Gratitude

Greetings NAHRO Family! 

As we return from the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope you all had a long weekend filled with love, food and rest.  Let’s take this time to appreciate each other and the work we do in serving our communities. 

Keeping the Government Open 

One of the many things I’m grateful for is the passage of the continuing resolution that keeps our government open. The bill isn’t a permanent solution; it only keeps things moving forward until January 19 for some agencies (thankfully, including HUD) and to February 2 for others. But for the next several weeks, we and the families we serve can breathe easier knowing that their homes and the services they depend on won’t be disrupted by a government shutdown.  

While we can be grateful that HUD and those we serve are protected, we should also feel anger and frustration that we’re in this predicament again. This is no way to run a business, let alone a country. NAHRO family: soon we’ll be calling on you to advocate on behalf of your agencies and communities. You must let your federally elected officials know how important it is to have a steady, predictable and uninterrupted flow of resources and work from our partners at HUD and other Federal agencies. Let them know how the seniors, children, families, veterans, and persons with disabilities in our communities, as well as your agency staff and contractors, are affected by the threat of — or an actual — shutdown, and other fiscal uncertainties. As we have done before, we will continue to raise our voices together and make a collective impact on Capitol Hill. 

Daring to Lead 

I’m also grateful for the fantastic team of servant leaders who’ve volunteered to steer NAHRO through its next two years. We look good for 90, and we’ll continue to grow bigger and brighter as we age!  

A critical element necessary to keep NAHRO healthy and growing is building and maintaining a sustainable strategic plan, one that’s both grounded enough to provide structure and consistency and flexible enough to allow the organization to react to new challenges (COVID, anyone?). As I begin my term as your president, I’ve committed to a challenging, five-step process to ensure that NAHRO is well-positioned to continue giving housers and community builders nationwide what we need to succeed. 

This process is already underway. Leadership has reviewed the existing strategic plan and convened during a series of four town hall meetings. Next comes the ideation, which will happen during our leadership retreat in early December, and then developing and implementing an evolved strategic plan. It’s a lot of work, but we’re excited to do it because NAHRO deserves our best. 

Do you have ideas about how we can improve NAHRO? Let me know at president@nahro.org. I’m always listening. 

Thank you, and on behalf of the entire NAHRO leadership team and staff, I wish each of you a very Happy Holiday.