I have a nasty relationship habit of blaming myself when things are rough and just doubling down internally on working harder to fix it myself instead of engaging my partner in developing solutions that will work for both of us. Often, my partners don’t even realize just how much I’m struggling. I realized a few weeks ago that the Board has fallen into this pattern since the beginning of the pandemic, and we need to share with the membership just how challenging our work has become so that we can work together toward solutions.

I am concerned about the ongoing sustainability of the CSPC organization if we aren't able to restructure the way our leadership is managed. Leadership volunteers are exhausted to the point of burnout, and we aren’t seeing broad participation by volunteers who are actively growing their experience and engagement with an intention to eventually step into leadership roles.

I believe that to be sustainable into the future, the CSPC needs to be attracting, training, and retaining more leadership volunteers, especially EC's, and we need to be considering a long term paid operations leadership position. 

The first step for growing our volunteer corps, including those on a pathway to leadership, is to consult a nonprofit attorney about how we can recognize (not "compensate") volunteers without running afoul of tax laws either for our 501(c)(7) nonprofit organization or our volunteers. At the June 2024 Board meeting, the Board approved the expense for an initial legal consultation toward this effort.

During most of our 25-year history, we had a managing director handling the day-to-day operations of the organization, and I believe it is also time to return to that practice. The first step toward hiring a managing director is for the Board to review our financial position carefully and determine a budget that the organization can sustain as a salary, then develop a job description that will take on many of the administrative responsibilities that the Board and other volunteers have been performing for the last four years. We will be working on this in the coming months. 

In addition to providing space for smaller and more community gatherings–potlucks, game nights, discussion groups, skill shares, and others in addition to parties–I believe that expanding into a new space will create opportunities to attract new volunteers from a new (and previous) membership base who will not participate in events at the Gallery for a variety of accessibility reasons, but we must address the issues of leadership burnout and volunteer scarcity, with or without an expansion space. Without more volunteers, we would not be able to safely schedule activities at an additional space

The CSPC is strong, and we have grown even stronger in the nine years since we lost our original home in Interbay. We provide welcoming access to diverse, supportive community that encourages the celebration, development, and exploration of each person’s unique sexuality and sensuality. I believe in this community’s power to create the organization, spaces, and events that we want to be part of, but that requires all of us to do our part.

Enormous thanks to those of you who have been stepping up this year: to all our Frolic volunteers, all our Pride volunteers, our two new Board members, and those who have expressed interest in joining the Board and who are working toward greater leadership responsibilities. Thank you to our (almost) 12 EC’s (including those nearing completion of the extended training process for this critical role) and to the many, many volunteers who make our events possible. Thank you to the volunteers who write our newsletter, update our website, answer emails, meet the laundry person, clean up flood damage, lead new member orientation, tech host our online discussion groups, moderate our Discord server, and so much more. You all are fucking rock stars.

I invite you to share your thoughts with the Board via the Feedback form on the front page of the website. If you see a need where you are willing and able to put your own skills to use, please propose a solution that you can lead. Got a great idea for something new and the bandwidth to help make it happen? Share it with us! The CSPC is an organization with events and other community services created by and for our members. Your creativity and passion are needed, now and always. <3