“And We Showed Up:” ExComm Report of Our Work, 2021/2022

Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams. Photo: Tiffany Manning Studios. 

May 26, 2020 | Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams

 

August 2, 2022

Dear Beloved ROOTS Community,

I appreciate you. I see the full worth of who you are…and I am grateful for your presence.

I want to share a story of the ExComm, your Executive Committee, of our journey over the past year. I am sharing it as a story…because we are connected through our stories, right?

Your ExComm team serving for the last year has been Helms Jarrell, daniel johnson, Stephen Clapp, Bob Leonard, April Turner, Stephanie McKee Andersen, King Shakur, Michael Murray, muthi reed (who stepped down in February to complete grad school), Michelle Ramos and me, Yvette  Angelique. I acknowledge the earlier departures of Wende Ballew and Rev. Erik Martinez.

Let me open with a poem that emerged in me as I reflected upon our last year:

                                            Laying With ROOTS  

——————————— Falling to our knees, among crumpled

———————————Leaves and loose rocks, we ease

———————————————–Our ears toward the soil, grass

———————————————–Blades stroke at our cheeks.

———————————————–Slow our breath. We stretch

——————————— Our bodies down, long, and deep

———————————Matching the heartbeat of the Earth.

We began our year together out of sync. Our nominations process was awkward and messy—even  after we spent time earlier in the year to refine it. Two out of our three new ExComm members experienced a messiness as part of their voting in and onboarding process that resulted in an uncared for, and unloving feeling. We entered into a situation of unintentional harm. But no matter the intention, it was harmful.

Ultimately, two of our new executive committee members quickly resigned. So we stopped. We were able to listen and receive rich feedback from them—through both a frustrated and constructive  framing.   

———–In the meantime,
———–Amongst the rest of us,
———–Folk got sick.
———–Cared for ailing parents;
———–Lost work; Got more tasks.
———–Shifted our life interactions
———–Onto three and seven inch screens,
———–And we showed up.

We owned our missteps. We acknowledged the larger narrative of our current reality of swimming in the pandemic AND still needing to run a nonprofit business operation. So we went about the  tasks of approving several new fiscal sponsorships of organizations leading the work of our mission; and developing a realistic budget.

Within our budgetary responsibilities came a nice surprise you already know…an influx of dollars from MacKenzie Scott, to use as our organization saw fit (no strings attached!). We, along with some of our sister organizations who are members of our ROOTS family, received similar gifts. This was both a blessing and a curse. Three million dollars is a lot…and not enough (if you can imagine not enough). There is much for us to do. We quickly needed to get the money, along with newer significant donations, into safe financial keeping. As a former bank executive, I can tell you this is  easier said than done. As an ExComm, we entered into “spirited” conversations on how we would go about making our financial resources less vulnerable than sitting in a checking account. We ultimately were able to secure the money until we could do the most necessary task—to engage with you, the membership, particularly the board, in a dialogue on where we wanted to direct these new resources…holding our mission and strategic plan as a foundation. We knew that this would  be no small task.

———–In the meantime,
———- the rest of us,
———–Folk got sick.
———–Cared for ailing parents;
———–Lost work; Gained work.
———–Shifted our life interactions
———–Onto three and seven inch screens,
———–And we showed up.

There were four areas of deep conversation, unpacking, and focus: How might we be more intentional in cultivating and building a stronger ExComm? What is our compensation, role, and  performance philosophy at ROOTS? (especially as a national recognized arts and social justice leader); Dreaming and Transformation…How might we engage in Blue Sky Dreaming?…and where are we right now?…what do we need to recognize as the “moves” we need to make to support the goals in our strategic plan? And what is the ongoing engagement and feedback process we receive from members? (community garden collection). How will we continue to build trust and strengthen our relationship as an ExComm?  

In addition to these big conversations, ExComm continued to handle what has become an annual member issue—a serious conflict/issue of harm between individuals in our membership that requires us to engage the safety team, who for now are the ExComm Officers. As we worked with the parties involved, conducting investigations, respecting confidentialities, seeking external consultations, we realized we needed to make real our “dream” of practicing transformative and healing justice. This ultimately led to the staff and ExComm on separate, but mutually-informed tracts, on engaging with experienced advisors and gaining in collaborative learning on ways to build this framework within ROOTS. We are still in that learning process. And with the aid of a skilled practitioner in the Transformative Justice community, the Safety Team continues to resolve this year’s conflict.

We also began an intentional process for laying the groundwork for a Personnel Committee/Work group to begin…daniel johnson was leading this work with support of ExComm members and staff, as well as reaching out to membership to help support the endeavor…

———–In the meantime,
———–Amongst the rest of us,
———–Folk got sick.
———–Cared for ailing parents;
———–Lost work; Got more tasks.
———–Shifted our life interactions
———–Onto three and seven inch screens,
———–And we showed up.

Our work to cultivate and build a stronger ExComm resulted in a major re-hauling of our process and practice for filling ExComm roles. This work was led by Helms Jarrell and supported by other ExComm members (and staff). It involved a much earlier outreach strategy, holding multiple conversations with prospective candidates, re-designing timing and data collecting, and managing all of those small yet important details in that process.

We talked about the compensation of our staff. ROOTS has a practice of giving an annual end of year bonus to augment the unexamined pay system of our staff. From my experience in Human Resources and Finance, I was aware (as well as Michelle) that our pay was not in alignment with our presence in the market or with our values. This issue was now being noticed by some our funders. So this year, we undertook recruiting for, interviewing, and selecting a compensation consulting firm to build a compensation and performance strategy. Paige led this work and I worked along with her, to secure a compensation firm that specializes working with nonprofits and  had access to southern and nationwide market data that would support our unique structure and align with our strategic goals. (We hope to complete the analysis this fall).

Ahhhh we had conversations on Dreaming and Transforming. ExComm entered into “spirited” conversations, led by Stephanie McKee-Andersen, about ways we do not allow ourselves to  dream…and for the many years of running on low resources…we established an “habit energy” and mindset on a hyper focus on the managing to the bare bones. We explored, how might we dream together? We started to do this dreaming …and we added these thoughts to our community garden…and we are wanting to engage with the membership more on this dreaming… which you will see on the ROOTS week’s agenda…

And what about us, as ExComm? How are we working and being with each other? We built on the work we started with our board consultant Yasmin Yonis the year before…acknowledging our growth and the trust we built. We needed to do more of this work having a new member on ExComm, as well as a growing staff. So we worked with Shannon Turner to help support the  ExComm and Staff in building trust and deepening our relationship with each other. We did this  virtually and in a follow up session in person in Atlanta.


In the meantime,
———–Amongst the rest of us,
———–Folk got sick
———–Cared for ailing parents
———–And we lost a beloved mother…
———–Shifted our life interactions
———–Onto three and seven inch screens,
———–And in person gatherings…
———–We still showed up.

Respectfully submitted by:
Yvette Angelique Hyater-Adams
Chair of the Board of Directors
On Behalf of the the Executive Committee
AlternateROOTS

Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression—everywhere.