Hi LEAGUE members!
Welcome to 2024! I hope you had time during the holiday season to rest, recharge and reconnect! This year is shaping up to be an exciting year! I’m honored to take the helm for the next 2 years. I would like to take just a moment to extend my most sincere appreciation to Stacey Chosed, our outgoing CEO for tireless dedication and leadership these past 4 years, we appreciate your contributions immensely.
If you were able to attend the 2023 Annual Meeting you may have seen a list of topics we are interested in tackling in 2024 and beyond. In short, we have a lot of ground to cover this year:
- Membership Drive
- Migration to new chapter structures
- Change in Communication Channels
- RTO hub city events
- DEI Council evolution
- Stan Miller Skills Development
- The Trevor Project partnership
- Community Involvement
- Transgender Policy rewrite
- Cross-Company LGBTQ Leadership series
- New Employee onboarding training
- PRIDE 2024
- Foundation Growth
There are a LOT of topics in that list and that isn’t even all of them! COVID limited and/or stopped our involvement on so many levels. Many chapters have collapsed, and some are struggling just to survive. Yet there is still hope! Just last year, we saw the rebirth of the New Jersey Chapter and the Los Angeles Chapter is on a path to reestablishing itself. I commit the resources of the National Board to help you in any way we can. We will be holding membership drives nationally and locally, we are preparing info sessions to help us meet you where you are and hopefully get each of you excited about LEAGUE and excited to be involved again. We want to find ways and connections that are meaningful to you. Without all of you as member of a local entity, we don’t have a LEAGUE.
I think it is safe to say we have all I’ve noticed significant changes in how we connect with each other, the new normal has redefined relationships, where we live, how we engage and how we lift up and support our community. I recognize these challenges and where we can, I would like to work with you to reconnect, reengage and recommit. It is my goal to share with our membership opportunities to connect with the greater LGBTQ+ community as well as reacquaint yourselves with the groups, programs and causes that are near and dear to the local chapters. We will be growing our partnership with The Trevor Project this year to include a number of presentations and training programs as well as finding ways to volunteer locally with them. We plan on partnering with other ERGs/ENs at AT&T to bring you speakers and presentations that help you grow your skills and help prepare you for the next step in your career. We are also partnering with other LGBTQ+ ERGs outside of AT&T to share community information, volunteer opportunities and networking resources to keep you connected.
I hope you see a change in the way National organization communicates with all of you. Based on some data provided by our email service, it is clear we have room to improve our communications to ensure you are getting the necessary information you need. We will be working on updating our newsletters, our Teams site, and our external facing website. Information should be easy to obtain and not be inundated with the unnecessary.
I have a LOT of ideas and a LOT of plans. I want the opportunity to meet as many of you as possible. I want us to connect. I want to hear from you! But we can’t make any changes without help from you, the members of LEAGUE. We need your time, your thoughts, and your continued support to make LEAGUE the best it can be. So, I’m asking you to give a little back. Please consider volunteering your time locally or at the national level. You might be surprised at who you network with and what skills you can grow from it!
One last thing… While I was taking my much-needed break over the holidays, I happened to overhear a quote from an icon in the LGBTQ+ community as well as the fashion industry. I want to leave you with this quote because there is someone that NEEDS to hear this today and it’s my way of connecting with someone:
“Don’t let anyone or anything dim your sparkle!”
-Bob Mackie
-Rob Walter