“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

That is one of my current favorite proverbs. It is one that I have heard a few times recently and one that is really starting to hit home.

Meals on Wheels would not be the great organization without all of our volunteers, supporters, donors and clients being a part of us and helping us to go far. After all, we have been delivering meals for over 54 years. When I step back and look at how far we have come, especially in the past two years of a pandemic, this proverb is spot on. Without everyone we would not be where we are today. Delivering about 1,400 meals to 280-300 people every week. 

As the conductor of this wonderful orchestra of meal delivery I have decided to follow this adage the best I can in everything I do. Of course there are times when speed or quickness is required, but for the most part, I want Meals on Wheels of Loveland and Berthoud to continue to go far; to be here cooking when I need a home-delivered meal and hopefully even when my daughters are retired and need meals as well.  So that means making the conscious effort of including the appropriate people in each journey forward. 

Most recently that is working through developing our staff values. It is common for a board to invite a select group of staff to an off-site retreat and develop the organizational values. That can be done and completed in a relatively short amount of time, but how far does it get you? Instead, we come together once a week at our staff meetings and are working through our process of discovering and writing our staff values. The process can feel slow at some meetings and on other days the end of staff meeting comes way too quickly. 

The end result will be a much stronger set of values the entire staff buys into. They will shape the way we operate and help build an organization that will continue to last and thrive over the next 50 years. I’m sharing this with you, because I also believe in the power of transparency. But that will be the topic for another day!