Executive Director Report

Dear Holy Wisdom Community,

I received an overwhelmingly positive response to continue to include a summary of my Board Executive Director Report in Weekly Wisdom. The Board met last Thursday, please find a summary of my report below. As always please find my door open, my inbox welcoming to email and my willingness to find time to connect with you over tea or coffee about ideas, feedback or support.

Sincerely,

Erin

Summary of ED Activity Since Previous Board Meeting – 11/21/2024

Welcoming Groups and Events – Guest Services continues to work hard welcoming groups and events. Here is a list of some of the groups we have welcomed thus far in November: Celebrations of Life, a wedding, Diocese of Madison, Way Forward, Christ Church Episcopal, Calm Waters Counseling, Family Therapy Center of Madison, Reach Dane, HWM Crafting Group, CCR Deep Breaths, Roman Catholic Women Priests, UW Office of Childcare & Family Resources, Middleton Public Library, Clean Wisconsin, Open Door Zen and Lake Edge Lutheran Church. Sister Lynne and I often give a welcome or greeting if requested.

Sunday Assembly & Monastic Ritual Team – Working with AVI Systems to explore issues with livestream, homily sound quality and overall sound inconsistency – awaiting a recommendation and bid. Continued participation in Children’s Ministry with Sarah Wilkin Gibert, and considering the addition of a paid childcare support position for Sunday Assembly, Kids on the Prairie and other child/family support opportunities. Monastic Ritual Team: Liturgy with Style & Grace article discussion, Advent & Christmas, Sound System & Streaming, Event & Fundraising Request process, SA Hospitality.

Grant Team – Met in November to brainstorm concepts for the McKnight Foundation Inquiry Form Question Brainstorm – one of the hopeful Net Zero funders. We also reviewed and assigned new opportunities to research. Reviewed our current active inquiries with Green Energy/Faith in Place grant status and a conversation with the Schlecht Family Foundation.

Monastery Reorg/Restructure – continued to participate in meetings to review and give input on statutes, bylaws and MOU’s. We anticipate the new structure could be in place with the new year, but we won’t officially separate the Sister’s Division from the Ministries Division until 2026 in a budgetary sense.

Programs & Initiatives

• Last Month – Some of the internal programs run last month included the 25th Oblate Retreat, Social History of Lake Mendota – 10 year anniversary of Friends of Wisdom Prairie
• Continued Benedictine Charism Conversations on Stability and Kids on the Prairie – Creatures of Winter, Prairie Tours, Annual Meeting and provided election special invitation and support.
• Coming Up – We are preparing and looking forward to: The Advent Series – To Seek and to Save the Lost;  the first new Seasonal Retreat has been posted for registration titled Winter Rest –and includes 2 days in contemplative reflection and dialogue with the self and with the prairie. We have begun to confirm a few of the New Offerings for 2025 including: Contemplative Nature Walks, Contemplative Creative Writing, Contemplative Art Practice – Neurographic Art, Meditative Sound Healing and more. Holy Wisdom will also be a partner in 2025 with the Center of Courage and Renewal and host workshops and retreats. We look forward to Bill Frederick’s generous offering of Enter the Season with Song on December 8th. November also marks the twice-yearly Spiritual Guide meeting which includes reviewing inquiries from new spiritual guides.

Budget – Department Directors have all submitted their 2025 expenses and we have developed a 2025 Budget draft which was presented to the Finance Committee and the board. The budget process continues to be complex this year due to the reorg and determining the accounting for the Sisters and Ministries divisions. 2025 will begin to account for the two separate divisions but will operate as one total budget for the purposes of budget approval.

Finance Committee – Meeting focused on: recommendation for rebalancing the portfolio, developing the Search Team for the Director of Finance and the Budget presentation.

Mission Advancement – The past month was a positive fundraising month following the Annual Meeting. Quarter 4, for all nonprofits, is typically the quarter that brings in more donations than all three other quarters combined. Following the annual meeting donors began reaching out to the Director of Mission Advancement directly wanting to give to Holy Wisdom. We received several new donations including two anonymous donations in the amount of $10,000 and $42,000 donations. Remember there are three appeals going on right now:

• 1. Pledge/Stewardship for 2025 (help us plan),
• 2. Year End 2024 (help us finish strong) and
• 3. Net Zero (only 10% left to raise of the original 3.2 million).

Huge applause and gratitude to our two hardworking and community volunteers on our fundraising team, Terry Larson and Roberta Felker – without them we would not be even near to our fundraising goals on these three campaigns, but in particular Net Zero! The new donor data-base software, Bloomerang, is up and running. The Sophia Circle was redefined and expanded to include all donors with recurring monthly gifts.

Culinary Team – The decision was made, as part of the Monastery’s care for the earth value, to phase plastic out of the kitchen and Guest Services. You may notice additional bus tubs in RGH, encouragement to use real mugs at Sunday Assembly (thus the increased urgency for the Sunday Assembly Hospitality Team so we have additional volunteers to help with dishwashing) and no more plastic utensils. Congratulations and gratitude to Chef Felipe and his team for undertaking this important initiative.

Communications – Weekly Wisdom redesign, new copiers with a better contract, year end appeal support and development, updating handbook, records retention, crisis communication plans, streaming and internet issues, renewal of VC3 contract, promotion of all HWM programs.

Land Management – has spent the past month preparing the FWP Annual Report and supporting volunteers and partnerships with: Dane County Parks, Dane County Public Health, Shorewood Hills Garden Club, Edgewood High School, UW-Madison Pres House, Middleton High School. Happy to report that Bishop’s Bay replaced their original stormwater infrastructure with a more robust system which will be good for the wellbeing of Lost Lake. Thank you, Land Management, for your persistence in seeing that this was accomplished. Also: KotP had 20 kids, consulting on the savanna restoration project, supporting program and admin projects, Seasonal Retreat planning, Building & Grounds Comprehensive Planning Committee and annual meeting.

Personnel – Said goodbye to our dear Nancy Enderle, tears and hugs during our coworker celebration. The Staff Handbook Revision is complete. One-on-one’s with the Leadership Team continue. Anticipated new hires to start in January include: Director of Finance, CCR Director, Guest Services Assistant. Applause and gratitude to Kathleen Owens who filled in after Mathew departed in Guest Services – we had a very busy fall after the RGH reopened and we could not have done it without Kathleen stepping up. We look forward to Brooke returning to RGH in December!

Outreach – We recognize the importance of continued efforts to partner and connect with like-minded organizations and individuals in our community. This last month included the following outreach: attending the Sustain Dane Summit (where Toby presented on Net Zero), met with REAP Executive Director, met with Christine Center Executive Director, attended Sienna Center workshops, attended a Numbers for Nonprofits event, attended an Amanda White anniversary event, met with Flame of Hope US Ambassador.

Building and Grounds – Carpet cleaning at Retreat and Guest House. Capital Improvements Committee met and discussed the update on completed RGH project, decommissioning of the White House pool, BESS, tech support for Sunday Assembly, handicap door operators, Sarah’s house gutters, Anna’s house water in basement and CGS report on RGH projects.