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And I can’t quite explain it… updated July 10, 2007

Posted by Aaron in : Life, Work , trackback

Tomorrow is likely to be an odd day. A 3-part project landed in our lap today based on a very sound business plan, not only that, a key portion of it is aimed at helping non-profit organizations raise money. The man would prefer to make us partners rather than pay us large sums up front. I have little doubt that if we built him the sites he wants, we could make large sums of money. On top of it, though parts of it are boring and simple, there are several core system integration issues I would relish tackling. On top of even that, but should it succeed the print company that is part of my company will get orders that could help it get into the black in the first year of operation, rather than after the 3rd or 4th year. The actual time spent developing the first part of the project which will help fund the other parts will not actually require us to divert so much of our time that other projects are endangered. Tomorrow the board meets to make its decision on what agreement we would consider sufficient compensation for our part.

When we meet tomorrow, as the minority partner, I’m going to tell them I believe we shouldn’t take the project. Though he approached us and said that God had inspired his plan and that he wanted to help these people give back to their communities, that explanation just doesn’t seem to quite jive with the vibe I got from him. This decision is made all the harder by my belief that the core concepts behind his idea would actually work, and would generate repeat fund-raising income for organizations that desperately need it. But it does so by encouraging/exploiting materialism, instead of direct giving. Ironically materialism came up yesterday (ok technically at this point its now 2 days ago) during the sermon (maybe I’ll summarize it at the end, it was a good one). To make a parallel with the sermon, just because I know people will gamble doesn’t mean I should be building casinos, even if some of the money is going to schools. Yes, some people will always find a way to be financially exploited, but I don’t want to be involved in doing it. Spooky how that first part of what I’d intended as an analogy seems so close to what proponents of casino building say. I wasn’t the only one to get a funny vibe from this guy, I’d sure feel a lot better if its the other two board members have reached the same conclusion (or are fine with it). I really don’t want to have to try a david and goliath with my puny 15% against their 85%.

Now for those who aren’t in town to hear the sermon I referenced… Rather than continue with the study of Acts that we’d been doing, the pastor apparently rewrite his message when he should have been sleeping. Every year the churches in the community get together for a 4th of july outreach/fireworks display. This year for various reasons outside our control, the choice was to not have it or have it on the grounds of the horse racing/casino (aka the Racino, and yes, it is a stupid name). The churches decided that the outreach was more important than making sure we aren’t seen near it. However editorials have been surfacing for weeks outraged that such a decision would be made, the latest of which actually came out and said that this person refused to take the Lord to such a place and begged the other christians in the community to do likewise. But on to the sermon, rather than try to re-preach it which would not be enjoyed by any of us, let me just retype a couple of the key points he made (well ok, I extrapolated a couple of them from what he said, but it still fits the intent).

Updated: We officially turned the work down this morning having made the decision to do so a couple days ago.

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