Budget Season

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when I have to figure out all the goals I have for the next year and then figure out how much it will cost to meet those goals. At least I have help this year. With some of the restructuring we’ve been doing I’m not in a department by myself. Instead of a separate Communications department and a separate IT department we are now the Communications and Technology department. So our whole department is getting together today to figure out next year’s budget. The plan is to spend 3 hours this morning at Starbucks. Of course my real goals for the year are revealed when my budget has been approved for half of what I asked for and given back to me. That’s why you always ask for 2x what you need…

OK, that’s not really the way I do things. There is this little thing called integrity that I work hard at maintaining in my job. Here’s some of my overall goals for this year:

I want to start a staff training program.
I want to replace our file server. (It’s over 3 years old now.)
I want to find a better backup solution.
I want to get rid of all the computer still running Windows 98(I know, it’s embarrassing.)
I’m debating whether or not to switch from Samba/LDAP to Active Directory. Samba4 plans on implementing AD, so I’m also thinking about just waiting, but it may still be a couple years away from a stable release.
I’m also debating whether or not I want an Exchange server.
I’m considering a new Church Management System.
We seriously need a new phone system. This was actually in last year’s proposed budget, but was taken out of the final approved budget.
I need to work on a way to get better control of our printer usage.
And then I need to think about what I’d like to do next year with Geeks-4-Jesus.

I’m sure there’s some other things I’ve forgotten, but I’m at home and don’t have all my work stuff here in front of me.