bundy

Oh, the top 10

ksct97

morning all... i see that bob's real name is ricardo brown

how's things?

bundy

Morning K,

Not bad. Except - brace yourselves - I have to go to a meeting off-site so I'll be gone for a whole 2 hours at least. I'm a little scared, it's been a while since I left my office.

ksct97

a meeting off-site? they exist?... aren't they urban expat myths to scare the little-uns?

oh well... i'm off from work at lunch, gonna try and sort out my bills here before i move next week.... finally am really going! sorted out my ticket yesterday for the princely sum of £285 (one way though)

bundy

Congrats on the flight! So it's all about to become very real then - how exciting!

Yes, I've got to go and charm the birds from the trees, otherwise known as attempting to secure teaching rooms in a new faculty building. Our department may be part of the university, but the university seems to forget this when we can't pay as much as the big corporate conferences that we are up against. So I need to come up with some good reasons as to why allowing us to use their teaching space at a massive loss to them is a good idea

ksct97

why don't you get the execs all hooked on this expat site,.... then they're be putty in your hands!

bundy

Now there's a thought....

The trouble with the lot I deal with down at the faculties is that they're all fusty university females, the type that have worked here forever (another reason to get out pronto, in my view).

There is hope though - the head honcho is my old director of studies so I'm halfway there already. I'm fairly sure he'll want to give his rooms away to someone he knows rather than a big multinational corporation offering to pay 10 times more than I can

Grayling

Now you're talking

G

ksct97

well yeah, i'm in academia and women of a certain age in universities are "fondly" known as battleaxes! can be right annoying...

anyway, shouldnb't you have priority over these corps. since your work in actually uni related?, thought the hiring out when to generate extra income when no one was actually using them.

bundy

You'd think, wouldn't you. But no. Our programmes run in the summer which is silly season in terms of conferences. Many of the faculties we use are new buildings and all the finanical directors of those faculties are charged with recuping the cost of building the faculties. So they need the money. We are a non-profit making department so we don't have a lot of cash - corporate conferences can be £1000 a day for a room that we can only pay £100 for. The university is a business and they are out to make money. We simply can't pay them what they want.

Our work isn't just uni-related - it is part of the university! We are as much a faculty as they are, it's just that we don't have the teaching space up here so we have to hire it.

And G - I'm fast becoming one of those fusty battleaxes!

ksct97

right then... good luck, and make some heads roll

Grayling

These are the things..............that dreams are made of

Go and kick ass

Bundy

bundy

It wouldn't be the first time. I've secured 4 new faculties in the last 3 years.

ksct97

Bundy Warrior Princess!

bundy

Yep, that's me. I can be quite stubborn and persistent when I want to be.....

I start with charm and fluttering my eyelashes (although this occasionally distracts the opposition because they're a bit long). Then I go in for the kill. If that doesn't work I start looking sorrowful and rambling on about our scholarship fund and how we all work for peanuts.....