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“So what is it like being in your new building?” I was asked the other day. Well, I thought about this for a minute or two and realized that it is quite different, and there are many changes that we have had to deal with as an organization. One would think that the reaction would be “It’s wonderful! Everyone’s so much happier!” now that we have this beautiful building with all of its space. This is true and we are very fortunate to be here, but the transition has also been interesting and, in some cases, even challenging. Back at our old building when we were getting ready to move, it appeared that we had acquired a lot of “things”. We were not in the habit of saying “no” to anything so the challenge became: what do we keep and what do we get rid of? We had to learn how to “chuck it” by getting a big dumpster. For the items we kept, we had to figure out where they would go in our new building. Somehow, we managed to pull it off and even develop a system for our storage.

After moving into our building, the next issue that arose was how to make sure all of our children and adults, when arriving first thing in the morning, would get to their respective program areas, and then to their buses at the end of the day. After a series of meetings and discussions, we were able to, again, set up a system that seems to be working well. However, again, it was a struggle. The last and probably the most critical issue was: now that we are all together, how will we all get along? In some cases, staff didn’t even know each other, communication was an issue, setting priorities and working toward the common goal could be a challenge. Well, in the end, staff members rallied and we all learned valuable lessons about human behavior.

Of course, we all know that strong relationships are built around….food! When staff realized that being in one building meant that we could count on the Ahead Program to cook a wonderful lunch each week, it went a long way to bring about some smiles. In the end, we have certainly grown as an organization and my personal thanks to all of the people who have worked so hard to make this transition a wonderful one.

Until next time……...Jim

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