You lose response time on emergency situations like a boiler going out in November, which we just handled, which a third-party contractor would have taken 3 days to respond to instead of 12 hours. You also lose the relationship with the residents. Ms. Patterson called us to say thank you because a real person from this organization came to her door. You can't put that in a contract.
Gerald looked at him for a long moment. "Good," he said. "Say that. Say exactly that." At the board meeting Thursday, Malcolm blinked.
"You want me at the board meeting?" "I want you in that room making that argument. Yes," because Harrison is going to come with numbers and you need to come with the human case. The board responds to both. Malcolm nodded.
He left Gerald's office and walked directly to Clare's because that was simply what he did. And somewhere in the past 3 weeks, that reflex had stopped feeling like a habit and started feeling like something more intentional. She was on a phone call when he walked in, but she took one look at his face, held up one finger, and wrapped up the call in 45 seconds. "Harwell Foundation," he said before she could ask. Her face changed.
"How bad?" "31% of operating budget." She leaned back in her chair and exhaled through her nose. Thursday's board meeting. Gerald wants me in the room.
"Good." She was already thinking he could see it. The particular focused stillness she went into when she was running through options. The family services side has three pending grants. I've been slow-walking the application process because I didn't have the bandwidth.
If I prioritize those now and Gerald can get emergency bridge funding from the city councilman's office he owes us from the Vine City rezoning fight last year, we might be able to cover the gap enough to get through Q1. You've already been thinking about contingency scenarios. I've been thinking about contingency scenarios since Harrison started in on the restructuring argument 3 weeks ago. She looked at him directly. "Someone in this building needs to be playing defense before the offensive line breaks."
He stared at her. "Did you just use a football metaphor?" "I watched Ava's game. I've been acclimating." She picked up her pen.
"Sit down. Let's map out what the board needs to see Thursday." They worked through it for an hour and a half. Clare drafting the narrative argument while Malcolm built the financial case. Both of them talking through it in the practical shorthand of two people who had collaborated long enough to finish each other's sentences.