Can you say Board retreat?

Sunday, January 15, 2012 will be our first Board Retreat...8am til whenever....thank you, Tavherlee.  This will be our first retreat since our inception (sounds like a movie, doesn't it).  We have white boards, sticky notes, information (we had to approve before hand) and ideas to share.  Work, work, work to decide what and how we are going to accomplish our goals this year for ERK.  As I told you before, we received a $10,000 grant from Wal Mart's "12 Days of Giving" and that is really a very small amount of money in the real world of non profits to achieve everything that we want to accomplish this year.  When you look at some of the other non profits around the country, $10,000 is pocket change, but to us at ERK it is HUGE!!!!  Tavhelee, who is our newest Board Member, and has years of experience with other non profits, has been applying to corporations for future grants and I would like to ask everyone to keep their fingers and paws crossed that we are approved.  Oh, the things we could accomplish with more grants!  I certainly don't mean to sound ungrateful for our first grant of $10,000....because I am thrilled beyond belief with this grant.  Wal Mart's grant will go so far to help us help the children in our community and I am really excited about our Board Retreat tomorrow because it is going to educate all of us on the Board as to how, where and why we need to do the things behind the scenes to achieve our dreams that we haven't known how to achieve before.  You know, up to this point we have sort of "flown by the seat of our pants".  Of course, it has worked for us, as we have been able to gift many children with Christmas, Back-to-School items, Fun Days, ets. but we need to move forward and become a "professional and organized" non profit that others wish to emulate.  Please wish us luck tomorrow and don't worry; notes, papers and questions will be flying, we will of course be keeping our strength up with a "potluck" breakfast and lunch......stay tuned for an update on our first Board Retreat and where we will be going this year.