Soft Money Gives Life an Edge

Since coming to KUMC in 2002, I have been funded entirely by grant money, and I've found that it's a way I like to live. The RML funds were almost like hard dollars; it's a five-year project with virtual guarantee of renewal, but I still found that the flexibility of grant funding (and the possibility of increases at contract renewal time) made me a little more entrepreneurial.

Now that am no longer with the RML, my salary comes from the Office of Medical Education and from a grant funding digital library development. The digital library money is available through July '06, so I've got to find some replacement for that along the way, and although the MedEd money is a little firmer, they could still choose to pull it at any point.

In a conversation this morning, Karen (my boss) said something to the effect of, "I'd like to get you onto hard dollars for next year," but I don't know if that's something I want. Soft money gives life a bit of an edge and makes service (see my last post) a survival tactic. What I really prefer to do is to be the innovator and then create space for someone to come along and replace me. If my plan works, in twelve to 24 months, we should be able to have two new people, or half of two new people, to work with OME and to do metadata management. That would leave me free to do...whatever it is I'll be doing.

Soft money essentially guarantees that I won't be doing the same thing in two years, because my funding will drive my focus. It's a little scary, but exciting and--frankly--a relief. I have a short attention span, and I'd rather change the job I have in order to stay interested and engaged instead of just changing jobs when things get stale. I've been here for 3.5 years, but my job has changed three times (Kansas and Technology Liaison, Technology Liaison only, Digital Projects Specialist).

What could be next?

WDT