Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.37, it's FLX Morning Wednesday, and Chris Lavin is here today in his capacity as Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs. We'll talk government stuff another day. Good morning. Hey, good morning, Ted. And as promised, I think we talked about this last time you were here, we're going to focus on a couple of the newer employees at the clubs and some of the plans for the future. So are you kind of, not stepping away completely, but kind of loosening the reins a little bit?
Chris Lavin: Yeah, I'm going to be focusing on development and community relations more, but I've hired the people that are going to run the club, I hope for many years, because we're growing, we're in good shape financially, and I think we're in a position to improve our leadership in the community. So I'm going to be stepping, still around, it's still like love and care for Geneva and love and care for the club. But I do want to make sure that the leadership in the club is going to be around consistently for a long time and learn the complex little operation we've built. So I've named Stephanie Hessler, former Hobart development person, Cornell development person to be the interim CEO as the board decides the longer time future. And she's brought on some people that are really improving the guts of the club in the day-to-day operations that really augment the school district, so Ryan Kincaid is with us as well, and I'm going to let them represent the club in the future. You and I can talk city politics and government and other things, but this is the club now.
Paul Szmal: All right, we'll do that. We have one old friend and one new friend here. I'm going to start with you, Stephanie, just step over to the microphone there, because I've always, I admire people who can do a lot of different things, because I only know how to do one thing. I've talked for a living my whole life, and if I couldn't do that, I'm not handy with a screwdriver, I can't do anything else. So you've done all these different kinds of things, what attracted you to this spot with the clubs?
Stephanie Hessler: Well, first of all, don't sell yourself short. You do a lot of amazing things, and I admire your ability to do the things that you do. But if you need your muffler changed, forget it, I'm not going to be able to help. And forgive me, I'm getting over a cold here too, but no, I'm thrilled to be back in Geneva. Like you mentioned, I've done a couple different things over the years, and I feel like I can take little pieces of everything I've done and pull them all together into this really exciting role. I appreciate Chris Slavin's trust in me to be in that seat, and to help this organization grow and thrive into the future.
Paul Szmal: Of course, you're a Rotarian, as is Chris, so you are completely familiar with service. So how do you, when you step into something like this, how do you get the 30,000 foot view? Because the club does so many things and has its reach into so many areas of life in Geneva, so how do you evaluate the whole thing and start coming up with a plan?
Stephanie Hessler: Yeah, well, that's exactly what I've been doing since I came on board in August. And then like Chris mentioned, in December, the board voted to have me interim director. But from August until today, I've been on a listening tour, a listening tour internally, meeting with staff, working with Ryan Kincaid, who's here with us, on our staffing plans, meeting with board members, meeting with community members, donors, just to get to know people and get a sense of what their perceptions are, what kind of needs there are in the community. So kind of really, it's been a listening tour, and I'm not done yet. And I mean, the success of the clubs has been great, and every time you have a success, you have another need. I mean, it's just you're kind of chasing that, you know, that rabbit or the carrot at the end of the stick.
Ryan Kincaid: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I think, you know, building off of our sort of base mission of the Boys and Girls Club after school care, that's probably our biggest program, but you know, to Chris Lavin's credit, he has done a really nice job of, and the community's credit, you know, adding those pieces in. I was thinking about this last night, it's really like a tapestry, you know, and we have threads that weave in and out of our work. We have partners weaving in and out, and we're really wrapping around needs in our community. It starts many times with kids and their families, and it expands from there, you know, to the toddler time program, working with those zero to three families, and you know, we also happen to have a group of seniors that meets at our community center on Wednesday mornings, so we really, there's a lot of, like you said, a lot of things happening, and it's really exciting.
Paul Szmal: I've talked about this a lot with Chris over the years, and he's really focused in on the idea that what happens to a child, well, in the first thousand days we have that program, makes all the difference. How can we continue to serve and better serve these young people and get them started off on the right track and breaking that cycle of poverty that affects so many families?
Ryan Kincaid: Yeah, well, I think we've done the community a great service by hiring a woman named Ryan Hughes. We lost our other director a few months ago, another Ryan, we like to double up on our names here at the club, and she's been super bringing her early childhood education experience to the table, and when families come to us for that toddler time, and it's parents and kids, it's not daycare, but it's parents' involvement, you know, we're assessing needs when they walk in the door, do they need extra groceries from our pantry, and we can send them along the way, but she's also, she's doing a beautiful job assessing where kids are in their development. We've got programs, I was just looking last night, we've got Thursday is a, community readers are coming in to work with kids, and we've got a dance program happening Friday, so she's really tuning into some different types of things in the community, and she's also, we're in the midst of hiring an assistant so that she can sort of double-clone herself, and we can expand down to our Goodman site. We've been experimenting with an afternoon program there, haven't had great success yet, but I'm hoping that an assistant will allow her to flex time and meet some needs, you know, right at a site where we hope people can take advantage of that.
Paul Szmal: Chris talks about putting on his fundraising hat, not his favorite thing to do, recognizes it's an essential thing to do, will you use some of your development experience to help brainstorm with him on ways to keep that, he's nodding.
Stephanie Hessler: Yes, absolutely, and I'm excited, it's great timing, we're actually, we're freshening up our software, actually Monday, and so I'm excited about diving in a little deeper on that, and really starting to look at segments of our donor population, I know Chris gets excited about live months and side months, and those are fun things to say, in terms of last year, didn't give last year, but unfortunately not this year, gave last year, this year. And things like that, so we can really start to, you know, get a better sense of who our donors are, what they would like to support, how we can connect with them, meet their needs, because that's the magic of philanthropy, you know, if you're giving to something you support.
Paul Szmal: All right, let's meet Ryan Kincaid, good morning to you.
Ryan Kincaid: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: So I know a little bit that you're a William Smith Heron, tell us a little more about you and how you found your way to the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Ryan Kincaid: For sure, yeah, I grew up in Geneva, and my family didn't have a super lot of money, and we, I don't know, my parents did the best they could in terms of education, and really supporting me to do as many things as I could. So while I didn't have the same type of experiences as some of my wealthier counterpart, who went, you know, sailing, and they had hundreds of dollars to go to different things, I had a very rich childhood. And I think ever since I was younger, I wanted to bring that experience to other kids. And so, you know, I've now, years later, have gone into through an education program at HWS. I taught for five years, middle school science, I've done AmeriCorps in Vermont and Oregon, in environmental educator capacities there. And then I also have worked with 4-H and Cornell Cooperative Extension, so I have a lot of youth development experience that I think has really enriched my background. So now I'm coming back, I actually, right after college, worked briefly at the Boys and Girls Club, in a different role, and now I'm the program director. So it's just, I think, like, even though it's kind of seems circuitous, it all has really helped me to have a better sense of, you know, I know some of the local needs, having grown up here and now being back here. But then I also have, like, kind of, like, more worldly experience, having been elsewhere too, and really want to enrich the education and the learning experiences that the kids have at the Boys and Girls Club. So it's not just a place kids go and hang out, but it's a place where they learn, where they are exposed to new things, they get to try new things. We're also trying to increase their academic performance, offering life skills, so they're learning how to cook, how to, you know, budget and be successful adults that are contributing to society. Yeah, really trying to do a lot of different types of things, and bringing all my experiences to the fore.
Paul Szmal: I talked to Stephanie about coming up with her overall plan, how will you turn ideas into programming? How do you say, boy, it would be great if we had this, and then turn it into something concrete that we'll see at the clubs?
Ryan Kincaid: Yes, yes. So one of the things I'm really trying to do now is to hire specialists. So we have activity coordinators who can do different types of things at the club, but also I'm looking for people who have that background experience. So we hired recently a STEM specialist, and we have creative arts specialists, so people who have that background, have that education, have that real world experience doing that type of thing out in the field, and bringing that to the kids. So you know, music, nature, tech, that kind of thing, so the kids can see something from a professional. So sometimes that'll be that we bring in someone just for like a one or two time thing. We also have clubs at the club, which are eight week series to really let the kids dive deeper. But then we also have staff, you know, people on staff who are working, you know, full or part time to work with the kids every day, so that the kids are really getting excited. You know, especially I was talking with somebody with our STEM specialist yesterday, and really just trying to get the kids thinking like a scientist, like an engineer, oh, I could design this thing, and it's okay to change it.
Paul Szmal: Now, as you said, growing up in Geneva, how will you bring that perspective to the club? So you know what it was like to be in a family that maybe didn't have a lot of money, but knew how to give you the most in terms of experiences and education and drive?
Ryan Kincaid: Yeah, yeah. So I think that just really helping the kids to latch on to a spark, you know, to give them little snippets of, okay, you could try this, you could try this, you know, we're going to try and go outside and see what's exciting. We're going to try, you know, technology and see, you know, you're going to learn coding and that kind of thing. I think like giving kids an opportunity to see what they like, and then go dive more deeply into it. So I think that's something my parents, my grandparents did really well, you know, my grandparents would take me outside and teach me about different types of plants, and that really started my love of the environment. And my parents loved music, and so I have gone for years doing different types of music. So I think giving kids that opportunity to try something they might not get to try at home or in school, and then we can, you know, share those experts with them and kind of have mentors for them to go further.
Paul Szmal: I love that you said that, because I've always thought that that's one of the big keys to success for young people is finding that thing that sparks them. It's like, okay, it's not this, okay, it's not this, boom, here's the thing. And that, you know, in my case, I wanted to do this since I was very, very young. I got that spark early and turned it into a career. I think that's huge for kids to find that thing that motivates them. And a lot of times, especially in poor families, they don't get that opportunity to even know what choices might be out there.
Ryan Kincaid: Right, yeah, because I know some families might not be able to afford, you know, $100, $100 lessons or private sessions with somebody, tutors, that kind of thing. And so we want to make sure we're bringing everything to the kids, you know, during their after school time while the kids are, you know, the parents are still working, they're going to come pick their kids up later. And it's everything's just at their fingertips. So that's right available for them. We have HWS, you know, college tutors who come in frequently to help the kids. We're actually going to be starting a Big Brothers, Big Sisters session at the club as well. So some of the kids who might need a little extra support or just could, you know, benefit from an additional stable person in their lives, they'll have access to that too. So yeah, just really trying to make everything as easily accessible as possible. I think that's part of the challenge. I mean, some of the parents don't have a car, so, you know, we're providing transportation, as Chris mentioned, probably in other sessions too, but also today, you know, providing food, that kind of thing as well. So, you know, making sure that the kids are fed, you know, if they're hungry, like it's a lot harder for them to learn something new. But if they're, you know, well fed and happy, then we can, we can take them further.
Paul Szmal: Right, right when they get to the club every day, a hot meal.
Chris Lavin: Well, I think we've been doing a good job. We're seen as a better place to be. But it also makes me think there may be a God. I'm not sure. I'm telling you.
Paul Szmal: Well, it's great to have both of you here today. Ryan, I know we'll talk to you, we'll talk to you, Stephanie, as well. But it's great to meet you and your energy and enthusiasm and your knowledge and ability to turn that into programming shines through. So great conversation. Appreciate your time. And we'd love to come back with some other staff and have you meet some of them. And if anybody wants to volunteer, there's a spot on our website. Support, I looked it up, Support the Club. We are transitioning our website, but you can go there and there's a form to fill out or call us at 759-6060.
Chris Lavin: All right, sounds good. Chris will come back another time. We'll fix city government. We still have some time to do that. It's 8.51 now, FLX morning.
