The Urgency of Now - conference in Atlanta

The Hands On National conference was in Atlanta this year. The birthplace of Martin Luther King and the Hands On network itself. I was the lucky LiFT member to go to the conference from the Bay Area. I was excited to go and packed my agenda with so many back-to-back sessions.

Apart from hearing President Carter, Congressman John Lewis from Georgia and other inspiring speakers, I spent a lot of time talking to HOBA staff. I was searching for a way to describe what I feel towards all of them. And Hans beautifully summarized it by saying: "My heroes are my colleagues that are tireless in the service mission"

With that, I end my blogging spree at HOBA. Its been a great ride so far. The new LiFT team will start with renewed vigor and focus. Our congratulations to them and wishes for a great performance.

"Goals are dreams with deadlines" - Diana S Hunt

The end came with a simple ceremony and now we all belong to the Alumni group of LiFT HOBA. It was very nice to meet everyone together at HOBA and share a few laughs. The SFO team and our Silicon Valley team did short presentations with a summary of accomplishments.


Many of us will be part of Be the Change Day in October. All of us will be involved with HOBA in one way or another. Although goodbyes are difficult and ambiguity looms, Theodor Seuss Geisel, says: "Dont cry because it is over, Smile because it happened." I like the latter part of the sentence and all the strong memories it conveys.

Whats in store for all us now? I am looking forward to going to the Hands On Network Conference in Atlanta in two weeks. Holly has an impending move, Vanessa has just graduated with her Masters from SFO state, Larry will still be at Google(and give us more opportunities to meet!) and Karen has a piano recital. And so life will go on for all of us. Personally for me, I am embarking on a journey that holds lot of promise and I am excited.

“Let your performance do the thinking.” Jackson Brown Jr.

It cannot be more appropriate for us at this time when we are almost at the end of our LiFT programme. Now that we are done, what did we accomplish? Were we successful? How can we let others learn from our mistakes? Should we?

We met as a team for the last time. We talked about what we want to do post LiFT duties. Somehow, with this group, I feel completely at ease talking about my aspirations. I do not feel judged and do not feel intimidated. It is a supportive environment where I feel my voice has a value. It is a great group accomplishment especially in a competitive world!

There has been so much learning for all of us. What we do with this learning is our legacy to this world.

Completion of Teamworks and thoughts

We are done with our Teamworks series. This was my first experience as a coach and I promptly forgot to take the questions I wanted to ask the team! But what can I say about our group? Committed and compassionate individuals who were eager to be part of the learning and volunteering. They willingly took hours off from their schedules to come and share their time and thoughts. Here is a picture when we met for dinner after the Share Your Mind project in Santa Clara:

I asked Holly what she thought about her experience. I could'nt have said it as well as she has:

"The team we had was full of energy and quite enthusiastic about working together and sampling the HOBA projects that the SV LIFT crew had put together.

It was refreshing to volunteer with the TeamWorks group, and listen to their perspectives about how each project affected them, and how they hope to get further involved with HOBA. I had never participated in a TeamWorks before, but now I see why it's such a great experience. The bond and friendships you can form from volunteering with a consistent and familiar group is really remarkable."

In essence, Teamworks is all about team-building and connecting with like-minded individuals. If you haven't been part of one, I urge you to consider it. Its an experience that you will most likely remember for a long time to come.

The last training and Personal Action Plan

We met Jim Pitofsky, HOBA's Executive Director for our last training. He is a very inspirational speaker who likes to call himself a "facilitative" kind of leader. His energy, his humility and his success are all worth aspiring for. Like always, I am so energized when I meet HOBA staff. It rubs off on me and makes me want to do more.

During our meeting, Dana made a remark that startled me - everyone in LiFT was going to write down a "Personal" Action Plan. This plan will be made "Public" during our graduation. When I questioned why, Erica said a beautiful statement that will echo in my ears for a long time. She said "Wont it be wonderful if you are sharing your dreams and your passion - putting that on paper and committing to it, knowing that you have the entire LiFT group to rely on, knowing that you have HOBA staff to support you?"

So, thats the homework we will all have to sleep on for the next few weeks. An action plan. The most important thing I learned today from Jim is that patience pays..So, I will sleep on it. So will my team.

TeamWorks and bonhomie

Our TeamWorks has started with a group of extremely nice people. It was wonderful to hear everyone's story, share the same passion and feel the spirit of community. We met at Celia's in Menlo Park. Around the table, we shared a few jokes, ice-breakers and general bonhomie.

We have four more sessions to get together at different project sites, talk about issues that are dear to our hearts and contribute to causes that are worthy of our time. And to each, HOBA is the common enabler.

We look forward to the grand finale of completing TeamWorks, knowing that our last few weeks in LiFT will be busy.

Look at our charts now!

We updated our charts for new volunteers and you can see why we can hardly contain our excitement! We have _almost_ met our goal for new recruits, thanks to the popular Singles events. We have already met all our Regional Programming goals but our Fund-raising goal has not really materialized. I think we will hold a little post-mortem about it soon.

In little less than 6 weeks, we will all belong to the "LiFT alumni group" and I presume that we would all be closely connected to our alma mater as the years go by.

The next few weeks, culminating into a graduation from LiFT, promises to be filled with work. I am reminded of the quote by Robert Frost - "But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep."

Focus Group - sharing ideas for next LiFT group

I remember Lou mentioning in the very beginning of our program that we would be the "guinea pigs". I had wondered what that meant!! Now, I know.. We had a request from the staff at HOBA to participate in a "how to improve the LiFT program for next year".

Beth, Lou and Erica drove down to South Bay Hobees in Palo Alto. We shared a nice meal together and talked about inputs for the next years' LiFT team. Holly and I had a lot of things on our minds. I dont remember eating anything - I remember talking, staring at the pinkish halogen lamp in the ceiling and mostly, talking a lot!

Holly and I both feel that we have had such a nice time being part of LiFT. It is a great program wildly fulfilling and exceeding many expectations. But there are areas that could be changed and it was amazing to see how much our inputs were valued. All three of them were taking notes as we spoke and I felt like an Executive Director!

It might take me many years to get there but this was the next best thing!

Prom 2.0 - Yelpers fundraise for HOBA

Vanessa from LiFT, along with Sabrina and Erica from HOBA, attended Prom 2.0, a fund-raiser benefiting HOBA. Here is Vanessa's summary of what happened on Feb 17th at "Enchanted by the Sea Prom 2.0" in the beautiful Historic Ballroom in Oakland:

Yelpers and Friends came out about 150 strong to support Hands On Bay Area and relive old memories (and make new ones). There was ambiance (even a real photographer and backdrop for prom-like pictures), raffles (a $500 gift certificate to Sports Basement!) yummy food & drinks and of course, dancing!

Some people pulled their old prom dresses from the 80's and some of us had new gowns. Either way, the best part of the night was request music, all night!

In addition to all the fun, we set up a table where people could get information on volunteering through HOBA. We had a few visitors to our table and some of them signed up to join our 10,000+ strong volunteer base.

There was also a table set up as "Princess Project", which promotes self-confidence for low-income family high-school girls by providing free prom dresses and accessories . The dress giveaways are coming up in the next few weeks. I have volunteered at their dress give aways and believe me, the girls do leave happy!

Overall, Prom 2.0 was a success.

Planning Silicon ValleyTeamworks in Feb meeting

We met at Google again. Lou and Beth from HOBA came to officially preside over our 6 month team review.

We also completed the planning of our Teamworks series starting on Mar 23rd. We have chosen five projects that will give a good idea about HOBA's partner agencies. At the end of each project, we will facilitate a discussion of the issues concerning the project. Like mentioned earlier, the same group of people will come together as a team for this entire series.

The projects are
(1) Be a Kid Again - March 26th 6-8pm followed by a social at Celia's in Palo Alto
(2) Save the Bay - March 29th 9am-12pm - Mountain View
(3) Second Harvest - April 2nd 6-8pm - San Carlos
(4) Share your mind - April 8th - 6:15 to 8:00pm - Santa Clara
(5) Bring Me a Book - April 15th - 6:00-8:00pm - Mountain View

We, in LiFT will take part in the series as Project Leaders and Project Coaches. We are looking forward to meeting often. Almost everyone today felt a somber moment knowing that our LiFT program was going to end in another few weeks.

Feb Training at Lytton Gardens, Palo Alto

We met as an intimate group for our training in the South Bay . We had an opportunity to meet two wonderful people.

Alisa Dichter is the Director of Volunteer programs of Lytton Gardens. She is responsible for coordinating the diverse set of volunteers who come into their campus. She spoke in detail about her organization and how a large part of her job is relationship building. She also talked about her challenges and some creative customized corporate volunteer sessions.

The other speaker was executive director Robert Jones from an organization in East Palo Alto - EPA Can Do. If you have recently driven up on University Ave in East Palo Alto and wondered like me, about the mint-looking reddish-brown apartments, you have in essence, understood the role of his organization. They are responsible for affordable housing in East Palo Alto. Affordable and jazzy - changing the character of the city in such a positive way.

Listening to him was very inspiring. Here is a man who gave up his lucrative real-estate career to do what is dear to his heart. Here is a man who has been associated with his organization for over 18 years. In no other way could he have showed his commitment and passion. It was clear that he loved what he was doing.

And to me, that is a reaffirming thought. It helps me understand that there is no single-shot rise to success or fame. It naturally follows those who have the drive, the courage and an endless supply of optimism.

Board Match Fair at SanFrancisco

With a background as a telecom engineer, I am familiar with technical job fairs in the valley. But I wasn't ready for this evening's Board Matching Fair. It was held by "The Volunteer Center" at the Metreon on Mission and 4th in SFO.

As I walked to the fair, I wondered how the turn out would be, if people would be interested in working as a board member for a non-profit without any pay, benefits, nothing.

There were about a 100 different agencies represented! And so many board seekers like me!! I quickly felt overwhelmed and had to find comfort in the familiar HOBA booth! Energised by meeting the staff and board at HOBA, I decided to venture out to talk to a few organizations.

I met Vanessa there too - she was happy that the event was in SFO, her home turf! She too felt that she didn't expect so much turnout. We browsed through some of the booths together.

Advocacy organizations, health/wellness, women's issues and education were a few key areas represented at the fair. I can see that what draws me to some of the organizations are core-values that are personally meaningful to me. I loved meeting a few executive directors and seeing how I too could perhaps take on a leadership role.

HOBA has given me a base to explore these opportunities, a place where I can stretch out if I want to, not because I have to.

Its 2008 already!

Another year rolls by. Its been quick! We met at Google again for our monthly meeting. Some very good news from Montez - he has secured us about $2000 in funds. That was a lovely introduction to the evening.

Vanessa also had good news. She has teamed up with Prom 2.0, an event in SFO that will host a prom-like event. Its an evening filled with dancing, food and socializing. A certain percentage of their tickets proceeds will go to HOBA. We are excited about this and will have a presence at the event with a table, information about HOBA etc.

Beth and Ambrosia from HOBA gave us a good introduction to Teamworks. The TeamWorks program brings together a group of 8-15 volunteers to participate in direct service, facilitated reflection and issues education over a series of 5-6 events. Often times, they revolve around a existing social problem or theme. Our team wants to initiate one in the Silicon Valley.

The same set of volunteers will come to all the projects in the series. Each project is followed by a postmortem. Clay and Karen from our group have already done the TeamWorks series in the past. Their experience has left the remaining of us wanting to do it too.

Never having felt the lack of ideas, we have come up with a TeamWorks Silicon Valley Sampler. This will include 5 consecutive projects each with different HOBA-affliated agencies. At each event, you will get to meet at least one member of our team.

Ambrosia talked about leaving behind a legacy as part of the first LIFT team. Its hard to imagine that we will graduate out of the program in just over three months.