Fall is in the air!  Kids are back to school, the leaves are turning, and there is a crispness in the breeze.  I love the Fall.  After lazy Summer fun with friends and family, the Fall for me is a time for getting focused and intensifying my efforts on moving things forward. The Fall, with all its visceral change, reminds me that transitions are important as they more often than not catalyze progress.  Just think about it: without the Fall changes, we wouldn’t have our snowy Winters to rejuvenate, or our beautiful Wisconsin summers. 

At United Way, we are embracing this season of change and re-energizing our work to improve the lives of those around us.  This past April, we passed an important milestone on our journey towards creating a stronger and healthier Sheboygan community with the development and adoption of our new three-year strategic plan.  This plan is serving every day as our roadmap for both the Board and the Staff and is helping to ensure we sustainably deliver on our Mission.

As we continue forward on our journey and move fully into the implementation of our impact strategy, I want to share with you an important next step in the work of your United Way. Jon Doll, Executive Director, has decided that after a long, fulfilling career, his passion for music is calling and the time is organizationally right for him to transition out of the Executive Director role over the next year. While we hate to see Jon go, this timing is consistent with his intentions coming into the role in 2013 and the Board fully supports Jon’s decision.  I’ve put in place a strong Succession and Transition Team and work is well underway putting in motion our succession planning process.

As many of you will recall, Jon stepped in to lead your United Way during a difficult time for our community and the organization following the death of Bill Weissert who had served as the leader for the UWSC for over 10 years. Prior to this role, Jon had a distinguished career in nonprofit leadership in the U.S. and abroad and we were delighted that the stars aligned for Jon, personally and professionally, to return to his hometown of Sheboygan to lead our United Way.

Jon is a visionary with a gift for rallying others around big ideas and has been instrumental in bringing to life the community’s long-time aspiration of a United Way that consistently drives ever-increasing impact in the areas of highest need. He has built a terrific, capable team; a talented group of professionals who work tirelessly to make big ideas a reality.Under Jon’s leadership, the UWSC has:

• Initiated unprecedented conversation among the Mental Health Community;
• Led a collaborative effort to study Sheboygan’s food bank and pantry system and address the community’s enormous issues surrounding the distribution of healthy food;
• Created a collaborative, county-wide effort to intervene in our children’s first few years of life to make sure they are ready for school; and
• Successfully merged the county’s struggling Volunteer Center with United Way and enhanced organization’s already strong relationship with key corporate partners.

While we know we have an advocate, friend and volunteer for life in Jon, I, along with my Board colleagues and our Staff, will be sorry to see him step down next year. I am personally grateful for his leadership, passion and friendship. But I know that like the Fall, change in required for continued growth, and, with the United Way’s efforts to move more intentionally into strategy implementation, I look forward to working with our next leader to take your United Way to a higher level of impact.

All of us at the United Way who serve you and yours are committed to ensuring strong continuity of leadership and a smooth transition. We have put in place a thoughtful and disciplined succession process that will unfurl over the coming months and encompass a professional search process, comprehensive internal and external communications, and a robust transition plan.

Together, we are on a journey at the United Way – and making great progress!  Our journey is moving us closer every day towards our common goal of seeing a community in which all individuals and families can achieve their full potential through education, income stability and healthy lives.  This is your United Way.  Working together, we can – and we will – make sustainable, positive change.

Tony Klockow is the Board President of the United Way of Sheboygan County Board of Directors