Thoughts from the Board: Growth in Fellowship Promotion and a Word of Gratitude
Over the past two years, many of us in the various roles of our lives have been asked to ponder how COVID has affected us - in both positive and negative ways. Many of you have actually done some of that thinking in various meetings with the Roothbert Fellowship. In our most recent board meeting (an unusual summer board meeting this past month), we were gratified to see how the Roothbert Fellowship was actually strengthened by opportunities that the pandemic forced us to create. I want to take a quick moment to reflect on those offerings, items you have seen promoted in our monthly email/newsletter, but perhaps not all in one spot before.
Round Tables: Roothbert Roundtables emerged as a type of replacement for Pendle Hill Retreats. They were successful enough, and brought in fellows from farther away than Pendle Hill could attract, that we have decided to continue offering them in the future, even as Pendle Hill Retreats have started up again. These are usually 2-3 hour virtual gatherings which combine a presentation of a topic by a former grantee with breakout rooms to chat together around guided questions.
Playing in the Spirit: Playing in the Spirit was created to bring Roothbert Fellows together in joyous and creative ways in order to strengthen the ways we connect spiritualities to equities in order to transform our lives and the communities in which we participate. These are 2½ hour workshops offered 3x/year in which small groups meet to discuss spirituality and equity in many different forms. These workshops are led by fellows with guidance from board member, Nadjwa Norton.
Fellowship Pods: Two former grantees create some type of topic of interest for 3+ current grantees to join them to meet and discuss the topic every 2 - 3 months / year. Meetings are about 90 minutes long.
Social Hours: This is simply a gathering (virtually or in person) for informal chatting. Usually there’s a guiding question - but much freedom is given to simply enjoy each other’s company. We hope to have a couple of these each year, perhaps more if others ask to organize them.
We hope that the continuing of such offerings will afford more opportunities for us to connect with fellows, building our community. Keep an eye out for them in future e-mailings!
A Word of Gratitude
Finally, I wish to express my own and the board’s deep gratitude for Tyler Tolman, ‘19. Tyler has been our communications manager for the last two years. You have all been enjoying his emails and newsletters, the excellent profiles - of some of you, even - that he has written. He has worked on a “Founder’s Corner” in which he reflects or introduces some primary sources from the Roothbert’s. His colorful graphics have added a style heretofore unseen in Roothbert communications! He has helped to build our website content tremendously. He has worked on many other tasks behind the scenes, as well. I have worked closely with him over the years and found his enthusiastic spirit, his can-do attitude, and his thoughtful nature a pleasure to behold. Thanks, Tyler, for all you have done.
~ Jim Rosengarten