James and I have had a great time on this little planning retreat we've taken. It's been productive too! We've contemplated many things, including a mission statement, our core values, our goals and needs and an organizational chart that reflects all of these things. I'm most excited to firm up what responsibilities we each see ourselves taking and to know how that affects the programming. It won't be long before we can start fundraising and interviewing people for jobs...although the interviewing will be months and months down the road. It's just never too early to start planning.
There have been a few changes that I'm really, REALLY excited about and they have to do with naming the programs we have in mind. I think we've decided to keep Young Lab for the adult programs and I'll get to go back to Young School for the preschool part of the non-profit. I dearly loved that idea, but I was flexible about the naming of things because I've learned that sometimes when you demand your own way, you miss out on the opportunity for something greater. However, I think that after talking and talking this weekend, we're both going to get to integrate our hopes and ideas into the greater whole of the project and I couldn't be happier about it. There's even a chance that a name James chose years ago and bought the domain online for will be what we name the after school and young adult programs. Isn't it amazing how these dreams that we've had for years are perfectly meshing together? It's just one more piece of proof that we're on the right track.
I know that all of the back and forth can seem wishy-washy to people following what we're doing, but the truth is that we are just letting everyone in on the development and evolution of this project because it's a gift that we want to give the community. I believe that it's never too early to include everybody. I'm so grateful that we had this opportunity to get away and hash some things out because the growth and further solidification of our partnership during this time has been monumental. I'm still amazed, even a year later, at how lucky we are to have this opportunity to see our dreams realized. My heart is so full.
Here are some shots from the weekend and the extra day we were able to stay because of the weather. Thank you snow!
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| The Road Ahead - Taken from the McDonald's that bridges over the interstate in Vinita, OK |
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| New Bangs and the Log Cabin |
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| The View From Our Balcony Before the Snow |
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| Fire! |
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| View From Our Balcony After Snow |
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| We Probably Won't Be Dining Al Fresco Today |
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| Snow Covered BBQ! |
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| I could live in this little cabin. I love it! |
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| Chandelier |
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| Strategic Planning Central + Room Service Menu |
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| It's So Beautiful Here |
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| Lincoln Log Session - Our Paseo Building |
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| Fun Times |
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| We built this together. :) |
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