Weighing a contract offer against waiting - first time posting

I got a contract offer for 7 months as a marketing coordinator and I am unsure whether to accept. There are 7 people counting on me, so I am trying to be careful. The contract could extend. How did you handle benefits?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 10 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.