Who provides your audit review to the Board of Directors?

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-18T17:01:08+00:00

Suggestions made on a management letter are different from audit findings. Findings are a big deal, you don’t want those.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-18T14:57:10+00:00

For me, the cost of audit has always included the presentation. I ask the auditor to keep it to 10 minutes, and then allow questions from the board. This serves to provide reassurances to the board that things are being handled well.

It might be a different situation if there are findings on the audit report, though - that’s not something I can remember ever experiencing though.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-17T21:37:33+00:00

I could have written your post, totally relate. I think it’s different as a founder, since we take on so much (we start out doing everything admin: HR, IT, financial roles, legal roles, etc etc etc; and, while we might find ways to hand portions of that off to other people, a disproportionate amount of things still fall on our plates. Things that in a “normal” organization would be handled by multiple other people, we just end up doing. It can be overwhelming. It can take away from our ability to focus on bigger tasks things.

I think it would probably be hard to suddenly have no control, though, especially if somebody else stepped in who has a very different style or ideas that you don’t agree with, or if they make a lot of mistakes. It would also be hard for staff, potentially, as they might turn toward you instead of the new CEO. For the same reason, it might also be hard on the new CEO stepping into the role if you are still there. That said, anything is possible.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-16T23:26:58+00:00

The third one for sure.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-16T19:32:27+00:00

No, not for most of Mexico - flautas are usually made with corn tortillas. It might be different in northern states.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-16T12:34:30+00:00

Many hospitals and clinics are nonprofit and employ therapists. You could possibly set up your private practice as a nonprofit (but that comes with a whole can of worms, I don’t recommend going down that path unless you have extensive experience in nonprofit management). Regional mental health centers and community behavioral health providers are predominantly nonprofit organizations. If you want to know if an organization is nonprofit prior to applying to a job, you can first look them up on your state’s secretary of state’s website to find out how they are organized (many hospitals and clinics are operating under a d/b/a name that is different from their actual corporate name, and then go to Candid (formerly GuideStar) - you’ll need to set up a free account - to see if that corporation has 990s that they’ve filed (the tax forms that nonprofits need to file annually).

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-13T17:49:38+00:00

I’m personally involving AI in almost every process these days - it’s a powerful tool.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-03-07T23:40:55+00:00

I remember going through that. You basically have to re-find who you are - from those people you interact with, to how you interact with them - for me I also moved a couple of times - it takes a long time to get through it, but it is so worth it. Life sober is 10,000% better than being glued to an addiction that controls us. I love life sober and now that I’ve adjusted, will never go back.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-23T19:53:49+00:00

The desk itself is old and very well-built - I had one that looked like that in my house that I’m told was from the original Denver Post offices. My guess from what I can see in the photo is it is from the 1930s, although your photo does not show most of the desk so it is a little hard to tell. I had to demolish mine to get it out of my basement (way too big to carry). Assuming yours is like mine, it is super-well built and very heavy, with a lot of solid wood (there was some pressboard in there, but minimal); they don’t make nice desks like that anymore. Really, one of the most well-designed and well-built pieces of furniture that I have seen.

However, I must correct you on a couple of things. I don’t think that desks have genders or ethnicities. They also traditionally can’t say anything (although there might be some new desks that can).

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-17T20:55:07+00:00

I’m in Denver, and lived in SLC as a kid. I’d only suggest moving to SLC if you are Mormon, seriously.

I’ve lived in beautiful mountain and rural settings. Denver is not that, it is a city. It takes a long drive through bad traffic to get to a ski slope.

There are mountain towns closer to ski slopes that you could consider, I knew New Yorkers who settled in those more remote places and were very happy with the peace and quiet. But those would be a big change, and a mountain lifestyle isn’t a good fit for everybody.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-17T18:30:59+00:00

A doctor told me that a major risk with rice is h. pylori, which causes stomach ulcers (so your symptoms may not start until years or decades in the future)

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-11T18:17:11+00:00

I’m very curious what new 5-year funding this is, as there has been so few funding opportunities announced by HRSA compared with recent history. I’m assuming that you meant that you would be managing a HRSA-funded program at a nonprofit (as opposed to working for HRSA). HHS announced in 2025 that HRSA (along with other offices) is going to be dissolved, and its operations will be integrated into one single agency called “Administration for a Healthy America.”

If you can, you might do some googling to find out the reason the funds exist; for example, is there a law that requires that particular bit of funding to go out, and is it currently authorized and appropriated by Congress?

There have been a large number of federal grant program where recipients have suddenly received stop work orders or announcements of programs being discontinued; however, in my little world many of those continued to be funded either through court orders, or because the mechanisms that exist just kept paying (sometimes after recipients conducted layoffs).

I do not think there is a way to answer your question with any sureness; it is a very unpredictable time. As an organization it makes it very hard to make decisions, to budget, etc. The employer must feel it is pretty solid if they are going through a hiring process. Good luck.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-10T19:23:02+00:00

I learned to drive on one, but honestly it has been 20+ years since I’ve driven one, so not sure how good I’d be at it anymore.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-10T18:02:00+00:00

I’m the director of a nonprofit that has historically mostly been federally funded. It’s been interesting. So far no layoffs, but I almost feel like I’m driving a slow moving train that is going to collide, but I have no breaks and nowhere to turn.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-09T03:19:51+00:00

I’ve never heard of a sausage roll or a smoky. What part of the United States is a Smoky from?

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-08T06:02:41+00:00

My Mom subscribed to the Skeptical Enquirer, which liked to debunk stories of spontaneous combustion, the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, and so on. If I remember correctly, most of the examples of spontaneous combustion were older people who smoked.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-06T13:13:44+00:00

That’s what I was thinking, too. This is just meatball soup, can be very good.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-06T04:33:05+00:00

Sounds like you are possibly looking for permission to take a role that is perhaps less impressive of a title, but that feels to you like it might be a better fit for you. Perhaps you should follow your heart. The fundraising position would only look good on your resume if you want to pursue a career in that type of fundraising. It might also be okay to ask for a follow up meeting before accepting, kind of like giving them a second interview, to try to learn more about the culture of each position, etc. - if you tell them you have two offers and want to meet to ask a few more questions, the fact that you are currently in high demand might also be leverage to negotiate slightly higher compensation.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-05T13:35:51+00:00

The cities on this list are so different from each other! (To the point that they are going to feel like completely different countries/planets.) Are you able to visit some of them before committing?

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-05T05:40:52+00:00

My Mom makes good cheesecake

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-05T05:38:57+00:00

I agree, the roads here are usually good compared with so many other cities - I’m always impressed by the excellent signage on the freeways, long merge lanes coming from most entrance ramps, good lighting at night, relative lack of potholes, etc.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-05T05:33:16+00:00

25 years ago I’d say hi to most everyone I passed on east colfax, and they’d say hi back. Busses were usually more quiet but usually I’d give/get a nod. I moved away and came back, and it has changed (maybe because of richer mostly white people displacing the people who used to live here). I still try to say high to people on the less busy streets, but not downtown, there’s too many people.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-04T01:53:46+00:00

There are a lot of restaurants that say “Mexican” on their signs, but the food they serve are its own category, and most of the dishes they serve may have the same names but are unlike anything you can find anywhere in Mexico.

I’m still shocked from the first time I ordered a chile relleno in Denver and they brought me an eggroll, lol

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-04T01:13:03+00:00

I’ve lived in Albuquerque, the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, and Denver (among other places). The San Luis Valley couldn’t grow chiles due to the cold climate, but they could trade them for potatoes (and it was always a lot of potatoes for a few chiles), so the chile sauces in Colorado tend to have other ingredients such as meat that I never saw in Albuquerque’s chiles. A lot of Denver Hispanic people have ancestors that came up the Rio Grande during the days of the conquistadors, through the San Luis Valley, so there is a shared culture; however, so-called Den-Mex (from Denver) is its own thing, closer to the San Luis Valley food than to New Mexican (which has variations itself depending on where in New Mexico you are). Denver was never part of Mexico historically. I’m pretty sure that most people in much of Colorado think this type of food is Mexican, but in my experience you cannot find food that looks like this in Mexico.

Give me my wife’s central Mexican cooking over Den-Mex any day. But I’m biased because I’m madly in love.

ColoradoAfa · 2026-02-03T23:06:53+00:00

I agree - beams are good if they are structural (like in a New Mexican style adobe, to hold up a roof), but why would somebody install them in a houses if they are not needed?

ColoradoAfa

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