HYPOTHETICAL VARIANCE:
in this issue:
GRANTS 1990 vs. 2016
28 CAPTURE. COSTTREE 2016 Q4 ISSUE
3
We have all heard stories about what life was life way back when—the grandparents who had to walk to school in the snow, the parents who did reports on typewriters … yada yada yada. Who can predict which modern technology will become obsolete faster than Facebook can change an algorithm, only to serve as a cautionary tale to younger generations on how good they have it. Lest new and upcoming grant professionals take online conveniences for granted, we thought it would be interesting to explore what life was like before everything became automated. We conducted an informal survey to compare what the grant process was like 25 or so years ago, compared to now, and summarized the results below. So, dig out your Air Jordans and turn up your Discman, because we’re headed back to the nineties.
What did you dislike the most about applying for grants before everything went online?
Predictably, the incredible amount of time everything took was often mentioned. Then as now, grant professionals often work around the clock. However, in days gone by, research could not be done in the comfort of your own home in pajamas or, at the very least, extremely casual leisure wear. There was no such thing as a search engine that you could plug a term into and get several results, all relevant to what you were looking for. It was necessary to go to the library and spend hours at the microfiche machine, combing everything from almanacs to old newspapers to get tidbits here and there of the information needed! As one respondent reminisced, you made friends with librarians and the Dewey Decimal system!
Research was just the first way in which the process was labor intensive. Once your application was written and then perfectly typed, the real fun began. You jingled and clinked your way through the library, as your purse or pockets were filled with coins! (Luckily, it was the era of baggie jeans, so there was lots of room!) You hovered above an overheated Xerox machine praying that all 200 pages went through properly. There was sorting, collating, and putting all the pages in order for the 21 copies you needed to make. You then either mailed it, mindful of the postmark due date, or hand delivered it if you were especially diligent. But that was not without its perils, as one person who ran into a police roadblock and interstate traffic jam while trying to make a deadline in a city an-hour-and-a-half away can attest to!
by: Sherie Sanders, Content Coordinator at eCivis