April is usually an intense time of year for me on all fronts – A busy time for me at work, for kids in school, for the house and yard, for my spouse at work, and with many family birthdays. Except for last year, when April merged into the flatness that was the COVID shutdown, I have to go back at least a decade, and maybe several more, to find an April calendar that wasn’t a wall of items.

Of course, this year there are several more layers added on top of the usual because of COVID. Everything listed above is still going on, but COVID adds at least one more layer of complexity, and several to this week in particular. It’s exhausting and overwhelming, but I know it’s not just me. Almost every Zoom meeting I’ve attended for weeks started with a general acknowledgement of exhaustion by all.

Times like this are especially challenging for me, and I think many of you, because I take decisions seriously. Some might say that I am an over-thinker, and not in a good way. However, I like my goal-oriented analytical tendencies and see it as a super- power that helps me be the person I want to be and get things done. I will concede, that it can occasionally get in my way and the constant scrutiny can actually slow me down and wear me out. I have been working for a while to be more mindful and to learn new skills to help me have more balance in my approach to making decisions. COVID has been very helpful in that department.  

The uncertainty of these times has helped me let go of thinking too far into the future about what I need to do now. One of the mantras I have been repeating, sometimes every 15 minutes it seems, is “What is the next step?” I learned that from David Allen in his book Getting Things Done. The book offers a very specific process for productivity and many tools, but what resonated with me the most was the permission not to think through every little thing. Know what you want to do, identify what you need to do next to work to get there, and then do it. You don’t have to worry about the step after that, because as long as you know where you are going, that will be clear when you get there.

Apparently, I need lots of reminding, because I recently discovered another productivity expert and her process that has reinforced that message.  Lisa Woodruff’s Sunday Basket system, which I heard about in the MMA Productivity and Time Management member community, is based on the idea that you focus on what is right in front of you and give yourself permission to set many things aside and figure them out later. 

The two different approaches still embrace goal setting and planning, which are both central values for me, but they cut out the part where you try to see into the future and think about things you can’t really know about. It has been such a relief to let go processes that didn’t seem to take me anywhere.

I have really been languishing through this month. At work and at home, I am starting to experience what I think of as the After Times with more commitments and a return to activities that have been set aside for many months. I am also still very much experiencing the uncertainty and frequent changes of the pandemic crisis, as well as the awareness that my personal behavior can have an enormous impact on the lives of others. These are all things that can transform my analytical super-power into kryptonite, and so I have been leaning heaving into the next step.

I share my April challenges right now not to get sympathy, but because I think many of us are struggling in the same way. It is very exciting and wonderful that we seem to be moving out of the crisis. At the same time, this current transitional stage might be the hardest yet. We can set goals, or they are being set for us, but it’s not at all clear how we are going to be able to achieve them.

If we revisit my fog analogy from last year, I think it is clear that the fog is lifting. We can see the sun shining up there somewhere, and we can see far enough ahead to see exit signs as they approach instead of when we are right on top of them. We still can’t see much beyond that. And we may not be able to tell how close we are to our destination or even what it will look like when we get there. At least we can see a little, and that is all we need right now. What is the next step? That’s all we need to worry about. We are moving forward and we know where we are headed. It is OK not to know exactly when or how we will get there.

Safe travels on this crazy journey. I can’t wait to be with you again soon!

There is an idea in my head, a little glimmer of revelation - I think that we are in a crisis of imagination. When this first occurred to me, I was surprised, but then things started to fall into place. Before this idea, I had been thinking about changing people’s minds. Actually, I had been TALKING about changing people’s minds. Over the course of only a few days, I had conversations about how the role of museums as education organizations has changed, how to get people to wear masks and get vaccines, approaches to racial equity, and how to get my sixteen-year-old son to explore an interest in anything besides video games. I didn’t see the connection between them at first, but in all the conversations we landed on the idea that to change someone’s mind they needed to see what that change meant. We could talk and talk and talk about facts, or values, or steps all we wanted, but ultimately what is most effective is helping people imagine what that change might look like, in a good way.

This epiphany reminded me of a story I heard at my first Museums Advocacy Day. I was at the session for first-timers, and the presenters were trying to help me understand that advocacy is a long-game. That we were going for change over time, not immediate results. The story they told was about marriage equity for the LGBTQ community. The story I remember is that a group of people in the LGBTQ community were hitting a wall in terms of the legal movement toward gay marriage. After a number of legal losses, they were trying to figure out how to move the issue forward. They decided that one of the problems was that most people “didn’t know” anyone who was LGBTQ. Of course, this was not accurate, but was a common perception at the time. This group decided that if people “saw” members of the LGBTQ community, and especially in stable committed relationships, they would be more likely to support the idea of legal marriage. As a result, the group started working to include LGBTQ people in television shows and movies. Long story short, they did, and over time majority sentiment shifted significantly and gay marriage is now legal. I’ve simplified the issues significantly, but the point is that there has been big change, but over a long time.

The point of the advocacy story is that it takes a long time to bring about change, but the idea that has stuck with me is that people need to see it to believe in it. That reminded me of a project I worked on when I was doing freelance work before my job here at MMA. I was the project manager for the Cheboygan Area Public Library for hosting the Museum on Main Street exhibit Key Ingredients. The library was using the program to show off new public spaces after a major renovation, so we did a year’s worth of programs leading up to the exhibit and started planning even earlier than that. On the planning team was a smart, creative, and insightful woman who worked for one of the partner organizations. She had initially seen information about the project and suggested the library apply to host, so she was invested and involved in the project from the beginning. I loved working with her and we had a wonderful time coming up with all kinds of programs in the lead up. Every time we talked about the actual exhibit though, the brainstorming slowed to a trickle and I felt like I was the only one with any ideas or even enthusiasm sometimes, which was frustrating. Regardless, we had a fun year and then the exhibit arrived and we set it all up. As we were gazing upon panels with photos and text and some artifacts in cases here and there, my partner exclaimed something like, “This is so nice! I just couldn’t picture it in my head.” I was stunned. What? We have been talking about this exhibit for almost two years and she had never really understood what it would look like? How did I not realize that?

So where am I going here? After pondering these examples and ideas, I landed on imagination. Sometimes, people can use their imagination to see things in a different way, but sometimes people cannot. Maybe some people just can’t imagine how museum visitors are the actualization of their efforts to be good stewards of artifacts in the collection. Maybe so many people in my town can’t imagine that wearing a mask and staying away from people can save lives and speed up the end of a global pandemic. Maybe some people can’t imagine a world where we build equity into our society instead of maintaining systemic racism. And maybe my son can’t imagine that taking a walk outside will fire up the same (or more) neurons than when he is running around virtual worlds.

This new thought has given me a lot to chew on. How does the idea of helping people develop their imagination come into play when I want people to change their minds? Thinking about change this way makes me feel more hopeful and it feels concrete. Something I CAN do. At the same time, though, I have another little glimmer of revelation, and that is my own lack of imagination. I have a sneaky suspicion that as I consider more deeply how I imagine a world without systemic racism, that I will discover that I too do not know what that would look like. Maybe my lack of action or my sense of helplessness is about my own lack of imagination. I think I have some work to do.

At the month’s program for the MMA 2021 Leadership Series, Katena Cain from Nonprofit Network shared a slide of people and bikes to illustrate the difference between equality and equity. The people shown included a person with a mobility impairment who used a wheelchair, someone who was tall, a seemingly typically sized person, and a small child. In the first image, all four had the exact same bike. As you can imagine, that did not work well for the person with the mobility impairment, the tall person, and the small child. In the second image, each person had a type of bike that seemed better suited to them. 

The slide reminded me of another set of images I’ve seen showing the difference between equality and equity. In the equality image, several people of different heights were standing by a fence on crates that were all the same size. The tallest person could easily see over the fence and everyone else less so depending on their height. The shortest person could not see over at all. In the second image, the same people were standing next to the same fence, but the crates were all different sizes to bring everyone’s height to the same level. Everyone could see over the fence. 

The first time I saw the fence comparison, it really resonated with me. I am relatively short, so I am familiar with the sensation of not being able to see over something. But the simplicity of the illustration doling out the same solution for a problem experienced by multiple people really hit home and I have thought of that image often.

The slide that Katena showed resonated with me in a different way and started a discussion that has continued in my own mind. Of course, it illustrated the same principal as the fence image in that giving everyone the same thing is not going to guarantee the same outcome. However, the use of bikes just hit me differently, because it was a more complex solution than the fence image. In the fence image, the solution for equity was to give everyone a different sized box. Besides the height, all the boxes were the same. In the bike image, the solution was really four different kinds of bikes. That is a much more complicated and challenging solution.

I am not the only person who saw that complexity, because an exhibit designer on the call brought up the issue of scope and capacity. Their comment concerned the very pragmatic problem of trying to create multiple processes and formats with limited resources. The idea of being able to create and provide four different bikes seems obvious, but the application is more challenging.

This is the third time I’ve written this column. I started it two weeks ago, shortly after the session by Katena, but I couldn’t figure out a conclusion. I started a different column, but came back to this because I was still thinking about it. Again, I couldn’t get to a finish. So, I spent some time this morning watching it snow and thinking about why I couldn’t finish. I didn’t have a conclusion because I wasn’t done thinking about it.

Discussions of equity are extremely challenging for a reason - equity is challenging. If it weren’t, we would not be having this conversation. I think the IDEA of equity can be easy, but actually achieving it is difficult. I can look at all the slides I want about different heights of boxes and different kinds of bikes, but that doesn’t mean I can look at my own life or work and clearly see the solution. Even if I can see the solution, it doesn’t mean that I know how I can make four different bikes using the resources I think I have.

Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director

Despite the pandemic crisis, the MMA Board of Directors was very busy in 2020 in a way that I believe will change our course and ensure the long term-sustainability and effectiveness of the organization. Most of what they did related to finances, but there is one other effort that gets me so excited!

A major goal for the organization, identified in our least strategic planning process, was the need to increase and diversify our funding sources so that we can have more infrastructure to support the Michigan museums community. You already know that we made some changes to the membership structure for this year, which will increase our capacity and membership revenue. You will hear more about a new long-term resource later this year, which was the second financial project. Both these changes are steps in the right direction for MMA and they will make so much possible moving forward.

The other effort of last year seems less glamorous, but to me it is the core focus of who we are and what we do, so is one of the most important decisions made by the MMA Board in decades, if not ever. In the fall of 2020, the MMA Board of Directors approved a set of goals and objectives related to the professional development we offer. The goals were developed after many hours of discussion by a small board team, and then approved by the full board after additional discussion.  

I have been involved with MMA programming since 2010, and this is the first time during these ten years that MMA has made a commitment to any particular focus in terms of professional development. And honestly, I have not seen any documentation in MMA records to a previous commitment. Instead, the organization has worked towards a more general goal of providing what seemed needed.

I am all for being spontaneous and responsive to members, and this is something that we strive for, but not having any particular focus for our professional development efforts has felt like a burden to me. It is really saying that we will be all things to all people. This would be a challenge for any organization, but for one as small as we are, it caused a lot of inefficiencies and wasted resources.

I have long advocated the need to commit to what we are trying to do. If we know the path we would like to be on, we can set smaller goals and measurable outcomes. If we have set measurable goals, we can know if we have met them and if not, adjust accordingly. If we know what we are trying to do, we can ask the museum community to help us in our efforts.

The downside to committing to one direction is that we are committing to NOT go in another direction. That is frustrating to me because of course I want us to help anyone who needs us. But I also know that the reality is we can only do so much. If we focus on just a couple of areas at a time, we can do a better job there and hopefully be able to focus on something else later.

You can find more information about our professional development goals and objectives on the MMA website, and I would love to hear what you think of them. But in a nutshell, MMA commits to:

• Foster, develop, and sustain leadership
• Support and advance social justice in museums
• Promote community-driven professional development goals

I believe that orienting all we do to commit to these three areas will give us a better compass as we continue to move forward and grow. They are still relatively vague goals, but the objectives and possible strategies we’ve identified will help us get started. I can’t wait to see where these goals take us, and I hope you join us on the journey.


Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word catalyst lately. The term was added to the MMA mission when it was revised as part of our most recent strategic plan, but I didn’t really give it much thought until this year. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of catalyst is “a substance that enables a chemical reaction to proceed at a usually faster rate or under different conditions (as at a lower temperature) than otherwise possible” or “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.”
 
When the MMA board selected the term catalyst, they were looking for something to explain the role of the organization in making something happen for the Michigan museum community. The use of the word catalyst was a way to say that we are an agent of change, but not the change itself. It puts the role of the organization as one that supports movement, but is not the movement. The change or movement we seek is for museums to thrive. We can discuss what that means at another time, and especially what that means during a global pandemic, but it is the change we seek to support or bring about faster. And being a catalyst for that inspires us all. 

What I have really come to appreciate this year is that a catalyst can only exist if there is something to catalyze. It has no meaning without the elements that do the actual changing. In a literal chemical reaction, I am not sure the elements involved have any choice in the matter. But, for an organization that seeks to be a catalyst, the elements have to choose to be part of the formula.

By all accounts, MMA has had a good year. Not to say it hasn't been a horrible year, which it definitely has been. But we have never had such a high level of contact with such a broad spectrum of the Michigan museum community. Honestly, we didn’t do anything radically different this year. We still focused on expertise, engagement and advocacy, just in a different format. Sure, that format was super accessible, but we have had other formats that were also free or local, and we have never had such a strong response proportionally. We are in the middle of a crisis, so many more people are seeking resources and connections, but the museum community has been in crisis before. Museums are in crisis on a regular basis, but people have not looked to MMA for help on the scale that happened this year.

So thank you, elements, for letting MMA be a catalyst in the Michigan museum community. Thank you for participating in Colleague Chats and attending other online programs. Thank you for calling or emailing with questions. Thank you for visiting the website for jobs or information. Thank you for joining member communities, and serving on volunteer teams. Without you, we wouldn’t be a catalyst.


Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director

‘Tis the season to express gratitude, and as hard as this year has been, I am finding my list longer and a little different than usual.

Generosity – I love the Mr. Rogers quote about when there is a crisis we should “look for the helpers.” I have been practicing that for a long time and with the pandemic, there are so many places I have seen them. The Michigan museum community is no exception. Right from the start, I saw examples of generosity from our colleagues. For some, like our COVID Crusader Award recipients last week, that meant raiding the collections supply closets to find extra gloves and masks to bring to local hospitals, making masks to share, or helping at food banks. For others, like the Colleague Champions, it was stepping up in a certain way to help the museum continue to serve the community even when closed or to support a co-worker who was struggling.

For me, there were three ways I got to “see the helpers” in action, and it was such a privilege. One example was the response to the call for help in Midland. I was concerned that the holiday weekend and COVID-19 would make it hard for people to be able to respond. Silly me. I should have known that a global pandemic is nothing when a museum person knows the clock is ticking to get items out of a high-humidity situation.

Other “helpers” I saw were all of the people who attended, and continue to attend, the Colleague Chat programs. I know that the primary motivation for most who join the Zoom calls is to see what everyone else is doing, but on those calls, people have been so quick to share what they know and resources they have found. I stopped counting the times that people told me that a Colleague Chat made a huge difference in helping them deal with the crisis.

Finally, there were several groups of MMA members who served on various teams this year, and they made all the difference in MMA’s ability to support the community. They helped figure out online programs (online programs team), hosted fun events (online events and awards teams), strategized about funding sources (revenue team), and made the hard decisions that had to be made (MMA Board of Directors).

As I pondered my gratitude for generosity related to the pandemic, I thought of so many other ways that the museum community is generous to and through MMA. I think that generosity is literally the glue that holds the Michigan Museums Association together.

Another thing I am grateful for this year is resilience. Museums are a tricky business, and not for the faint of heart, in my opinion. Funding on a good day is a monumental challenge. In a crisis, it is a nightmare. Also challenging is stewarding a collection when you are working from home, serving visitors who cannot come to you, and managing volunteers who cannot be onsite. I am sure each of you can add several items to this list. However, we could also put together another list of all the ways people have tried to address these same challenges – shifting fundraisers online, hooking up computers so collections software can be used remotely, creating Facebook live tours and educational programs, and finding new things volunteers can do from home. It has been an amazing experience to see in action, and it is what makes me feel optimistic about the ability of museums to get through this crisis.

I am also grateful for advocacy. I have seen so many people advocating in one way or the other for the museum community. Some joined calls with state legislators this spring to share how the pandemic was impacting museums and how MCACA funding is so critical for many. Others sent emails to state and federal legislators about NEA, NEH and IMLS funding and asking for additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. I have even seen people on Facebook promoting the fundraisers of other museums, or of Museum Store Sunday coming up.

Another way I have seen advocacy in action is through so many who have been very vocal about social justice and racial equity in museums. This is an area where museums and the museum community often fail, and is something that not everyone considers a priority or is comfortable talking about. But I have seen more push back and action this year than ever before and, for the first time in my career, I see signs that change may be more than cosmetic.

My final point of gratitude is for those who came before and what they have done to leave a strong foundation for those of us here now. For Michigan’s museums, that meant endowments or millages or investment accounts that could provide funding streams when earned revenue was not possible. It was volunteers and staff who had created a culture and mindset that meant a museum could respond quickly to new needs. And it was leadership who built strong relationships with the community so that new forms of support could be found.

One of the reasons that MMA is able to be so resilient and responsive right now is because generations of the museum community have worked tirelessly to build a strong organization. I love reading the minutes for MMA board meetings ten, twenty, thirty and forty years ago. All of them record conversations about how best to serve the Michigan museum community and what will help the organization grow. All of them include discussions about how to fund MMA and what will help the most in the long run. Because of all of these things, instead of having to hunker down or spend all of our time trying to figure out how to get to the next month when the crisis hit, we could invest in new technology and try new things to serve the community. Those that have served MMA in the past left a strong foundation, and when storms blew away the sides of the house, we stayed in the basement (and jumped on Zoom – lol).

There is so much more I could say about generosity, resilience, advocacy foundations, and especially gratitude. I hope you are able to see examples of all of these things in your museum and your life and I am thankful that we can see so many here at MMA.


Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director

This is the first time in fourteen years that for me, fall has not meant being together with my museum friends and colleagues at the MMA conference. In fact, there have only been nine years since 1994 that I’ve missed it completely and I have been at every conference since 2007. I participated as an MMA member for several years, and then as an MMA Board member and part of the conference planning team another few. Since 2012, I have been MMA’s executive director. With each role, my involvement increased exponentially. For the past eight years there has been at least one month of intensity leading up to the event, followed by a glorious and energizing chance to see friends and friendly faces, and to meet new people and hear about amazing things happening in Michigan museums. The void this fall has been enormous.

I have no regrets that we cancelled this year’s conference. Since the board made the decision, I have watched many conferences online and talked with my state museum association colleagues about their experiences in hosting virtual gatherings. I have no doubt that, despite reduced capacity for all due to the crisis, the stellar MMA volunteers and Claire and I could have pulled it off - and it would have been a great conference! But I also know it would have taken all of our energies and we would have been able to do nothing else, which would have been awful. When I look back at what we have done since last March, it is pretty amazing. I have never spent so much time with members and the Michigan museums community. While we could have done a virtual conference, I’m really glad we didn’t because it meant we could do much more. Again, it was the right decision to make and we have served our community better because of it.

But agreeing with something doesn’t necessarily mean you are happy about it. And as almost anyone who has talked with or seen me in the past month will know, I am NOT happy about missing the conference. It has been a challenge to set my disappointment aside, and I have been surprised by how much I’ve struggled with motivation without it. Although I will continue to whine about not basking in the experience of being in the midst of so many people that I admire and respect, two recent experiences have reminded me that there is more than one definition of being together.

First of all, last week’s Annual Meeting via Zoom was amazing. I wasn’t sure how many people would attend. One state museum association colleague said they had seven people for the annual meeting they hosted online this year. I knew we would have at least 16 because board members, Claire, Yitzack and I all had to attend, but I wasn’t sure if anyone else would sign up. Imagine my delight, then, when we had 65 people on the call. Of course, it was not the same as being in a room together, but it was pretty fantastic to get to scroll through all the screens and see so many faces and names. Also neat and unexpected was the use of the chat function! People regularly made comments and showed their engagement in this way. So while it was a poor substitute for being together in person, it still felt together.

Another wonderful thing that has been happening this fall has been the awards. We decided to forgo the usual program this year to really focus on acknowledging the unique circumstances of 2020. And instead of just giving a few awards, we decided to honor as many people as possible. We won’t have the official celebration of the awardees until next month, but I got to notify the recipients last week and it was lovely. People have been so grateful and excited. It makes me grateful and excited and helped me see how connected we all are even when we are apart.

Both of those experiences helped me shake off my personal pity party and notice the other ways we have been coming together, despite not being together. I have had multiple volunteer teams helping me navigate this crazy year and those regular meetings have been wonderful. Our idea to form different member groups around professional development goals has started to take root, and it is great to see these groups connect with each other and form relationships. And reporting out at the Annual Meeting has helped me reflect on all that the MMA Board of Directors has accomplished this year. In addition to their regular bi-monthly meetings, strategic planning team meetings meant something going on every month for them. And even though all of their own organizations have been in crisis, we have been able to do so much to set MMA on a strong path forward. That’s a lot of togetherness for a group that didn’t actually get together.

I wish I could end this piece talking about the joyous reunion we will have on a certain date and in a certain place next year. I wish even more that I knew exactly what next year’s conference would look like. But alas, we are still driving through fog and I have no idea when or where we’ll be when it lifts. Until then, I will keep focusing on what we ARE able to do, and all the ways we are still together.


Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director

Submitted by: Megan Osetek, Kalamazoo Valley Museum

The advent of the pandemic brought about many challenges for museums. Few of these were universal; each museum had its own unique tribulations. However, a common issue that many small to midsize museums had to confront was digital initiatives. Now that visitors were not allowed onsite, museums had to figure out ways to connect with patrons. The obvious answer was digitally. However, many institutions were not equipped to pursue ambitious virtual exhibits and programs. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum, likewise, did not have a digital strategy already in place. Nevertheless, something had to be done.

As a result, the museum created a podcast entitled The Kalamazoo Valley Museum Interpretive Hour. This piece of digital adult programming has a core mission: “The Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s Interpretive Hour podcast provides engaging, thoughtful, quality, meaningful, and inclusive content on the field of interpretation to adult museum and park professionals, volunteers, goers, and students. It will do so through open conversation between moderators and professionals on various facets of the interpretive profession. The podcast will cement the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in the museum community as an interpretainment leader and enhance its outreach to diverse institutions and peoples.”
 
But how did the team come to this mission? What was the process?

Although it may seem daunting, any museum can and should create a podcast. This popular medium, which streams audio shows through different platforms and applications, is on the rise. According to 2020 stats provided by Discover Pods, a website dedicated to information on podcasts, 51% of Americans have listened to a podcast at least once in their life, and 32% of Americans have listened to a podcast within the past month. In the group of Americans who listen to podcasts, 82.4% of them listen to podcasts for more than 7 hours each week. That is a large demographic.
           
But with such a big demographic, an institution has to find its niche. After listening to Your Museum Needs a Podcast by Hannah Hethmon, interpreters Jacob Wolf and Gray Willson, as content creators, concluded that interpretation would be their niche. At that time, no podcasts explored such a topic; therefore, it seemed important to tackle. Megan Osetek, as Interpretation Manager, supervised the content, and interpreter Joshua Higginbotham, with his years of recording experience, became the audio engineer. But it took several months before the podcast launched in September. These months included a proposal to the Museum’s Director, episode re-recordings, approval from Marketing for design decisions, guest recordings, a delayed microphone order, and many more tribulations. Nonetheless, the team persevered and launched their first episode on September 16, 2020.
           
So now it is your museum’s turn. Our team recommends reading Hannah Hethmon’s book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast, and consulting several videos and other museum podcasts. Find your niche! And remember, it will not be easy, but the results will be rewarding and valuable, during and after the pandemic. To learn more, follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or the KVM website.
 
DiscoverPods. “Podcast Statistics and Figures 2020.” Accessed May 27, 2020. https://discoverpods.com/podcast-statistics/ 

Hethmon, Hannah. Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-By-Step Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits. 2018.

MMA Member generated content focuses on topics relevant to the Michigan museum community. If you would like to learn more or submit your own, please contact Claire Johnston.

I woke up to some serious fog this morning, and I realized as I was driving through it, that it felt familiar. I have been in a bit of a funk this week and sort of struggling to find an anchor. There is much in my family life that is different from usual this fall, so I’m a little disoriented and disappointed. At the same time, I am missing the conference. Normally, this time of the year I would be very busy and likely stressed, but anticipating being in the midst of a great gathering of MMA members and others. I would be inspired, see friends, and bask in the glory of this amazing community. Instead, I am spending time trying to choose online programs for the next few months and plan what we will be doing next year.

As you all know, though, planning is not the easiest task at this time. It’s difficult to even anticipate what is coming up more than about 5-6 weeks in advance. Spending time trying to guess the scenario a year from now is really just impossible. My head hurts with the effort.

So, when I was driving in the fog this morning, it seemed so familiar to the current situation because of COVID. I could see enough to move forward, but not enough to see what was ahead. I also had no clue how long I’d have to navigate in it. I could be driving in dense fog the whole time, the fog might be part of the whole drive but at least lighten up so I could see a little farther, it could go away completely, or all of the above at different times randomly. See what I mean?

Once I realized the analogy, I started to feel a little better. I thought about how even though it was foggy, I felt confident that I was safe to be driving in it. I wasn’t going very fast, but I was still moving along. I couldn’t see very far ahead, but I could see enough to have time to respond to anything unexpected that might appear. I would prefer NOT to drive in the fog, but I know I can do it.

I still don’t have a clue how to plan for next year. And I think we are all going to be doing a lot of guessing. However, I will remember one other thing about driving in the fog when I get discouraged; when I am IN the fog, it seems like there is nothing out there and there never will be. Nevertheless, as fog dissipates, it is usually replaced by sunshine, and even though there’s no way to really know when the fog will lift, if I just keep driving, it eventually will.

Lisa Craig Brisson
Executive Director