Chapter 5. Pre-Project Activities 

Yes, it's tempting to go on vacation and worry about the project in October. But, it's not advisable. In August, it seems as if there will be a lot of time to complete all the activities we expect of you once the project really starts. Our experience repeatedly tells us that this will not be so. Because daily crises will inevitably arise in your library, twelve months will shrink to nothing before your very eyes. Getting vendors to deliver what they promise in a speedy way, finding equipment that meets your needs on the state contract, waiting for back orders on the exact titles you absolutely must have, getting speakers to call back, staff shortages, project staff breaking legs or taking leave and a myriad of other problems are more likely to be the norm rather than the exception.

Many things can be done ahead of time to help with the unanticipated delays you will experience. These pre project activities may have already been listed in your proposal's action plan or you may want to reconsider your original action plan now that reality has taken over. Much of the preliminary work that does not require funds should be done in the late summer months, or very early Fall.

If you are buying materials, project staff should be reviewing professional selection tools, consulting advisory groups or other cooperating agencies, making decisions, and talking to vendors, so that by the time your first disbursement arrives in your account, your orders should be ready to go out to the vendor. If you are working with an advisory committee, the summer is the time to be organizing the group, meeting with them, determining what role they will play, and gradually getting them involved in project activities. Advisory committees can be a great help in making a project work, but they should be involved in the very earliest stages to be of greatest value. If you are planning programs, now is the time to get specific about who, what, where and when. It is also the time to be gathering pre project baseline statistics to use for comparison purposes later when you will be asked to evaluate whether or not your project is meeting its objectives. Go back to objectives as written in the proposal and set up the mechanism early on for gathering the statistics needed. (If you are using circulation as a measurement factor, get baseline statistics now, since your system may not be able to provide them retroactively!) For Mini-Grants, go back to the application or other program description or Fact Sheet to see what you need to track!

The early Fall is also the time to be preparing other town officials so that they, and you, understand what work will be required on the project (handling funds, record keeping, paying bills, bidding, obtaining check/warrant numbers, etc.) and exactly who will do it. It is also the time when contracts will be signed and you and your Project Consultant will negotiate any changes to the project necessitated by the passage of time and other unforeseen things. For some programs training sessions may be scheduled by MBLC staff to prepare you specifically for implementing your project.