Highlights from 2007

Dear MTL students everywhere,

If you have attended a national leadership conference or an international leadership conference sometime in the past four years, you likely will have received an email from me late last week that contains the information in this blog post. If so, I apologize for the duplication; however, I want to ensure that this communication reaches as many of our students as possible.

We know that representatives to our leadership conferences 'stand in' for many, many others who are unable to attend and we value the investment of all of you in our organization!

There is a lot of ground to cover, so I thought I’d start by sending you the following highlights from the year 2007. A second email / blog post will follow in mid-April as to how we did in the first quarter of 2008 regarding our courses / enrollment, as well as our plans for 2008 and the continued implementation of our strategic initiatives.

Before I get down to the nitty-gritty, I want to fill you in as to my health. Some of you know that I was hospitalized a few days in mid-January with an attack of pancreatitis. Pancreatitis, I learned quite quickly, is nothing to mess around with! Fortunately, my doctor was able to determine that the cause was medication induced, so hopefully it will be a one-time occurrence.

My recovery took some time, but I am grateful to report that my energy is back and I am feeling well. Many other leaders stepped up to fill in the gaps while I was working part time - most importantly, to ensure that our national conferences were completed successfully. I am so grateful to you all.

To those of you who wrote emails, called or sent cards, thank you so very much. My sons, Caleb and Cameron, were quite intrigued as to why so many people from such far away places were sending cards to their Baba (their name for me). I loved being able to describe each of you, our connection, and your city or country.

You truly touched my heart.

Highlights from 2007

Our More To Life Enrollment
We increased our More To Life enrollment 11% overall in 2007 and in the U.S., we’ve increased our enrollment 26% since 2005. These increases are our first since 2001 – Scott Roy’s first year as executive director. This is truly an accomplishment that we all have worked toward and can take great pride in.

Kudos to all of us!

Charitable Status in the UK and RSA
We now have charitable status in the UK - a long-awaited boon for our students there. This status presents many possibilities in terms of grants and strategic partnerships.

In South Africa, we have submitted our registration forms for charitable status and expect the process to be complete in just a few weeks. Very exciting indeed.

Launching the Coaching Program
Largely due to the vision and project leadership of Ann McMaster and others who have been working closely with her, we now have 78 students in three countries who are either in the process of becoming a coach or have already been certified.

Completion of Level I Coaching Essentials certifies our most advanced students to coach other MTL students; completion of Level II certification will allow our MTL coaches to provide coaching to individuals outside our program. We believe this strategy of 1:1 coaching, as well as our mentor expansion, has the potential of strengthening almost every aspect of our organization.

Our Mentor Program Expands
We’ll be launching a new, third mentor course later this year. We’ve gleaned much input from our mentors and are seeing a lot of uptake from them about this development.

In addition, we have translated the SEE materials, including the SEE DVD into both Italian and German. Four other languages are in the works, and our first MTL in Kiel, Germany is scheduled for May 23 - 25. I feel confident that expansion into Europe is around the bend as we have many active mentors there who want these materials for use in their native languages.

The Makens Family Matching Campaign
To date, we’ve raised $937,000 in pledges and matching funds toward our goal of $1,200,000 in the Makens Family Matching campaign. As you can imagine, this effort, very ably led by Rhonda Schlatter, has been critical to funding our strategic initiatives and underpinning our current operations.

Our plan is to continue with targeted fundraising within the Makens campaign in 2008 as well as to pursue the possibility of external fundraising in the latter part of the year.

To all of you who have given toward this very important endeavor, I acknowledge you for your investment in the future of our organization and the investment in the future of many, many precious human beings.

Internal Marketing and the Brand Architecture Project
We piloted new internal marketing materials in six MTL locations. Consistently, we’re hearing that these materials were well received, providing a professional, compelling message to our new students. Our plan is to roll out these interim materials for use in all our locations in 2008.

All along, our plan has been that the interim marketing project will dovetail with our longer-term brand architecture project, which is currently underway. Stay tuned for the email I've promised you in mid-April to find out more in particular about this initiative and where we're headed with external marketing.

I hope this gives you a taste of the momentum we've been generating. And I hope as well that you can hear my acknowledgement for all of you who give so much to ensure that our particular work of radical awakening will continue for many years to come.

With appreciation,

Peggy

Re-connecting!

Dear ones,

I’ll start with a much-needed apology for my silence on this blog for several months now. I was speaking with Warren Kahn, my support partner, the other day about the real need for more communication out to and with our students, as well as all that we have going on in the program, and my time / limits.

Now, some of these limits are real and some were clearly self-imposed. I apologize for not clearing away the self-imposed ones sooner, but here I am now with a strong intention to reconnect and re-start this mode of communication for us.

The lifeshock from Warren that really got me going was his comment, “Well, Peggy, it’s a little like walking into someone’s home and you notice that they haven’t changed their calendar for four months.” Not a picture I want for this organization or my place in it, I tell you. (As an aside, if you don’t have a support partner, I strongly urge you get busy and enroll someone for mutual support. It’s life changing – I can attest to that!)

So here I am re-connecting and recommitting.

I’d like to start by “turning the pages” of that calendar and filling you in on what’s been happening. It’s quite a lot so I’ll be breaking it down in bits over the course of the next few days.

I also want to really hear from you! Comments on the blog or emails sent directly to me at peggy.jarrett@moretolife.org are welcomed and appreciated.

With a light heart,
Peggy