What I've Learned Over the Past Week

In a tough economy, vendors are a whole lot quicker, and a whole lot more thorough, at filling purchase requests.  Understandably, they want to get orders filled so they can get bills paid.

Of course, it would have been helpful if I'd thought that through as we arranged for all of our purchases related to our new construction.  Here would be the typical thinking:

Certificate of Occupancy for one building: likely for June 15
Certificate of Occupancy for remaining buildings:  likely for July 15
Want items to arrive no later than:  August 1
Want items to arrive no earlier than:  July 1

Okay, so figuring (the old way) that it would take at least 8 weeks to get orders filled, you place the orders in early May, figuring everything will start coming in early July, and you'll be all set. 

But, just to encourage those go-getters, you say you'll start accepting deliveries as of June 1.  You figure, hey, most won't be ready then, but for those few who are, you can get their orders to arrive on campus and be accounted for.  So what if you don't have any room to store anything - there can't be THAT much that would come that early, right?

Oh, but you didn't account for the bad economy.  And so here's what you wind up with, on June 9, sitting in your cafeteria with nowhere else to go:

Did I mention that this is supposed to be a functioning cafeteria, since many of our programs operate year-round?

You have no idea how much I am hoping and praying that we get that CO as expected on Monday.

You also have no idea how glad I am that we're closed on Fridays in the summer - one less day for more stuff to arrive this week.

Now that I've learned this, I'll be sure to remember this the next time I'm involved in the construction of a new school.