Agree with Mike—face-to-face would be great. Budget-wise, we need to be mindful. We could do a local community center or partner with a member who has a large space.

Good point, Helen. We have $1,200 allocated for the retreat in this year’s budget. That should cover a venue rental and lunch if we keep it local.

For topics, I’d love to include long-term funding strategies and maybe a session on board engagement. We’ve been talking about clarifying committee roles—this could be a good time for that too.

I second Edwards ideas. Could we also carve out time for visioning—where do we want to be in 5 years? Maybe an external facilitator could help us with that.

Love that idea, Grace. I know a great facilitator who worked with another nonprofit recently. I’ll check her availability and rates.

What about dates? I’m free the weekends of October 21 and November 4. Anyone have conflicts with those?

Oct 21 works for me. I’ll be out of town Nov 4.

Same here—Oct 21 is better.

Oct 21 is good for me too!

Great—sounds like Saturday, October 21 is the winner! I’ll draft a proposed agenda and share next week. Thanks for the quick responses!