Last year’s Annual Conference, which took place over two days in Rochester, Minnesota, might have been a premonition of sorts. The theme, Challenge to Change, invited us to look at change as something that happens to and around us as well as something one or many may initiate. Change: inevitable, necessary, and challenging.
Welcome to 2020, a year that is nothing but change and challenge. A year in which a return to some storied before-time is not possible nor just. A year in which dual pandemics, one in its infancy, another over 400 years old, implore us to center Black lives and collectively imagine and lay fresh footing for a world where everyone thrives and our interconnectedness is embraced.
Minnesota’s nonprofits are heaving, hustling, grieving, listening, learning, and changing. We are in a state of public course correction and collective metamorphosis. This year’s Annual Conference aims to give room for the intense movement we are in to grow. A movement indelibly shaped by COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd.
Planning for this year’s conference is intentionally different and we’re slowing things down, to make it a more engaged and collaborative process. Look for updates in September from the committee on theme, how-to submit session proposals, and scholarship availability! For now, take care of yourselves and mark your calendars. We’ve only just begun.