April’s Food For Thought

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
–Anne Bradstreet

Don’t forget about today’s Managers Forum on Partnerships and Collaborations at the Annex Conference Room at the First Montana Bank in Kalispell from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. We’ll be discussing the benefits – the prosperity – and the challenges – the adversity – of partnerships among nonprofits, businesses, governmental agencies and the community.

March Food for Thought

“Gracious Space has the potential to transform the human heart. Whether the challenge is negotiating conflicts, creating new possibilities or planning for the future, we need an environment that is conducive to learning and working well together….It is a technique, but more, it is a way of being that shapes our interactions with others.”
–Pat Hughes, author of Gracious Space: A practical guide for working better together

Don’t forget to join us for a presentation on Gracious Space at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell from 11:30 am to 1 pm in Kalispell!

February Food for Thought

“It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
– Mark Twain

Don’t forget to come to today’s Brown Bag – Communicating your Mission with Heart – from 11:30 am – 1 pm at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell!

January’s Food Thought

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”
– William Arthur Ward

It’s a new year! Join your colleagues for a conversation about the Present and Future of our Sector today from 11:30 am – 1 pm at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.

November’s Food for Thought

“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”
– W. E. B. Du Bois

Don’t forget about today’s Brown Bag, Change or Chains? Leading through Organizational Change, at the Museum at Central School from 11:30 am to 1 pm.

October Food for Thought

Don’t forget today’s Brown Bag, Records Management Rules and Practices, from 11:30 am to 1 pm at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.

Proper records management dovetails directly into this month’s Food for Thought:

“The greatest threat to the not-for-profit sector is the betrayal of public trust, the disappointment of public confidence. Virtually all knowledgeable observers of the not-for-profit scene believe that an overwhelming proportion of not-for-profits are honorably run…that admirable context, however, does not provide much protection to the sector when a sequence of highly publicized disgraceful not-for-profit misdeeds occurs.”
–Joel Fleishman, Duke University

June’s Food for Thought

Don’t miss out on today’s Brown Bag – Employee Engagement in a Slow Economy – from 11:30 am – 1 pm at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell!

Here’s some quotes to ponder:

“The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what’s going on so they can do a lot more than they’ve done in the past.”
–Bill Gates

“An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.”
–Bob Nelson

May’s Food for Thought

“Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off.”
–Paul Brodeur

This afternoon, Susan Ockert of the Montana Department of Commerce will providing resources where those persuasive statistics would be found. The workshop, Finding Stats for your Grants, will be held at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell from 11:30 am to 1 pm.

Technology Thoughts

“Successful technology changes at a nonprofit are clearly tied to the organization’s mission. You’re probably already well-versed in your organization’s mission. That’s good. You need to understand the environment in which the organization is operating to be able to frame the need for your technology initiative properly down the road. Is there something that other organizations in your field are doing that your organization isn’t? Can you see a way a new technology will help the organization serve more people, raise more money, or operate more efficiently?”
–Sarah, NTEN blog, nten.org

Don’t forget today’s Brown Bag workshop on Nonprofit Technology Management from 11:30 am to 1 pm at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.

March Food for Thought

A strong commitment to seeing things in future terms tends to keep boards from looking backward, or from becoming consumed in today’s minutiae. Boards make these kinds of mistakes when they see their primary task as being supervisory rather than providing strategic leadership (some level of supervisory activity is inevitable, but it’s incidental to the main role).
–Thomas A. McLaughlin

Don’t forget to register for the Basics of Board Service on March 31 from 5:30 pm to 9 pm at Flathead Valley Community College:

https://sodium.fvcc.edu/CourseStatus.awp?~~10SMGMT9036A