Room for More · admin and partnerships
Admin and partnerships
The least glamorous job here and the one that would help me most. How your work reaches me is in handing things over.
1 What the job is
Writing to venues and partners, chasing replies we are already owed, and keeping the notes on each relationship current after anybody talks to them.
There is a list of live threads, and at any time several of them are past the date somebody should have chased. Not because it is hard, but because one person runs out of week.
2 Where you start
Three threads, in a week. I pick them and send you the background and what we want from each, so you never have to hunt for context. You write the chase messages, I send them, and I forward you whatever comes back so you can tell me what it means and what the next move is.
For now you draft and I send, because the messages go from my address. Do that twice and get it right both times, and anything already agreed in substance you send yourself rather than drafting it for me. That needs an address of your own, and once this is a regular thing I will sort one out.
3 The line that never moves
You never agree anything. Not a price, not a date, not a split, not a "sure, we could probably do that". One warm sentence in a room can cost a negotiation that took months, and that has nothing to do with how good your judgement is.
If somebody pushes you for an answer: "I'll check with Martin and come back to you today." Then actually come back to them today.
4 Two numbers that stay out of every conversation
- What a venue we are working with pays us. Genuinely undecided, and a number said out loud becomes an expectation the real decision then has to fight. If it comes up: we are working out a collaboration with them, and that is all
- What a host or helper gets paid. Not a percentage of any event's takings, that arrangement is gone. Contribution gets paid when the company can afford it, with the same treatment for everyone, and anyone it becomes relevant for gets it in writing from me. Terms belong in writing, not in rooms, so the answer to anyone asking is that I will put it on paper for them
Neither of these is a secret from you.
5 How to write to a venue
- Say who we are in one sentence, honestly. If you need current numbers for that, ask me rather than guessing
- Say what they get, not what we want. They care about people through their door on a quiet evening
- Ask one thing. A message with four asks gets none of them answered
- Give them an easy way to say a small yes first. A few events as a trial beats a standing arrangement
- Never promise a headcount. Give a range we would be happy to be held to
6 After anything real happens, write one line
Who you spoke to, when, what was said, and what either side now owes. One line, posted in #finished-work the same day.
If nobody wrote it down, the next person on that thread has no way of knowing it happened, and that next person is often you in three weeks, having forgotten.