Audio Engineer Josh  00:01
We can fix this. We can fix this. Don't worry.

Mares Asfaha  00:03
Do you see me? Look, when we don't need to be on camera, we used to be a real society.

Audio Engineer Josh  00:10
That's fair, but unfortunately, this season we do need to be on camera.

Mares Asfaha  00:15
Okay, camera's working. Mic is working. I guess we're Ready to go? Hi, I'm Mares Asfaha and I'm an associate director of programs at Philanthropy Northwest, and I'm so excited to be hosting the fourth season of our podcast. Can we talk about? For the fourth season, we are circling back all the way to season one to talk about boards because it is a circle of life. Season one, we started in 2023, and we asked foundation leaders to talk about equity at the board governance level, and they were absolutely fantastic.

Aleesha Towns-Bain  00:49
The thing that we do most often is give money, and yet we talk about money very little. We don't talk about money enough, enough at all, and Liza Minnelli told us in Cabaret, money, money, money, money. Like we got to be talking about it a lot more, especially given the work that we do.

Kevin Walker  01:10
Whatever you think your constraint is, get over it. Bylaws can be changed.

Mares Asfaha  01:16
It's so true because at the end of the day, we control our bylaws, not the other way around. And right now, we're allowing our bylaws to control every move that we make, and this is all adjustable.

Judy Belk  01:31
I go bananas because I I think not only foundations, but most boards they pick these amazing people to sit on their board. They bring them in, they give them a good meal, and they PowerPoint them to death. They don't utilize the power, and it just drives me crazy.

Mares Asfaha  01:55
That's so accurate. If we're going to have these amazing people on our boards, like, what's the use if we're not actually working with them and using them to really fulfill the missions of our organizations? If we're just there so that they can look at a at a slide, we're not really doing the work. Three years later, we've heard from our members that boards can be a transformational agent of change as it relates to equity at the organization, or they can really be a barrier in how much folks are able to move this work forward. So this season on the podcast, we are walking through equity-centered board service. So we're going to be talking about bylaws, recruitment, onboarding. We're going to be talking about the finance discussions that come up that come up at the board level, so we're really excited to get the season started. And don't worry, back by popular, well, back by lukewarm slash room temperature demand slash my demand, we will be bringing back the soapbox snack break. And this season, we might have some special guests to share their soapbox snack breaks as well. So make sure to subscribe and tune in on your favorite podcasting channel. If you don't know what a podcast channel is, you have to figure it out because that's the world we live in now. So good luck, and we hope that you will join us.