Who knew that the simple task of writing a check could take so long? Accountants and A/P people know. Not me. I didn’t know.
I get to pay 65 venues this week. That feels great. It is amazing. I love it.
But figuring out how to efficiently gather up 65 payables, addresses, paypals, venmos, zelles.. and pass them to a service, my bank, or a hand-written check. Not so easy. Especially when I’ve run out of said checks, envelopes and stamps!
It makes me laugh and also want to pop my eyes out. I’m not great at linear tasks.
So tomorrow I will start again with my brand new spreadsheet full of cities, states, venues and totals due, and I will do data entry into my bank’s bill pay — one at a time — because today I spent an hour Googling “bulk payee upload” with no success.
All this to say… I really had no idea what I was getting myself into or how many pieces it takes to run a partner/vendor based operation. But also that I love it. So much.
I love the relationships, the helping, the customers, the giving back. I love writing checks. I love these people. These artists. The storytellers and curators. The ones trying to make the world a better place, who are not in it for the money, but for the reward of offering nourishment to their patrons.
I just read an article that hinted at the digital success some of the studios are experiencing with their bigger releases — the ones that would have been in theaters before COVID. The article asks, “What does this mean for theaters?” No one knows yet. But I know we can not let them die. We need them. Most of us, most of the time, don’t even realize how much we need them. Not the big cinema chains, but the community cinemas, who intentionally curate and give back to their communities night after night, offering content that challenges, transforms and nurtures. Each time I regroup and get centered on this, I am motivated to continue — past confounding A/P systems and perplexing code — to help facilitate this 3-pronged meeting of curator, artist, and fan.
♡ Annie
Photo by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash