President's Report

The beginning of a new year always feels like an exciting time. I love the practice of reflecting on the previous year and dreaming about what lies ahead. As I step into the role of President for NCSPP this year, I feel joy, hope, and wonder: where and who will we be as an organization at the end of 2024? Will we feel proud of the work done? Will our members feel that we are listening?

What I hear consistently from our community is that people are both burned out and craving more. People are exhausted, sometimes unsure if they picked the right profession, and they want and need to gather, to share ideas with a colleague, be vulnerable, and feel seen by those who understand. People feel conflicted about getting involved: “I want to show up. I know it would really nourish me to go, but I am tapped and need to stay home,” or “Please keep the programming going, but I cannot help get this off the ground. I have no time.” I say these things, too! Of course, we can't say yes to everything, but in the past four years in particular, I think the roots of burnout have burrowed in a little deeper.

One of my commitments this year is helping our community gain access to more professional nourishment. To achieve this, we need to diversify what we have to offer, become more flexible, and better assist people to set their needed group frame. As Past President Willow Banks mentioned in her report last year, we have had a lot of vacant executive and committee positions over the last four years. At first, we merely aimed to fill the positions. Now, we see the unfilled positions as a message from the community: “Those positions are open for a reason, and it is time to rethink how we're doing things.” As a professional organization that plans to thrive, yes, we will still need folks to think and care about Membership, Events and Programming (Committees that have been unfilled for a few years), but these roles and goals can evolve with some flexibility to allow members to collaborate more o