Hi All,
As you can see by the post title, it is time for a little ranting, but also a little education on the process of grant related projects. So when first starting the process of grant writing you go and find a grant that will fund something like a Plyboo bicycle. Certain grants will fund certain types of projects, here at the University of Southern Indiana the Endeavor! Grant funds all kinds of projects that students need money for. The Endeavor! Grant Committee is a great help in which they post what the layout of the grant should look like. I wanted this grant so bad, so I went and also got in contact with previous Endeavor! recipients, I was also lucky enough to have a faculty mentor that was also really into writing grants. So, I spent about 6 or so months working on this grant to get it perfect, finally submitting the grant and then revising the grant to specific Endeavor! standards.
After receiving the grant the real work begins, working on the project. The first thing that needs to be done is ordering of material, a lot of my material is ordered outside the state of Indiana. One thing a lot of people applying for grants do not understand is that the money is not just given to you. After receiving the grant you then order your material through someone else. MEANING EVERYTHING IS ORDERED FOR YOU!!!!! This is why grant projects take so much time. When you have to rely on others, money and then build your project time adds up. I also advise to stick with hounding people until everything is ordered! This is your project, well my project, so I want it done and if you get a grant you would also. This is the reason why you all have not seen any building from yours truly. Well, thats enough ranting, back to building!
-Nick
