2019-12-03 Paperwork versus real work

People who learn about TNKR believe that Eunkoo Lee and I complement each other well. It isn't true. Even now, we battle about many things. We have had to come up with a clear division of labor.

* I make the big decisions about TNKR's vision and mission.

* She controls the budget and does the paperwork.

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I came to the TNKR office yesterday evening after six hours of teaching public speaking. As soon as I sat down, Eunkoo was trying to get me to sign paperwork. Certificates for tutors. Paperwork that must be submitted to partner organizations.

Eunkoo has the hard part. She is responsible for mountains of paperwork. The partner organizations don't allow us to just email these documents, we (Eunkoo) must keep track of them, then everything must be signed and submitted. She has been great at identifying grants to support activities--but the result is that she has more paperwork to confirm we are in compliance.

My role? Sign everything. I'm even grumpy about that, having to sign 102 documents yesterday. And I didn't even have my good pen available at the moment.

The real reason I am grumpy? I know there are some times that we end up doing things not because they make sense, but because we need to be in compliance with grants from partner organizations.

People see the glamorous side of hosting events and activities with North Korean refugees, but it isn't all real work. There is also a lot of paperwork that wastes a lot of time but is needed for partner organizations.

Perhaps the day will come that we will have other staff responsible for the paperwork so we can focus on real work.

***

My negative mood quickly dissipated. A North Korean refugee came by to visit. I was interviewing her in preparation for starting Track 3 next year. You will be hearing about a lot about her in less than three weeks.

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Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger. * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo

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CFE forum on Korea-EU FTA (Korea Herald)

Public forum on FTA on Thursday 2011-07-05 19:21 A conference on economic opportunities and challenges arising from the Korea-EU FTA which came into effect on July 1 will take place in Seoul on Thursday. The conference, taking place at the Koreana Hotel from 2 p.m., will also examine the current economic crisis in Europe and economic development in Korea. The event is being jointly hosted by the Center for Free Enterprise, a Seoul-based free market think-tank, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty, a German foundation for the promotion of individual freedom which has offices around the world including in Seoul. “We picked the date hoping National Assembly members wouldn’t find a way to delay the agreement going into effect. So this is really timely because we are holding this less than a week after the agreement went into effect,” said Casey Lartigue Jr., manager of international relations at the CFE. Speakers at the conference titled “Economic Freedom

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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