Welcome to the first of our new weekly (or sometimes bi-weekly) series! There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to make an organization like ours run, but it’s not always easy to share the menagerie of small accomplishments we make each week to build toward our larger goals. We’ll be sharing our menagerie with you from here on out in order to increase our transparency and so that our supporters can stay informed. Read on to learn about what we did in the first week of March!
First thing’s first: this week marks the start date for our Executive Director, Arlene Smith. Arlene is a co-founder of SFAC, was previously the Vice President of our Board of Directors, and has been organizing FlowShop for the past 5 years. Hiring her as a paid Executive Director makes it possible for Arlene to offer her support and expertise in a more sustainable way that we hope will carry the organization far into the future. We also truly believe in the importance of paying people (artists especially!) for the work they do and feel this puts us in greater alignment with Integrity, which is one of our core values.
The Fire Arts Committee was the first to meet this week. They’re making great progress on the first draft of our Fire Safety Training course, preparing to meet with Seattle Fire Department officials, and developing risk assessment sheets to impress said Fire Department. Depending on Covid vaccination and infection rates, we’re looking at resuming a community fire jam this summer or fall!
The Program Committee, which meets every other Wednesday, is still nailing down details and doing the research to develop a pilot program that teaches poi and juggling to under-circused and BIPOC youth. It’s hard not to get excited about this! Many of us have experienced the healing capacity of flow arts first hand and being able to share that with more people is one of the main purposes of the work we do. That’s not to mention how much fun it is!
The end of the week was all about money with our Development and Finance Committees getting together. The Development Committee is in charge of seeking and applying for grants, as well as organizing and overseeing the rest of the fundraising efforts of SFAC. This week marked its very first meeting and we’ve got some grants that we’ll be looking into applying for soon! The Finance Committee will meet later today to check on how we’re matching up with our projected budget so far and make sure we’re on track for the rest of the year.
If you missed FlowShop this past Tuesday and are looking for a chance to make shapes with friends, don’t miss Spin Jam this Saturday from 3:00-5:00! Spin Jam is one of Seattle’s first flow organizations and is certainly the longest-running. Come see what all the fuss is about and support this ongoing pillar of our community. Find the calendar event here.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and we look forward to connecting with you again soon! Make good shapes <3