Grantsmanship

Our ProBoat Radio West host, Ann Avary, sits on the other side of the desk for this show, filling us in on a major grant received by Skagit Valley College.

Ann says, "This experience has given me a new appreciation for the phrase, 'Maybe we can find some grant money'. A lot of people don’t understand what happens when you actually get the grant: It does become its own entity and can be all consuming, so the big thing question should be 'Are you really prepared to do the work once the money is awarded?  Do you have the capacity?'"

The whole process reminds Ann of boat owners who say their two happiest days were the one when they bought the boat and the one when they sold it. "It's pretty much the same thing with grants," she says, "Everything in between application and project completion is work."

But of course, there are many positives: equipment for training, curriculum development, and staffing, and we'll talk about all that, too.