What is this “mission” stuff, anyway? Part One.

Part One

I’ve been struggling with our mission lately. Well, not so much with “it” as with my understanding of “it”. I’ll explain. I’ve been with my org for ten years, first in Human Resources and now in Technology. My org has not changed its basic mission in 150 years. Yes, we’ve gotten more inclusive, expanded services, etc. But we are still basically known for our health and fitness brand, swimming and day camp. OK, I’ll just say it— I work for the YMCA. The YMCA of Metro Chicago, specifically. I would not describe us as a “cause”, though others may disagree (feel free to comment). But we do much more “human services” work than anyone could ever guess, including services from age 6 to the day you pass away from old age, from gang intervention, pre-natal care counseling for teens, mental health, youth homelessness, to home health care for seniors. You name it, we probably do it. Still, many people don’t think of the YMCA as a nonprofit. But I would say that our membership centers carry out the mission in their own way, which is inherently differently than our government funded programs. Everyone is here to build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities. I just included that in my voice mail message today, for the first time in ten years.

Why did it take me so long to do that? What is it about our mission that I am uncomfortable with? I get the gist of it, don’t get me wrong. But after ten years, I still don’t get much of the “delivery”. I’ve been really troubled by this lately, and I solely blame Steve Heye for that. I guess I should explain that too… later. First, let me say that I did not grow up near a YMCA. In fact, I grew up in Spain where there wasn’t a Y. My family, friends, teachers and neighbors were my community, I was on a first name basis with everyone from the school principal to the butcher, and all my activities took place in a small town environment. My only experience with the YMCA before I was hired was from when I used to work for a messenger service. There, my HR counterpart feltskittish about hiring someone who lived at 30 W. Chicago, at the Lawson House YMCA. That just wasn’t a “good thing” to her, and therefore my only exposure to the Y had been negative. That greatly changed when I started working there, of course.

Another factor that kept me separate from my local YMCA when I first moved to Chicago is that we didn’t have any money. It sounds so silly to say that now, knowing all thefinancial assistance YMCA’s provide! But back then, we just didn’t know, or think to ask. Something else: as I grew up, and even now at my ripe old age of 34, I don’t have kids. Until four months ago I didn’t even have a nephew, or any other babies in the family that I saw regularly. In fact, I didn’t even like kids very much, so the “build strong children” part of the mission was lost on me. The family part was, too. I am not particularly close to my family in Chicago. I enjoy them enough, but mostly on designated holidays. My parents divorced when my mother, sister and I moved to Chicago, and my father never left Spain. So the family I had known all my life was now across the Atlantic, and I had a brand new one in Chicago, just as large and complex. I also had to learn English and go to school, which kept me pretty busy at home. My mother became a single parent and my concept of “family” changed pretty radically. But I never connected the YMCA to that. Why would I?

So I am not surprised that the YMCA never came across my life until I was an employee. What has been bothering me though, is why after ten years of working there, I am still so surprised at all that we do. Just last week I had meetings with our new web development partners and three of our different program areas, and I probably learned almost as much as they did. How could that be? Was there some point in my employment where I had the opportunity to learn more about the mission, and missed it? Should I regret passing up the operations position I was jokingly offered too early in my tenure? If I had not gone to work in the small technology department of a technologically-challenged non profit, where would I be today? Would I have been able to better impact the YMCA?

That’s where Steve Heye comes in…

To Be Continued.