6 | BALANCING THE SCALES | April 14, 2021
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE INITIATIVE UPDATE
KFTC members imagine and prepare for organizational change Participants in Imagining and Envisioning the Future of KFTC heard a word from our chairperson, Cassia Herron, and Executive Director, Burt Lauderdale to provide some context as we prepare for change. Read the transcript below, or watch the video at www.vimeo.com/522584493.
CH = Hello, I’m Cassia Herron, she/her and I am your KFTC Chairperson. I’m a proud Kentuckian, home of Yuchi, Miami, Osage, Shawnee, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Quapaw, and Oceti Sakowin people. Born and raised in Richmond/Madison County and I’ve lived here in Jefferson County since 97. BL = And I’m Burt Lauderdale, he/him. I grew up in Auburn, Alabama, but I’ve lived here in Kentucky since 1983, here in Laurel County since 1988. I’m your KFTC Executive Director. CH = Burt and I are here to describe the KFTC Organizational Change Initiative, and our collective responsibility in Imagining and Envisioning KFTC’s future. There’s at least four reasons why KFTC is investing in Organizational Change.
The first is we want to honor and celebrate the achievements of KFTC. It’s a happy coincidence that this envisioning process coincides with our 40th anniversary. KFTC has an awesome history and achieved some great things. We’ve organized tens of thousands of Kentuckians and tons of grassroots leaders. We’ve won and lost policy fights at the local, state, and national level and helped develop and elect progressive champions. We’ve worked on land rights, voting rights, and equal rights. And we have built and sustained a statewide, grassroots, democratic, member-run organization for forty years. Today, KFTC is an essential partner in the social justice community in Kentucky and across the nation.
As we embark on this Organizational Change Initiative, we stand on the shoulders of the thousands of KFTC leaders that came before us, and now we want to build on that legacy. BL = The second reason is we’ve simply outgrown the old KFTC. The last time we did this type of comprehensive planning process was in 2001. Back then, KFTC had 2,000 members, now we have 13,000. The Steering Committee was smaller and closer geographically. We had eleven staff then; this Spring we’ll have thirty and a staff union to complement it. We need to redesign structures and strategies to catch up with where KFTC is today, and where we want to be tomorrow.
