Abby Pontzer Kamkar’s Post

When I ran, my kids were 3 and 5, and I was incredibly lucky to have super flexible childcare. Even when I didn't, my kids knocked doors with me and loved wearing stickers and they still tell people I'm a "voting girl." We need MORE parents and caregivers in office and I love that LEE continues to support us. (Also love that my future Congressperson, Laura Friedman, will help boost our numbers in DC)

Me: Well, the dream job just doesn't exist. LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games: <posts> 😲

Another introduction to a fabulous colleague! I want to introduce you to Bridgette Well. Bridgette has been a grant writer at Green Dot Public Schools for the past six years and helped secure more than $48M of grants for our schools -- $6.4M of that on her own! She has a passion for social justice and a willingness to jump in where needed. I recently got to know her better on a trip to Beaumont where we pored over boxes and boxes of attendance documents. She has a sharp attention to detail, great skill in communicating, and is funny and warm.  Bridgette is looking to use her writing and communications skills in the world of art, entertainment or social justice. Who do you know that needs an excellent writer and human to join their team?

Holy smokies. 🤯

I’ve had the distinct pleasure in catching up with a few people this week who know all too well what it’s like to shut down an organization full of great people, doing work you care deeply about. 💔 A few things we had in common: - It feels very much like the old Hemingway trope that it happens gradually then suddenly. We’ve been planning our collective RIF for almost 9 months now. That means hours upon hours of transition meetings to make sure every relevant document, tool, system got transferred where it needed to go and that organizations were set up with what they needed to succeed on July 1. And now as we count down the final hours, our laptops and emails will get shut off Friday and we’ll wake up Monday morning wondering what’s next. 😲 - Shutting down a non-profit or mission-driven organization is, I imagine, much different than shutting down a for-profit. We cannot Michael Scott style “I declare bankruptcy” and ghost. 💸👻 We all have a collective interest in making sure that the people (students, teachers, staff) we serve will not be impacted negatively. As many times as I’ve wondered whether we could leave the figurative keys on the table and walk out, we knew that students would ultimately bear the brunt of that, and that we’d need to do all of this responsibly. - It’s normal and natural to have emotion tied up in this (i.e. ✨I cry a lot but I am so productive✨). The work that I am leaving behind unfinished 🗑 does elicit some sadness, frustration, and even anger. But, doing that work changed me fundamentally and made me more ready to do good, hard, innovative work moving forward. And I hope that is the case for my colleagues as well - people who worked tirelessly on shelved mentorship, student recruitment, data dashboard, and performance management plans. I am telling myself that that work wasn’t wasted because we still learned something to make us better going forward. 💪 Let’s make that true. Onward to what’s next, which for me is time with my family in the beautiful Minnesota summer. And after that, something great. ✨It's an art.✨

Michael, Abigail, and Julia are building something that K-12 Orgs really need - capacity for the kind of work that, well, builds capacity! Each of them does thoughtful, innovative work and I can't wait to see what happens when these three combine their strengths.

Definitely know some folks who should reach out to Helen Park Truong -- don't make me @ you. 🥰

Our biggest regret will be that we didn't do it sooner!