Week 5: Board Welcome

I’m elated to start working with your board. I’m a Columbus native and have spent many years in service with the underserved populations here, especially in the Weinland park and Near East side neighborhoods. Since I’ve been able to have a hand in the programming aspect of a social-service organization, I’m especially excited to see the leadership and decision making aspect.

I’m most interested in learning how resources are allocated, how strategic decisions are made (and why) and the politics of working with in the City of Columbus. I’ve never been exposed to the interagency work that’s done with other community agencies like the Mid-Ohio Foodbank or Community Shares.

Some questions I hope to answer by the end of my experience include the role of the committee in decision making, the dynamics between the executive director and the board, the role of lobbying/fundraising in NSI’s work. I’m also interested to see how NSI uses any data they collect about their clients and how this might be used for domestic poverty research.

With my past experience working in Columbus, and my work in community development, I hope to be able to apply some of my understanding of impoverished communities and the dynamics that exist there. I’m very excited to see how my experience working in a corporate finance office translate to working on a board of local professionals, as well. Finally, it will be interesting to see how my Strengths appear in working on this project and how those Strengths might change (or how previous Strengths might reappear).