For the past two years, I’ve been proud to serve on the board of OCCORD. Our organization is going through a very rough time of transition, which I hope will ultimately be a time of transformation as our open letter says. If that’s to be, I believe the board will need to lead the way to rebuild trust internally and externally through accountability, integrity, and transparency. I thought I’d live that personally by sharing this difficult update with my world as I’ve shared good news in the past.
The work is worth fighting for — 14 years of helping thousands of green card holders become citizens and organizing community residents to advocate, vote, and win their own visions of change for their families here in Orange County. The staff — those who have stayed AND those who have left — are brilliant and inspiring people who belong to the communities they serve with such dedication. Our partner organizations are counting on us to keep our promises.
I thought we were providing reasonable oversight, but there are reasons why we as a board missed the underlying reality of how unhappy and voiceless our staff felt. That’s a heavy truth to try and understand, and it’s taking a huge amount of my time and energy along with my fellow board members to listen deeply now so we can change the organization deeply for the future. If any of you out there have been through similar waves at orgs where you were board or staff, please send any wisdom my way. This is what community is for.