Valley Churches United Missions: What the job entails

I’ve been on the job as the new executive director at Valley Churches United since August of last year. When offered the chance to write a column for the Press-Banner, I jumped at it, as it’s a way to let the community inside this great place. I figured I’d start at the beginning; How is it I ended up here in the first place? When I heard of Annette Marcum’s illness and then passing (we never met), I felt in my gut the organization must carry on.
When I was contemplating accepting the position of executive director at Valley Churches United Missions I envisioned Job 1 below, but I knew from experience there would be days that would feel like Job 2.
Job 1: Opportunity of a lifetime! Lead a well-established and highly regarded non-profit organization, serving clients locally. Hundreds of volunteers have served the organization in the past 30+ years and more are anxious to serve now.
Of course Donors and Community Leaders will be watching, but mostly to help ensure the organization survives. In your first 9 month on the job, nearly everyone in town will tell you why they want the organization to carry on its good work.
You’ll develop strategy and apply your operational skills and management expertise to modernize the internal systems and processes, you’ll explore a forward looking portfolio of services, and incorporate current media and marketing practices to build on the strong brand you’ll inherit.
Besides meeting and serving clients directly, you’ll meet incredible people along the way including volunteers, local merchants, donors, and politicians. Each will tell you about the big shoes you’ll have to fill, but the intangibles include a very short and beautiful commute and an incredible staff, well-liked by everyone in town.
Job 2: Thick-skinned leader needed to take the helm at local institution that was founded and led by an iconic community leader for the past 30-plus years.
Person must be able to articulate case for change and manage multiple constituencies, some of which might be indifferent to whatever you propose simply because you or your proposal is new.
You might be asked to honor some promises and practices even though the rationale for some of them is peculiar (at least to you). Finally, you will inherit an incredible staff, but they’re only two people, so you’ll need to build trust fast among the volunteer work force and community leaders to move the organization forward. And, by the way, some of them too are indifferent to your plans for success.
Our work is critical and it’s not going away. VCUM’s primary focus is providing supplemental food to local low-income households throughout the year. We provide emergency assistance during natural disasters, crisis rent, or mortgage assistance, as well as utility and medical assistance to qualifying clients. We reach out to over 500 households each month and are well-known for our Christmas project as well as special Thanksgiving, Easter, and school backpack programs.
We do all this with no government funding. We have fewer than three full-time paid employees, but over 250 active volunteers to support us to serve the increasing demand for our services since the beginning of the year.
There’s an independent streak in the personality of VCUM culture that I find very appealing. It’s a remarkably engaged network in our community that actually enables VCUM day-to-day.
Perhaps it’s natural that a place like VCUM would evolve here given the residents’ attraction to the mountains and the sense of independence enjoyed here. Regardless, our volunteers and supporters frequently confirm to me that non-government funding, our direct services model, and our ability to serve locally, flexibly and directly with low overhead are what make us appealing. The businessman in me deeply admires this and I’m consistently impressed at the dedication and caliber of the work and the creativity of our volunteers.
Besides, I was available. One day in Silicon Valley circa 2009, I was suddenly the oldest person in the room. I left Silicon Valley for good shortly after that and was working, without a sense of urgency, last summer when my conversations with VCUM began. I was ready for a challenge.
Since Yahoo! I’ve done a lot of reflecting on what I wanted to do, what I could actually accomplish, where I could make a tangible difference, and where I could bring all I’ve learned in my business career to a cause greater than my own career success. It certainly would have been easier to let “somebody else” worry about VCUM’s leadership transition, but it wasn’t worth the risk of a future without VCUM, at least not to me.
So, why would I be the person to lead the organization now? Simply put, it’s a match between what we do at Valley Churches United Missions and what I care about at this point in my life. I have the skills and experience to lead us from a place known mostly for our founder, to a place at least as well known for our services, capabilities, and impact.
To be sure, leading at Valley Churches presents some challenging elements for me and I’ll certainly write about those in future columns. Meanwhile, if you hear me grousing about what sounds like Job 2, remind me that it was Job 1 that I was psyched about, and I knew that real progress wouldn’t happen without encountering Job 2.