As the days grow darker and we enter into our annual days of celebration and coming together, the Dance Palace remains warm and bright! Each morning yoga mats are unrolled, each week Baby Gym fills the hall with the joy of children and delighted families, and Senior Lunch brings elders of our community together to break bread every Thursday. As many familiar activities continue, behind the scenes there are significant changes underway.
The board has begun the search for a new executive director. This is an exciting opportunity for us to engage a passionate, local community member with the skills and experience to steward the community center into its new chapter. Do you know someone who you think fits the bill? Let us know.
Meanwhile, board member Branden Barber and Margarita Echeverria are serving as co-interim directors while the search begins in earnest. Branden is a Nicasio resident with significant experience in nonprofit development and leadership; he has served on boards at Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch and other nonprofits. He also has deep for-profit experience with companies like Sapient and dot-com design agencies.
Margarita has been a long-time employee and subcontractor of the Dance Palace and has a wealth of business experience. She has successfully run her own business as a bookkeeper and system consultant for many years; she also comes with decades of experience as an executive director and in other business leadership roles. She will maintain the flow of finances and work with the operations team on the day-to-day tasks. We’re covered at the helm.
In the office, Danielle Fogel joined our operations team in August. Danielle, a resident of Fairfax, has a background in nonprofit event fundraising. At the moment, she’s preparing for the annual holiday crafts fair, where we hope to see many of you, from Friday, Dec. 2 through Sunday, Dec. 4.
Burton Eubank of Inverness Park has returned to technical services; look for him in the loft setting up audio or working around the facility on maintenance. Chris Grace of Dillon Beach is our scheduling and office manager, maintaining the scheduling of all of our spaces and calendar, along with a host of other duties. And most recently, past long-serving board president Loretta Farley has joined the Dance Palace as an administrative assistant who is helping us thrive in myriad ways.
In short, know that the Dance Palace Community Center is in good hands and that we’re taking this opportunity to refine our forward vision. We are engaging you, our community, in the process. You can help us by sharing your thoughts and stories with us through a simple survey form we set up for you at goo.gl/oKKxaX.
We ask how long you’ve been involved at the Dance Palace, what you most appreciate about it, whether you are a current member, what you think we could be doing better and what you think we’re doing well. We also ask for personal stories about how the Dance Palace has touched your life, which we would only share with your permission. We encourage everyone to take a few minutes to fill out this survey.
We also hope to see you all at our town hall meeting in January, when we will serve soup and salad, talk about where we are now and hear your feedback on the community center. The team at the Dance Palace wishes you the warmth and joy of the holidays and looks forward to seeing you at the liveliest community center in West Marin.
Kathryn Lino is the board chair of the Dance Palace. She lives with her husband in Inverness Park.