Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Ideas
Summers come and gone. We've hade plenty of time to digest the messages from the FIRST districts road show. I'm glad they came out to talk with us. I addition, we've had time to do some off season volunteer training and casting a wider net for KEY volunteers.
Is anyone making plans for a formal or informal group discussion during their regionals? I'll be at three or four. And, I'm hoping to make contact with some of the active thinkers.
My takeaway from the summer presentations is that CA districts will be a grass roots effort. But to make progress, we have to figure out how to overcome geography and leverage our diversity.
Any thoughts or plans to share?
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Stephen,
Thanks for bringing this topic back to forefront. Here are a few things I'd like to address:
1) For anyone not able to attend one of the sessions in CA last November, the Sacramento session is on our youtube channel (Video is in four parts,
part one here)
2) EricH is right, Board of Directors and Volunteer Base are two of our areas to improve, along with Fundraising Capital (California Regionals, as a whole, were in the red in 2016). Explanation starts at around 23 minute mark in part one of our recording.
3) Will this be a "grass roots effort"? Yes and no. But importantly, no. No, it cannot be a grass roots effort. California needs, and I mean absolutely needs, Regional Director initiative in order to move to districts. This is NOT a chicken and egg situation. There is no questions of which comes first. If the RD's in California will not commit to a timeline and set of actions in order to go to districts, it will not happen. RD's hold the "keys to the kingdom", we cannot move forward without RD buy in and leadership.
For me, that means my personal time into the CA Districts effort is not worth investing until RD's commit to a plan to move to districts.
I'm very thankful for all the conversations that have come out of the proposal, and especially grateful to the many individuals who contributed to the proposal. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
At this point, the ball is not in our court.
If you see me at CVR, Sac, or Las Vegas this spring, I'd love to chat.
Best,
-Mike