Dear Imagine friends and family,
First of all, the Imagine Winter Party is tonight! 6PM! The Santa Cruz Masonic Temple at 828 Branciforte in Santa Cruz. Parking around back. Friends inside. Come on. Arranging this year's event has been an unusually turbulent process so the time we get to be together will be even more meaningful to me. I hope you'll join us.
We had a lot of fun at Nathan's birthday party! He wanted it Sports Themed, which I love. He wanted it Detroit themed and I'm kind of a Chicago sports fan so I'm just going to say that this is a person centered organization. Lots of the community came out and had fun and you'll find some photographic proof in the photos this month. Happy birthday friend.
Roaring Camp has once again donated a Holiday Train to the special needs community. Limited seats available but it's fun every year and we sure look forward to it. The train is this Sunday, December 3, arrive at 7:30 with your baggage. So that we don't exceed our ticket allotment, please let me know if you will join us. This event is for our clients and their caregivers with an occasional family member thrown in. Pictures to follow next month.
We have completed our annual Form 990 filing with the IRS. It is attached below so you can enjoy it. It sounds boring but I will make my case for reading it every year. It is a statement, under penalty of perjury, made by a nonprofit explaining where our funds come from and how they are used. It's a great way to find out what an organization prioritizes and catch them being honest. It's also a freely available alternative to glib bitterness. Informed cynicism is just a click away.
Rae's bake sale. Our friend, Rae, is planning a bake sale at Imagine's Community building on December 15 from 3-5. The flyer is below. She promises a wide array of goodies and, always thoughtful, has promised to include gluten and dairy free options. If you are hungry on the 15th, please drop by and support Rae.
Best wishes to Jhonny! Jhonny wasn't with us long but we sure enjoyed our time together. Jhonny left Imagine (for now) to return home to Colombia to help with family matters. We look forward to him coming back, thank him for his time with us so far and wish him the very best.
There continue to be significant transitions on the Imagine Leadership Team. Alina Parra, a caring, smart and effective Facilitator has decided to step down from her position at the end of this month. She has really done great work and stakeholders on every side are sorry to see this but we're grateful we get to keep her. She will be taking the housemate position with Sophie at Imagine. We have hired Lia Vargas as a new Facilitator. Lia is unusually qualified for the position with more than a decade in the field and substantial management experience. She will be taking half of the combined Alina and Brenda caseload and a player to be named later will take the other half. In the meanwhile every
If it helps, we have never stopped working on how to make the Facilitator job easier to prioritize the most important work and likely never will. It's also important, in terms of how we treat our Facilitators and show them empathy, that every single current facilitator came into their job with substantial catching up to do on day one. There's a lot of shoulders behind the wheel ahead we reach a place where Facilitators can sustainably build newer teams into the kind of robust, respectful, reliable, person-centered cultures all Imagine's client's deserve.
Finally, there won't be a fundraising campaign this year. I'll explain below in the Note To Donors.
Further down, this month's newsletter includes the following:.
The Flyer for Rae's Bake sale
The Redwood Chronicles has a joke from Jake, aka the Riddler for a second month because it's his birthday and we didn't want to pressure plus it's a pretty good joke and today's his birthday but you didn't hear it here.
Patty Lopez, gets to talk events instead of processes. Her soul is nourished.
The Service Sector Welcomes Lia Vargas to Imagine, you to our Winter Party and pilot project people to give feedback.
The Person-Centered Evolution column talks about the "Perfect Week" tool.
In Community Connections, Here's the deal- this will be another column I write until someone someone steps up and takes it off my hands. That's not a threat, just facts.
Our usual stuff in the columns around advocacy, self-determination, the Imagine Endowment and Transparency.
The Person-Centered Evolution this month is just pictures.
This month we have spotlights on Angie Urbina and the wonderful Briana, whose time as an imagine client ended 6 hours ago and whose time as part of the Imagine community continues for life.
As ever, I am at your service. If you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can write me here. I look forward to hearing from you.
Gratefully yours,
Doug
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