Monday, February 25, 2008

Welcome to the Labyrinth.

According to Greek Mythology the labyrinth was created by a genius inventor who angered King Minos when he helped the Queen to seduce a bull. After her relationship with the bull the queen gave birth to a half man, half bull beast, the minotaur. King Mino's sentenced the inventor, the queen, and the minotaur to a lifetime of living within the weaving walls of the labyrinth, unable to escape.

Moral of the story is that sometimes there may be a dozen paths to choose from and all of them lead to a dead end or a fire breathing monster.

So far I've been researching young professional groups and how one might utilize those groups to engage young donors. In order to complete some of the research I found myself in need of a library card.

Thinking this would be a simple task I set off to the library, card application in hand, only to discover that there was a minotaur library who denied my application on the basis that I am not a 'resident' of Indianapolis. I live here; I work here, yet since I don't pay utilities I virtually don't exist.

After several phone calls and emails I discovered that to receive a library card I would need to have the Office of Community Service write me a letter confirming my assistance in Indianapolis.

Letter in hand I trucked all the way down town to the main library. The circulation desk informed me that as of last week they would issue library cards to VISTA's regardless of their residency status and that the policy change was in effect for all of the city libraries.

It took me a week to cut through the red tape, but in the end it's the small victories that matter.

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