So what is this "jobshare" thing?

Even before we started this new job, the question we keep hearing again and again is this: so what about that jobshare thing?  This blog posting is a kind of “frequently asked questions” response based on exactly that, the questions we most often hear. And no, the questions don’t feel old yet. We are both much too excited by what we are learning.

First, whose idea was this? Did PFund “match-make” you two?

No, PFund didn’t pair us up. We applied that way. We were both individually sent copies of the job description by a number of friends and colleagues. Neither of us wanted to apply for the job by ourselves so we kept saying “thanks, but it’s not quite right.” The two of us were already friends and we have worked on a number of different collaborative projects together, including a project that focuses on finding resources for community-based organizations. Kate was sitting in Susan’s kitchen one night and that was when the idea came to us. We wrote a joint cover letter and sent in our separate resumes.

How are you going to share the work?

Susan has already jobshared an Interim Executive Director position. When we applied, the two of us talked with a lot of different people around the country who had also been jobsharing. Based on what we learned, we’ve set up a system.  After the first few months where we are working more hours in order to more quickly learn our new position, we will each be working three days a week. One of those days will be an overlap day for staff meetings, shared projects and other shared meetings. We each hold different parts of the job but we both work to know about all of the parts of the job. Our goal is that when any one of you runs into either one of us in the community, you’ll be able to ask us each anything at all about PFund and we will have some of the information you need.  This means we check in daily, making sure that each knows what the other is doing.

Do you have two desks?

If you were to come into the office on our shared day, you would see the both of us sitting at one desk and working on one computer. We share an office, an email address and a phone number. And we figure it out every day: who is going to use the computer right now, who is going to make phone calls and who is going to be working on something else. It’s not hard. After all, we figure that PFund is always asking our grantees to be thoughtful about resources and to expand their collaborations. We’re just doing the same thing.

Got other questions we haven't answered yet? Call us! We'd love to talk jobshare with you.

-Kate and Susan.

You made our day!

It was 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, the fifth and final day of the National Gay and Lesbain Task Force’s 23^rd Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, and almost exactly a month into our new role as Executive Director at PFund. The first four days of the conference were an incredible mix of attending and facilitating workshops, getting to know grantees better, reconnecting with local and national peers, and meeting many new PFund friends - donors, former Board members, past grantees, Folio readers and volunteers. We were both running on too much caffeine and too little sleep. It was amazing.

So when we tell you that the last three hours of Sunday afternoon were some of the most exciting time either of us has spent at a conference, you’ll understand the impact of that statement. From 2:00-5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 6, more than 60 PFund grantee partners and LGBT leaders from our region gathered together in a large room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis to talk about their work, about what they learned at the conference, and to begin thinking about how their work connects with each other across the region. 

We believe that, as a community foundation, PFund’s role is not to create the vision or strategy for LGBT communities in the Upper Midwest. Instead, our role is to provide the resources that support communities and organizations to create that vision and strategy.  Resources mean dollars but they also mean creating the opportunity to learn from each other. PFund (with help from the Otto Bremer Foundation) paid for registration costs and/or travel expenses for 40 of our Midwestern LGBT and allied leaders to attend Creating Change; to meet other people doing similar work and to learn from their experiences. This is part of what your gifts to PFund supports.

Thank you to Alfonso for having the idea of gathering grantees together to support building relationships and sharing information. Thank you to all of you for believing in the work that PFund does. As the new Executive Director, we are thrilled and excited to continue learning with you about the needs and interests of LGBT communities in the upper Midwest.  This blog is one of the places where we will share what we learn – and where we hope you will share your thoughts and learnings with us. We’re looking forward to creating shared vision and building justice and equality for LGBT communities together with you!


-Kate and Susan