Greetings to all of our partners, friends, supporters and stakeholders. The 2021 summer season is in full swing and it’s a great pleasure to be reaching out to all of you with this brief letter and some interesting news about the organization you are a part of.

Early last month, I stepped down from my role as President of the LNRP Board of Directors to temporarily join the team “in-the-trenches” as an interim staff member. Perhaps a canoe is a more apt metaphor, as I am now paddling as hard as I can alongside the other staff as we head toward the next horizon in LNRP’s conservation and environmental education journey. LNRP Board Vice President Eric Fowle has stepped in as acting President for at least the remainder of 2021. (Thank you, Eric!).

Let me explain. Many of you will know that LNRP recently said goodbye to two of our erstwhile teammates; Kendra and Jeff Kelling. We sincerely thank them both for the solid work they’ve done in support of our mission. Fair winds and following seas, Kendra and Jeff!

Now when any small organization or business sees turnover in the professional staff, decisions need to be made so that the work not only continues, but so that opportunities to reassess and reevaluate staff foci also occurs. This is true of the period of change LNRP is now going through. Hence my decision, based on conversations at the board and staff level, to join the team on this interim basis.

Tom Mlada’s leadership as our Executive Director at this time is critical, but he can only do so much without 1) a team of professional colleagues to work alongside him, and 2) a board that not only understands good governance practices for nonprofits but also the role they must play to move the organization forward as a sustainable business. After all, that’s what nonprofits are; businesses with a mission and a heart. But as a very smart man once told me, Rolf... not-for-profit doesn’t mean for loss! He was right then and remains right today.

Now don’t get me wrong. LNRP’s impact has not only grown over the years but the increasing body of data out there only supports an expansion of our mission-related efforts. And the positive feedback we continue to get from you – our partners and stakeholders – reinforces this fact. But growing has its own pains, as you all well know.

As our former ED and the de facto founder of LNRP, Jim Kettler well knows the realities of being a nonprofit executive director, as do I. So our collective support at this stage is critical. An important transition is occurring at LNRP (see sidebar), some of which has been anticipated, much of which is part of the new world we all recognize we’re in; a world that nonprofits are not divorced from.

So, what will I be doing in this new, albeit temporary role? Although I don’t know that many of you personally (something that I hope is going to change, as you’ll see below), I know that what unites us as supporters of LNRP’s mission and the missions of those organizations and community groups we represent and help (and at many times fund), are bonds that are only growing in strength. But this reality is predicated on LNRP also being able to grow our organizational capacity as we move forward. Having spent some time running major maritime museums, I liken this to supporting the “mother ship.” You catch my drift, pun intended.

My friends and colleagues on the board represent you; our diverse and impactful community groups. So in many ways my interactions at the board level have also represented interactions with each of your groups. And now, as a staffer, I will be able to devote even more time and energy with all of you in support of the work we all deem so important.

So as part of my “job description,” I will be reaching out to all of your groups, almost like being on a fact-finding tour. Or perhaps more accurately, a fact-enhancement tour with regional context thrown in to supply some glue to our efforts. In addition, because of the excellent work already accomplished on the grant-award front (kudos, Jim!), I’ll be helping the team pull together some of the outstanding tasks and initiatives that these grants helped fund.
This will allow Tom to focus on looking forward to the big picture and to defining, recruiting and ultimately hiring new employees who will take on the important programmatic and operational tasks needed for our continuing success. It is also my intent to help straddle and build an even stronger bridge between the board, the executive director and the professional staff through executing and living through this interim position.

Finally, working with Tom, Jim and Jenn will only make me a better and, I hope, more insightful board member when I do return to that role for LNRP, which is my plan. So it’s my sincere hope and expectation to see many of you over the next year or so, at LNRP and partner events, workshops and at meetings of your boards and advisory committees.

Onward!

Rolf “Wisconsin” Johnson

Board President (on hiatus)

Partner and Fiscal Liaison (limited term employee)

An Open Letter to LNRP’s Partners, Friends and Supporters