Looking Inward, Re-envisioning INELDA

by Henry Fersko-Weiss

At this time of year, the bears wreak havoc with our garbage. I live in a rural community where the bears forage on garbage, particularly at this time of year when they go on a feeding frenzy to prepare for hibernation. They will topple and stomp on cans to pop them open and drag the garbage into the woods to feast on our rotten left overs, discarded cuttings and scraps. Several times in the past few weeks, I have had to follow the trail of garbage, rebagging a disgusting mess of what they leave behind. I’m looking forward to the quiet of winter when the bears will hibernate and I don’t have to worry about the garbage anymore.

It’s a little early for me to be thinking about winter with its natural, rhythmic slowing down. After all, autumn only began three weeks ago and we don’t set the clocks back until next month. This year has seen so much turmoil with the Coronavirus, the upsurge in overt racism and the accompanying large-scale protests, the extreme political rancor… hibernating sounds good to me. But then, we’re not bears, and I can’t just shut down for months on end. There is too much to do.

We at INELDA have been perhaps busier than ever. This year has seen us bring out the online version of our Business Development Class, move all our trainings to live Zoom sessions, increase to monthly our member-only webinars, start a book club and peer mentoring group, partner with the Portland Institute to create a grief class (read more about the class further down in the newsletter), and restart our scholarship program. Not to mention starting a BIPOC working group to support our efforts to bring greater equity and inclusivity to our organization. We have also required all of our staff and Board of Trustees to go through a workshop together on Deconstructing Allyship: Examining Whiteness and Accountability, worked with an organizational consultant, and put together a series of focus group sessions to gather more input for our future planning. New developments are speeding up, not slowing down.

When viewing all of this activity from the outside, it looks more like the spring, rather than early autumn. But along with what seems like our own version of the frenzy bears experience at this time of year, internally—as individuals and as an organization—we are going through a period of reflection, a gathering inward—to reexamine our values, vision and mission. This process feels rejuvenating and will certainly set us up for a new spurt of creative development as all of our present efforts bring clarity of purpose and a well-defined direction for INELDA. In the months ahead we will keep you informed about all of this, let you know what it means for the evolution of this organization, and ask you join us in one way or another on re-envisioning INELDA.