Making Relationships and Progress

There has been some forward momentum in my struggle to find a lawyer. Yesterday I heard from my contact at the Triangle Community Foundation. She provided me with three good attorneys in the area that have experience in this particular area of the law.

In addition, I had lunch with two people that I used to work with at Ericsson many years ago. Since leaving Ericsson, they started their own company. One of them is the CEO and the other is the CTO of their own growing company in RTP. The CEO has unfortunately been touched with cancer in his own life in several ways and therefore, is passionate about the cause. I respected him as a leader then and I still have a lot of respect for his leadership style now. I asked him if he would consider joining my journey by serving on the board and he agreed. He also suggested a couple other contacts that he is going to put me in touch with so it was a successful meeting.

The key to building a good board of directors is asking people that believe in your mission and who will be good advocates on behalf of your program. It is also good to have a group with varying expertise so that they compliment each other and learn from each other (especially during this early phase when we have so much to learn).

I have been pretty successful so far, two Oncologists have already accepted positions on the board. One here in North Carolina and one in Texas. I have asked a highly influential Pediatric Oncology Psychologist who works in Pennsylvania and she is currently considering the offer (I am hopeful she will agree soon after I get a bit further along in the process). I also have a Financial Planner and now a CEO.

CEOs are important because they not only bring their business leadership expertise, they can reach out to other CEOs for possible corporate sponsorship. I don't think the board should be too big. However, since I don't have any direct experience in fund raising, I am considering asking an experienced Development Director to join the board. I am having coffee or lunch with a few in the next couple of weeks. Commercial Real Estate is another area that I have read is possible expertise to consider. Since this is such a "calling" for me. It is very important that I surround myself with people that are very passionate about wanting to help.

I am thankful to the people that have written me wanting to help in other ways as well. I have not responded to many of those emails. It is not because I am not completely overwhelmed with gratitude. Honestly it is because I am not sure what to ask people to do quite yet. I know of a few specific things that I need to work on in order to get the legal stuff moving but when it comes to "feet on the floor" type project work, I haven't gotten to that point in my thinking. I guess that proves that I need to find a Development Director that has more experience than I do or I need to finish reading my "Nonprofits for Dummies" book, huh?

Gosh, I am sure glad that I know that God will lead me through this as I go because I am certainly on a journey of faith. I guess I need prayers of direction and discernment.

On the personal front, Mackenna's birthday is on th 9th and then Colleen's is Sunday the 14th. One of the mothers that I met at our Grief Group forwarded an email to me telling me about a workshop being held at a local church called GriefShare: Surviving the Holidays. I am not sure I will attend on her birthday but I discovered that there are several of these same workshops offered on different dates at several local churches and it would be a good thing for me to attend. I wish they offered more things like this for kids. Kids like Mackenna who I am sure is going to have a tough time too this month. Please pray for her.