Article by Scott Iwasaki for the Park Record (October 7, 2023)

For nearly a decade, Park City Community Foundation has hosted roundtables that provide members of the nonprofit sector the space and opportunities to share their best practices.

These gatherings, usually at the Blair Education Center in Park City Hospital, have sparked collaborations, built stronger relationships, and helped executive directors become more effective leaders, said Diego Zegarra, Park City Community Foundation vice president of equity and impact.

“It’s always been part of the mission of the Community Foundation to support our nonprofits so there is a healthy and strong nonprofit sector in Summit County,” he said. “We host 12 a year, and they came from a need, requests, from our nonprofit community to elevate their field via education, and be curated with their voices in mind.”

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Three roundtables, which all start at 9 a.m., and run for 90 to 120 minutes, are scheduled for October, said facilitator Mary Christa Smith, the chief executive officer and founder of Conscious Coalition Consulting, which helps for-profit and nonprofit organizations and businesses realize plans, goals and missions.

they came from a need, requests, from our nonprofit community to elevate their field via education, and be curated with their voices in mind.” Diego Zegarra, Park City Community Foundation vice president of equity and impact

The first, “Executive Directors,” is scheduled for Oct. 11, will be led by Smith and will provide executive directors skills that will help make facilitating meetings engaging and productive. Visit tinyurl.com/4m7b6ddh to register.

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Smith will lead the first Oct. 11, “Executive Directors,” which will teach executive directors how they can make facilitating meetings more engaging and productive.

“There is an art to effectively facilitating a meeting, and I feel a lot of people find themselves facilitating meetings without any training as to how to do that whatsoever,” she said. “There are simple skills, tips and framings that can shift and powerfully align meetings to engage folks and make the meetings enjoyable so that the goals of the meeting and organization are met. And this roundtable is designed to provide those skills and help executive directors be more effective.”

The second roundtable, “Let’s Talk,” which was set for Oct. 12, has been postponed to Oct. 19, and is open to the whole community, Smith said. Visit tinyurl.com/yjb8ap7k to register.

It will be led by Virginia Solomon and Kris Campbell from Class 29 of Leadership Park City, a program that trains upcoming community leaders, provides them with a group-oriented learning opportunity, and gives participants a chance to create a project that will benefit the community.

The roundtable session will include modules on self awareness, active listening, finding common ground, and communication to connect, Smith said.

“‘Let’s Talk’ is the project of Leadership Park City Class 29, and it is communication training based on the belief that communication is the foundation of strong and healthy communities,” she said. “I would also add that ‘Let’s Talk’ is being done in partnership with Mountain Mediation Center, going forward. Sometimes class projects live on and sometimes they don’t. But this one will live on within the home of Mountain Mediation Center that will continue to hold ‘Let’s Talk’ sessions for the community.”

The third roundtable, “Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Board,” will be held Oct. 18, Smith said. Visit tinyurl.com/3h7up6nk to register.

“I’m really excited about this one,” she said. “It’s for board members, but that means current board members and future board members — people who are sitting on committees that would like to build their skills and capacity.”

This roundtable will cover topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Smith said.

“There has been a lot of talk about DEI work, and a lot of heart-felt intentions of organizations wanting to be more inclusive, equitable and diverse,” she said. “We also see that a lot of organizations struggle to find what that all entails and means, because there may be embedded policies within some organizations that make it hard to be equitable and diverse.”

Those policies and practices could be something as simple as the times and days of meetings or requirements of how much board members must donate to the organizations they serve, Smith said.

“While staff and executive directors are professionals, board members tend to serve as volunteers, but they play such an important role in the life of a nonprofit,” she said. “They oversee the executive director. They have fiduciary responsibility over the organization. They set strategic direction. So, it’s really important for board members to continue to build their skills in order to serve their organizations.”

Zegarra, who works with Smith and Minda Boland, Park City Community Foundation’s grants and impact manager, to create these roundtables, feels a kinetic energy between nonprofit representatives during the sessions.

“They start sharing what they are doing when it comes to fundraising or when it comes to program design, and you see folks connecting the dots,” he said. “And through that, we see collaborations spark.”

One of those collaborations that has emerged from the roundtables is between SOS Outreach and Bright Futures, Zegarra said.

SOS Outreach works with mentors to build youths’ character and leadership skills through access to the outdoors, and Bright Futures is a Park City Education Foundation program empowering low-income, first-generation students to prepare for, succeed in, and graduate from college.

“When SOS Outreach first came to the community six or seven years ago, they looked to connect with different organizations and entities to get more students into their programs,” Zegarra said. “They realized they looked to support a similar clientele and started working with each other.”

In addition to collaborations, the roundtables strengthen the overall bond between local nonprofits, according to Zegarra.

“There has always been a sense of collaboration and not competition with the organizations in Summit County,” he said. “So, when folks share their best-working practices, it helps everyone, especially the smaller and newer nonprofits.”

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Click here to read the article on the Park Recod