Greetings to the members, family and friends of Rainbow City!
This last year has been an incredible journey for our organization and one that has changed it forever in numerous ways, opening doors for many more to be a part of our amazing community. Our work is not yet done, as we are set to soon unveil the rest of the major changes to our board and staff structure. Soon, we’ll be completing our year-long project to re-envision the organization to be better prepared for the future. These changes are the result of thousands of hours of volunteer work and guided by our consultant friends at 501commons. Starting with best practices, we designed a governance structure that is reflective of our unique community that thrives on collectivist decision-making.
This shift began in 2019 when we changed our mission, but our values have never changed. Our desire to exist in a diverse and inclusive space and to bring visibility to our uniqueness was evident in 1998 when the marching band first stepped off in the pride parade. Ever since, we have been deciding how best to represent ourselves, and to grow our strength and purpose. We know now that performing as ourselves has value to a lot of people. The more we are seen, the more people crave to join our family. Since the beginning of the year, we have received over 400 requests for membership! Our goal is to welcome as many folx as we can and to instill our shared values to foster the next generation of Rainbow City.
We are working hard to solidify our policies, processes, and support. Building this policy base will take time, and we are committed to an inclusive process. We’re also increasing the professionalism of our business processes in ways that were never possible before, relying on our increased scope to afford better software tools to support more efficient work. Our commitment to you is that we will continue to improve, albeit slower than we all would like. We always welcome your feedback!
As we seek to expand our support from outside our community, we are incredibly reliant on our volunteers. We are an organization led by the grassroots and are driven by the fantastic members of the Rainbow City Guild and our Board of Directors. Last Fall, the total number of our board and volunteer roles was 33 and now it is up to 50 and still growing. If you are as excited by the work of this organization as I am, I encourage you to join our team and get involved. Your strength and uniqueness could be an important part of our future success!
Thank you for being a part of our community. We’re working harder than you know to make it as great as it can be. We do it for you!
With gratitude,
Damien Hall
Executive Director
