Inconvenience

This is how I had it in my mind. I take the exam on Saturday and then I switch gears to focus on the audit and then I get to maintain until I hop on the iron bird. Well it did not quite work out that way.

23rd November 2010: Day one audit

7:30- awaken take shower and put on something a little more snazzy because the auditor is coming

8:00- at my desk wondering what time the auditor will arrive, I wonder to the back to see that things are in order and give a pep talk to the crew that are in.

9:00- it's not weird that he is not here yet, he could have gotten on a plane this morning

10:00- the CLS auditor, Charlotte, did not get here until 10:30, no worries

11:00- what is going on, I really expected some communication or explanation by now, begin calling IAVI contacts in an effort to track down some information on the fella that was coming to conduct the audit

12:00- frustrated, have not been able to talk to anyone but Charlotte and she is in Kenya

1:00- obviously the audit is not happening today, now the trick is to find out when?

24th November 2010: to be Day two audit

3:00- receive email from Kigali site with a message forwarded from Tim, the guy who was to conduct the audit, that read something like this:

Some things came up and we will have to reschedule the GCLP audit for the beginning of the next year. (here it comes) Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.

--

Come on! An audit is a huge deal. The thing the really burns me is that he knew that we were expecting it and he waited until the second day. The same thing had happen to Kigali last week as they were on the list to be looked at before we were. Jean, the contact in Kigali forwarded me the email from Tim as he said that my email was not accepting his message. I think that my email might be trying to filter the bad news for me, ha.

It is difficult when you expect to have something done with and it just gets pushed back a bit. I am anxious to have it over with but, I am I really doing my best to look at this from a positive angle. There are now a few things that we were going to have to try and explain or do our best to avoid that we might now have the opportunity to button it up more completely. The lab worked very well as a team to see that we were prepared for this audit. It was terrific to see.

Kahler and I have been trying to plan an outing for the lab folks to show our appreciation for all of their hard work. I think that even though we had planned to celebrate the completion of the audit we will try and take them out the first or second week of December because they really did make sure that we were ready for the audit and I am quite sure will keep things tight until the reschedule date.

I am on call again this week, so far nothing too out of the ordinary has occurred. It was not a great management meeting to have to take minutes in but, I can't complain. We are looking at budget cuts across the project and everyone is trying to protect their staff and it really can just get downright hairy/ugly among the interns. Kahler and I have come up with our statement and we are thankful that the project management group (PMG) recognizes the gravity of what the lab does and the value of the trained technicians that we employ. We remain hopeful that they will not require us to cut anyone. The truth is that we can not do so and remain viable.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful for you all and hope that you have an absolutely fabulous turkey day. It looks like we will get away from work a little early tomorrow and go have a thanksgiving meal with one of the big wigs with the CDC. I am looking forward to it very much actually.

All is well, I am very blessed