Massive welcome to our new team member!
Sydney is smiling at the camera. She identifies as a mid-20s black, Caribbean woman. She has long, black box braids, and glasses.
It. Is. Time!
As you may know, we spent the last year preparing for a huge leap — to hire our first Operations Lead.
The idea of having a person on the team dedicated to bringing order, clarity, and ease to this is a deep dream.
It’s been a trip! As soon as we opened our job call, we were flooded with applications from skilled, creative, deeply dedicated people. It was incredibly hard to trust the process, make big choices, and just keep going, but we did, and we’re so happy where we landed.
Today I’m very excited to introduce you to Sydney John-Baptiste.
Sydney’s background is in Health Sciences, so she has a clear-headed, logical, detail-oriented mind, but still operates in the world with a full and open heart. In our interview, I was amazed at how much ground we covered, the relational field between us wide open and full of life.
Kim and Mari were in the interview too, and when I told them (around a wide oak table at our team retreat) that Sydney was my top choice, they squealed and grabbed each other.
Even though we had a ton of great applicants, deep down we knew it had to be Syd.
It’s already been a month, but it feels like much more.
Sydney has implemented new systems, helped get us organized around attending events. (Anyone need a Firefly speaker? Workshop? An ice breaker? Hit us up!) She’s researching models for a membership program we’ve been noodling on, and she’s starting up a collaboration with East End Arts to run a free community event this winter.
I was a little worried before hiring her that Firefly would be too chaotic for a new person to wrap their arms around. Then I found out that Sydney’s last job was as a conference organizer where she coordinated nine conferences at the same time.
I was like — OK. We’re good. And we are.
If you want to be part of Sydney’s welcome to the community, we’d love to hear from you!
Reply to this email, I’ll forward everything along.
Tell her what you love about being part of all this.
Tell her your best “first month in a new job” story.
Tell her whatever you feel called to. Welcome her.
She had never heard of Firefly before this job call, so she’s just starting to get a feel for how generous and loving our community is. If you want to show her that in your own words, don’t hold back.
Yes, we still have spots in winter workshops!
We’ve added discounts to a few of these because their numbers are flagging and we really don’t want to have to cancel them. You’ll see the list below. If price is a barrier, hit us up for that discount code!
And as ever, we’d love your help in spreading the word.
Gather and write in small, intentional groups.
We have three workshops starting this month that need more people to run, so we’re offering 30% off!
Brief Bursts — very short memoir
The Word Play Workshop — playing with words (in person!)
Imagine a Cabin — an online weekend deep-dive.
We also have 1-2 spots in Begin Here and Tiny Worlds, so no discounts, but we’d love to have you.
Or, show up in a big group and sink in.
We’re also running three “large format” programs this winter. These are all sliding scale and designed as solo experiences within community. There’s less sharing than in our small groups.
Morning Coffee Sessions: Gather and write every weekday morning at 9am.
BIPOC Writing Space: A twice-monthly group of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour who want to write together.
Write | Read | Rest: Need an excuse to make empty space? For 2 weeks in the heart of February, we’ve carved it out for you.
A poem for you.
Since this newsletter is about dreams, I followed that thread to a wild and unexpected poem by Gary Soto.
I feel a little tentative naming this… but if it weren’t for Covid, we wouldn’t be in this moment of celebration.
The pandemic has been terrible for all of us, and I know it was much worse for many others. From the core of my being, I wish it away.
And yet, at the height of it, we had a boom of engagement, which let us save money for the first time. And we’re using that money to make this beautiful new job, to build our foundation, and reach more people.
It doesn’t make it better, but I do find some magic in letting the struggle and the wonder of this mingle in these moments.
I’m wishing you a winter full of magic, fresh starts, and unexpected silver linings.
In it with you,
