. Talked to the printer on the cell phone while I was shopping because he wanted to get busy priniting our business cards. I now know I cannot shop and talk on the phone at the same time.

Arrived at the office just as the Telus people drove up. They began their tasks and my assistant called the electronic alarm people to set up a time for their arrival too. The owner of the furniture popped in and we made arrangements for his movers to show up first thing tomorrow after the security and telephones were all completely handled. The bulk of my time was spent with the Telus rep deciding how to delegate offices and resources. Because of some of the incidents I've had to deal with in the past I wanted to control access to the building by the public. The main door will handle most of the traffic and the four front offices will be the only place most of them go. My office is right by the entry so I can see who is approaching the building and hear what is being said at the reception desk. I can also watch whoever is stepping in to vote by Special Ballot at the same time - that has been separated from the rest of the activities for the sake of crowd control. It sounds simple - the concept certainly is - but with all the positions I have to fill, and not having spent anytime looking at the layout of the offices before it took some time working with the phone rep and the locksmith to determine the best pattern so that traffic flow and security were both optimized. About the time I'd finished that one of my other team leads walked in after finishing off her day job. She, my number two person and I spent another hour looking at the office furniture we inherited trying to determine how to get the best use out of it. It is very nice high quality make but it is also heavy and bulky. We only want to move things once and there are constraints with respect to the size of the offices we have had to shoehorn staff into. We have two areas where the large and small conference tables can also be used for multi-purposes.

Good afternoon's work but I was tired approaching 5 pm. Our offices are supposed to be open 9 am to 9 pm but the Telus staff told us they wouldn't likely be able to complete the hook ups until tomorrow and neither the supplies or the computers had been delivered. I called Ottawa and pointed out I only had access to a computer phone (my cell was dying) and fax at home and yet I had a number of tasks that had to be completed today that couldn't be done without them. They authorized me to lock up and go home. The Telus staff wanted to stay later to complete their work so I agreed that I would come back at 9 pm to lock up after they were done. Went home and responded to all the calls and e-mails that had piled up in the meantime - most were staff related again. Did the essential housework and laundry tasks. Then I ordered some supplies on line - the TVs, and kitchen gear and electronic equipment we need. Tried to do the same with the office supplies but there were just too many disruptions so I set it aside for the night after 11:30 pm passed without much progress. Packed up a box of essentials for tomorrow - ballots and reference material mostly and now I'm talking with you dear diary. Final act for the day - story time for me and my babies.

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