October 25, 2013
Colleagues,
Please join me in welcoming Leslie Boissiere as she joins us as Chief Operating Officer of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Leslie starts officiallyon Monday, October 28th.
That opening begs for a telling of the back story. Here it is. Just about this time last year, I offered up this assessment on the Campaign. "In many respects, we have been running a marathon at sprint speed." I noted that we had "exceeded our expectations" and needed to ensure that the Campaign avoid becoming "a victim of its own success." The promised period of reflection did occur, but not quite in the way I had expected. Rather than spending more time in the office and less on the road, the reality was the opposite. Despite the willingness of so many of you (especially Elizabeth Burke Bryant, Patrick Corvington, Ron Fairchild and Barbara O'Brien) to share the load, the invitations from the GLR Communities required more time on the road and with the civic leaders, public officials and engaged citizens who are working to make grade-level reading a reality in their respective communities.
Spending more rather than less time in these communities and with these folks has affected how I view the potential of the Campaign and my own role in it. With Alicia Maldonado, Laura Downs, Becky Miles-Polka, Swati Adarkar, Carolyn Lyons, Sammy Moon and Kim Scott as guides, I have come to understand how important it is to be there in person to support the leaders, affirm the effort and lift up the fact that each local effort is connected to something larger from which they can draw information, assistance and support and to which they contribute energy and momentum. And then there is ongoing "crowdsourcing" that is the successor to the pre-launch listening tour and the post-launch retail evangelism. The past year has confirmed that this commitment to crowdsourcing is essential to the Campaign's ability to reflect, refine, re-set and when necessary re-invent. In many respects, crowdsourcing sits at the core of strategy development.
The increased clarity regarding the responsibilities that go with being lead champion and ambassador as well as chief strategy officer led me to conclude that an important next step was that of finding and recruiting a Chief Operating Officer who could be counted upon to provide inspired and inspiring day-to-day management of this growing enterprise. Over the past six months, I have spoken with literally dozens of potential candidates who were suggested and referred by many of you. Those conversations helped me to appreciate Leslie's background, experience and skill sets and to see just how they would contribute to the Campaign at this stage in its development.
Leslie and I have agreed that one of the priorities for her on-boarding over the next two months will be to meet and to get to know the dozens of people who have been key to the Campaign's success to date. And it will come as a surprise to no one that I have asked Leslie to see this "on-boarding" moment as a near-perfect opportunity for the scanning, mapping and developing position descriptions and performance metrics and the various tasks and activities already sitting in the "in" basket near her desk. And she would have it no other way.
As COO, Leslie will manage the day-to-day operations of the Campaign to align and integrate the major "buckets" of work. This tightly knit effort is critical as we move toward the next phase of strategically leveraging momentum to accomplish our 2020 goal of doubling the number of children from low-income families reading proficiently at the end of third grade. As Leslie reaches out over the next several weeks, I appreciate your effort to work closely with her as we build out the enterprise that will support and sustain the Campaign.
Kind regards,
Ralph Smith
Managing Director, Campaign for Grade Level Reading
Campaign for Grade Level Reading 1602 L. Street, NW Suite 300 Washington D.C. 20036 202-459-4320 gradelevelreading.net