Lots of you have been asking questions about the co-leaders recent trip to California for M.O.M or Meeting of the Minds. . If you have no idea what I’m talking about, YOU ABOUT TO FIND OUT.
Better late than never, just like pick up from sixth grade soccer practice. Amiright?
This will be an overview of what it was, what happened, and what the hell is going on. Dani, Chris and I are always here to answer questions that come up so please reach out.
WHO:
Co-leaders from all NP tribes. Not everyone could make it but about 105 of us did.
“Corporate” leadership which consists of Brogan Graham, Bojan Mandric and Laura Green.
A few representatives from The North Face.
WHAT:
Three days of workshops, hanging out, exercising, adventuring, weirdness and diving into what November Project is, where we are going and how we can best serve our respective cities.
WHERE:
Big Basin Vineyards in Boulder Creek, California.
Hosted by High Camp and Jim Zellers.
They were nice enough to let us all camp on their property and drink most of their wine. For real this place was gorgeous, the hosts were gracious wonderful humans, and if you ever find yourself in Northern California we recommend you go have a visit.
WHY:
Every year, November Project has a Summit, where all the cities of the NP world are encouraged to #justshowup to a North Face Endurance Challenge race for a weekend of running hard, partying fast and connecting with people. You’ve heard us talking about this year’s Summit coming up in Milwaukee September 14-16.
Traditionally, on the first day of Summit, the leaders would be taken away from the action to have a day of leadership workshops. This year they decided to have a whole three days of exclusive leadership meetings so that we can hang out with you more at Summit. M.O.M was the first of its kind.
HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:
November Project Branding.
NP is no longer a four-city kid-brother fitness program. We have international reach. We are doing the same thing, every Wednesday with people as close as Milwaukee and as far as Miri, Malaysia. It makes sense that the corporate leadership team wants to tighten up and have a more cohesive and consistent brand. The experience you get here in Chicago feels like it has a relationship to the experience in Orlando, FL and Kelowna, BC. A lot of people worked hard to build what November Project stands for, and they want to protect that image.
THIS MEANS FOR YOU:
-Black spray paint only for #grassrootsgear.
-Horizontally across the chest. No backs, no pants, no vertical or diagonal tags..
If your shirt is too small to hold the whole stencil, we tag as much of the stencil as possible.
-Color spray paint can be used, ONE DAY A YEAR. Chicago has chosen rainbow tagging for Pride.
This applies to the NOVEMBER PROJECT tag. We like our city tag just under the November Project logo, but can put it wherever we want on Passport shirts.
– If you make your own tag (ex. Stair Mondays) you can do whatever you want with it. The NOVEMBER PROJECT word and logo belongs to November Project, Inc. so please only put it on shirts via grassroots tagging (i.e. if you make a screen print for a T-shirt, that’s awesome, but please leave the NP logo out of the design).
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WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LEADERSHIP:
We only have buy and carry around one color of spray paint in our bags. In many cities, they tag once a month. We love being able to tag every workout so that everyone can have grassroots gear and traverbalers can get a city tag. This makes that easier for us.
November Project Non- Profit
This topic seems to have a lot of people talking. Which is great! Here is some clarification about what it means for NP to be a Non-Profit (U.S.A only, currently not valid outside the U.S.)
November Project used to be an LLC. THATS RIGHT FOLKS, NP used to (technically) be a FOR PROFIT company. BG and Bojan decided this did not jive with their values so they changed directions. Hence, NP is now a non-profit. This means better access and ability to,
1) INSURANCE
2) expand to new cities
3)provide leadership training.
4) pay the folks who work at Corporate and help us immensely with everything from organizing Summit, providing guidance and generally making sure an international movement that reaches thousands of participants does not run off the rails.
There is a board consisting of individuals across varied industries who align with NP values. The board approves all major actions taken with the movement (including partnerships like The North Face, and future actions like starting an after-school fitness movement for youth). Meaning BG and Bojan put their necks on the line because they believe this is the best direction for NP. They both can be fired if the board sees fit.
NP can write and receive grants. They are in the early stages of starting a youth program and non-profit status will help with the execution of this dream immensely.
The Non-Profit will also continue to be funded by partnerships, including our partnership with The North Face, which we have had since 2014.
Official blurb from Corporate below:
“Ethical – As an LLC, BG and Bojan owned the company. That’s not fair to all the past, present, and future leaders and members who have grown the movement to where it is today.
Financial Sustainability – Our sponsor The North Face has been integral in NP’s success but the organic expansion of tribes has exceeded even our wildest dreams. In order to continue the growth and strengthening of the movement, we have to diversify our funding strategy and rely on more than just one source of income.
Organizational Strength – By adding a Board of Directors, we now have decision makers with experience in areas we didn’t have before.
Public Optics – People and companies are more likely to engage with a non-profit than the for-profit organization. By being a non-profit, we’re opening doors that in the past wouldn’t even be a part of the conversation.”
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU:
NP is still and will always be a FREE FITNESS COMMUNITY.
We will not be asking you to pay/donate/sell your soul for us. Nor will be creating a vibe that makes you feel shitty if you dont donate.
You will never have to pay to do NP.
If someone wants to donate money or spray paint or an old boat (think of the possibilities) they can receive a tax write off for this donation. IN NO WAY ARE YOU OBLIGATED TO DONATE ANYTHING. However, in the past, people have approached NP saying that we made a huge impact on their life and they wanted to give back. QUICK PLOT TWIST: we are currently waiting for the IRS to approve NP 501 c 3 status, which will hopefully be at the end of this ( 2018) year. Meaning, no tax write offs on donations until that is approved.
This is a much more organized way for those people to be able to donate so that they can get a tax write-off and they aren’t handing us cash.
In the future people could run charity races on team November Project if that’s something you’d like to do.
This is a good thing. It will increase November Project’s reach and opportunities for us to do cool things like stadium workouts, camping adventures, community outreach, literally anything and everything you could think of. We encourage you to share your ideas with us. Growing and doing new things can cost money. Non-profit status will help us move that forward.
I’m sure there are 10,000,000 questions, but the truth is Corporate is still figuring it out, we are still figuring it out. It will be a learning process so please be patient. In the meantime, we’re happy to talk to anyone about what we do know.
The North Face Partnership
My Friends! Full disclosure, before M.O.M I never really gave too much thought to TNF partnership. I thought it was just paying for BG and Bojans lives and throwing us some swag occasionally. BOY HOWDY WAS I EVER WRONG.
The North Face is working their fluffy little tails off to help November Project. Maeve Sloan, Tim Fowler, and Cara Williamson at The North Face came out to M.O.M. to share what November Project means to them and where this partnership is going, and leadership was blown away and grateful for this hard work.
Yes, they are a clothing company and yes they want to make a profit but they are evolving rapidly. They understand that consumers nowadays are savvy about branding and care about the ethics of a company. They are moving away from “ that puffy jacket company” into more varied territory. They explained they are want to get people outside, whatever that means to them. They aren’t measuring this relationship in terms of profit, they’re measuring it in how we’re changing our communities to be more active outdoors, and that’s something we stand behind.
“Never Stop Exploring” could be running your first ultra marathon. It could also mean riding a bike through your city and checking out a new local coffee shop. Both have value and merit and more importantly, get people moving and outside.
They launched a campaign recently called “Walls are meant for Climbing”, which you can check out here:
https://www.thenorthface.com/featured/walls.html
They are partnering with Girl Scouts of America and pushing their She Moves Mountains campaign to spotlight women explorers (#goals), check out here:https://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/our-partners/the-north-face.html
Basically, I got fully onboard the TNF train and was inspired by the work they are doing . If you want to talk more about capitalism and the market and expanding opportunities and anarchy HIT ME UP.
Last but definitely not least…
Diversity in November Project.
Yep. We know. Everyone is aware.
As leaders we want our member demographics to accurately portray the demographics of our city. This is not the case in Chicago, or literally any other city.
November Project brought speaker Willie Jackson to chat with co-leaders at M.O.M. about this topic. He is the President and CEO of Equity Impact Group, Founder and Publisher of Abernathy, and a frequent speaker on the topics of workplace equity, global diversity, and multicultural millennial leadership. He is an inclusion strategist who empowers thoughtful organizations and the leaders who run them.
There is so much to unpack about diversity and NP’s place in Chicago. Again Chris, Dani and I are always open to have discussion about this.
The main point that Willie relayed to us, as we battered him with questions about how to make November Project more diverse (oof, what a sentence), was that we as co-leaders are not Social Justice Warriors. We are not equipped or trained to take on the underlying social issues of systemic racism and exclusion in our cities. There are people who literally dedicate their entire lives and beings to this.
What we ARE equipped to do, is our own work.
What this means for you and us as co-leaders:
– Do your own emotional and social “work”. Examine our own biases, read about the history of our city, why things are the way they are, then re-examine our thoughts/feelings/emotions/goals.
– We encourage you to keep reading, talking about and learning about people from ALL backgrounds. That doesn’t just mean people of different races or genders, but of every type of life experience. Reach outside your comfort zone. Think about why you have that comfort zone.
-Continue to show up for one another at workouts and outside of workouts.
-Continue to recruit everyone and make everyone feel welcome when they show up. The best way to do this , treat everyone like a human.
Here are some resources Willie sent to us afterward for people who are interested in examining and learning about race in America:
Newsletters
https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/race-related
[D]eep and provocative exploration of race, identity and society with New York Times journalists.
raceAhead By Ellen McGirt: http://fortune.com/getraceahead
Deep daily insights on culture and diversity in corporate America.
Podcasts
http://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/
A fourteen-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America—where it came from, what it means, and how it works.
https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-nod/
Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings gleefully explore all the beautiful, complicated dimensions of Black life.
Videos
https://livestream.com/schomburgcenter/TaNehisiCoates
Between the Lines: Ta-Nehisi Coates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w
James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
Books
1)Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
https://www.amazon.com/Americanah-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie/dp/0307455920
2) The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist
https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X/
3) So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-About-Race/dp/1580056776
4) Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy Degruy
5)The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
https://www.amazon.com/Color-Law-Forgotten-Government-Segregated/dp/1631494538/
6)Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
https://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543/
7)Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-White-Kids-Bringing-Children/dp/1501878077/
8) Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-National/dp/1568585985/
9)The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595586431/
Articles
https://medium.com/s/story/how-white-people-handle-diversity-training-in-the-workplace-e8408d2519f
How White People Handle Diversity Training in the Workplace
https://www.theringer.com/2018/6/28/17511818/black-wall-street-oklahoma-greenwood-destruction-tulsa
Black Wall Street: The African American Haven That Burned and Then Rose From the Ashes
https://abernathymagazine.com/thriving-black-man/
From Dying to Thriving: One Black Man’s Journey to Wellness
We encourage you to keep exploring your world, both through NP and outside of it. As always, we are here to discuss your perspectives. Reach out. Talk to each other. Let’s keep growing and making Chicago better.
-Stew (& Chris & Dani)
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