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JUNE 2011
FEATURING: Fulton Rising
Diving Back Into Organizational Engagement
Discovering Innovation at Your Doorstep
More at Floricane.com
Ripe Resources
Playground Perspectives
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Answer this question on Floricane's Facebook page by Wednesday, June 15
and you could be the recipient of cold, hard, cultural cash -- $100 redeemable for merchandise, tickets, enrollment or donations at the June 25 cultural expo organized by Richmond's CultureWorks.
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Dear ,
The waves don't come as often, but they feel bigger when they hit.
Well into my second year of running my own business, I somehow imagined that I'd have things on autopilot, and would be vacationing in North Africa. The revolutions sweeping the Arab world - and the challenges of building a new business - put a crimp on those plans.
As summer arrives - in full force - I'm continuing to work on a three-year, strategic business plan with my team. I'm developing a bit of empathy for my clients in the process. Planning for the future is tough work!
We still have more work to do on the plan itself - and three years of implementation ahead of us - but we're finding a lot of energy in the ideas emerging from our conversations.
Our biggest strategic outcome - the most ambitious, and the one that speaks most powerfully to the Floricane team - is simple: We will transform the world.
We know that when we do our best work - work that challenges and energizes both our team and our clients - we will change the world. We know that because there is not a single organization among the 70+ we've supported since 2009 that is not in the business of transforming our community, or the world.
Our team is excited about the future - that of Richmond, the region and our new business.
We're excited by the work we are preparing to do, of course. We're equally excited to be surrounded by other individuals and organizations seeking the same change in the world as we are.
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FULTON RISING
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 Floricane's first big contract -- serious
commitment, huge scope, intense deliverables -- came our way last fall. Creating a community vision plan for the three East End neighborhoods that comprise Greater Fulton has been a powerfully tough slog.
I'm pretty sure that consultant Peter Fraser and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Last weekend, the Fulton community came together to celebrate the culmination of a nine-month process that involved several hundred residents and community stakeholders. The amazing level of engagement from the community -- and the unflagging commitment of community organizer Jason Sawyer and the Neighborhood Resource Center's Annette Cousins (our clients) -- put our own contributions to shame.
» read more + view slideshow |
RECENT FLORICANE ACTIVITY
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Diving Back Into Organizational Engagement
It's great to get back to my roots, so to speak, to come full circle.
I spent the last chapter of my corporate career helping shape a new culture, focused on organizational and leadership development.
In recent months, Floricane has been getting back into that business - balancing our strategic consulting work with new projects targeted at shaping and strengthening organizational cultures.
I've been learning a lot in the process.
» read more
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Discovering Innovation at Your Doorstep As a founding partner in a three-year collaborative effort to connect creative dots and showcase innovative talent across the Richmond region, Floricane is excited at the prospect of learning from more than 20 largely unsung innovators during a day-long, TED-with-a-twist showcase on June 23, called i.e.
Floricane has purchased a handful of tickets to this event to give to our community of innovators and provocateurs. It's our way of stacking the deck -- making sure the room is filled with even more challenge-oriented faces.
» read more to learn how you can win one of our tickets |
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Cultivating A Healthy Organization
July 19 :: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Join Floricane's John Sarvay and Sarah Milston in a fast-paced, hands-on, self-evaluation of your nonprofit organization. We'll be exploring best practices in board and staff engagement, fund raising and development, and marketing. This workshop is being offered as part of Southside Community Partners' Learning and Leadership series.
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CultureWorks' Cultsha Xpo
June 25 :: 10 am - 5 pm
Richmond's arts and culture umbrella organization is bringing more than 50 arts, history, science and cultural organizations to the Science Museum for a full day of entertainment and education. It's their way of introducing Richmond's robust cultural scene to the region, and to encourage more of us to become Cultsha's (Cultural Shareholders).
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Strategic Planning: Creating an Organizational Roadmap
August 5 & 12 :: 9 am - 3 pm
As part of VCU's Nonprofit Learning Point summer program, Floricane's John Sarvay will take participants through the nuts-and-bolts of effective strategic planning with an eye on readiness, scope and capacity -- as well as best practices, such as engaging your broader organizational community to strengthen the process.
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Is there anything as powerful as a child in the full throes of delighted discovery?
 As my third Father's Day rolls into view, I can better appreciate my own father's many parenting struggles -- they ran deeper, and were more difficult, than my own. Delight, for instance, was not part of his vocabulary (or his DNA).
I'm not particularly fluent in delight, either, but I've been fortunate to spend time recently with someone who speaks it non-stop.
Over the past several weeks, Thea has:
- splashed and cavorted in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay
- collected shells, dried crab claws and sea glass on the beach
- sat on the deck at Sweet 95 and enjoyed ice cream with both of her grandmothers
- enjoyed a full-body painting party in the back yard with two of her three-year-old BFFs
- gone to her first baseball game
- hiked the canal and portions of James River Park
Being part of all of these experiences with her -- except the body painting, which Nikole shared by emailing photos -- has been a real gift for me.
As an attentive parent, I sometimes feel like I'm relearning the same lessons over and over again -- be intentional, be in the moment, value serendipity, embrace the chaos.
The sad part is that I find myself fighting most of these lessons every single day in my own work; sometimes, it's even a struggle to be open to the lessons when Thea is doing the teaching.
The much happier news is that there's someone in my life forcing me to stay engaged and pay attention.
I often think about my dad when I'm with Thea. He died of cancer more than a decade ago, but I know he would have found delight in Thea's intense sense of play and her love affair with the world. These are, after all, the lessons our children teach us -- generation after generation after generation. |
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