EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
A Year of Remarkable Progress
December 2008
John Haynes, Executive Director and CEO
In This Section
Dear Friends,
With the New Year in sight it's traditional – and natural – to start looking both forward and back, taking stock of the previous year and anticipating the next one. It's a bit like standing at the threshold of a house, the spot where you could be either coming in or going out, here and gone, home and away simultaneously. The year-end returns are coming in – The Top 10 Books, Person of the Year, Year in Pictures, All Star Teams, Best Movies, Must-Have CDs, and Bowl matchups. In a matter of days we'll box up 2007, put it on the shelf, and start on a new one.
For me personally, it was a remarkable time. New Year. New job. New town. New home.
2007 A.D. and I arrived in Bellevue at about the same time. I had just driven 2500 miles to take up residence as the Executive Director and CEO of PACE – barely outrunning a blizzard in Colorado, but overtaken by the new year rolling westward across the Cascades. I knew no one. I had no real idea what my apartment would be like, since I had rented it the day after the mid-December windstorm when the world was dark. My possessions were in a truck, in a snowbank, somewhere in Idaho. During my first week in the office I spoke at Bellevue Rotary, met with the Campaign For PACE Co-Chairs, spent about 14 hours in design and construction meetings, and got a haircut. By the following Monday I had such a bad case of the flu that I missed my own welcome party. Even without the party, though, I feel welcome and at home in this remarkable community. And the apartment turned out fine, even in the light.
As I look back at the year I can say with real pleasure (and a little pride) that PACE has made good progress. In March we completed the Schematic Design phase and the construction budget. In April the Board embraced the design, the budget, and the Campaign goal. Also in April, Bellevue Rotary beat all previous records for their annual auction, raising almost $650,000 for PACE. In May the State Legislature appropriated $2 million for PACE, adding to $3 million in previous investments by the City of Bellevue and King County. Public officials, corporations, foundations, and individual donors continue to express their support of PACE at an accelerating rate. We are profoundly thankful to every one of them.
Flipping through my 2007 calendar, I'm struck by the sheer number of speeches, briefings, events, and conversations at which I told the PACE story. I realize that I've talked to literally thousands of people during the past year and that, as a result, I see someone I know pretty much every time I go grocery shopping. It's a quick way to meet the neighbors. (But I can scarcely wait to get PACE built so we can start meeting in the theatre lobby instead of the produce section.)
More important than what I've said, though, is what I've heard. Your ideas about PACE and what it can mean to the Eastside – indeed, to the artists and audiences of the entire region – continue to encourage me. We've started a kind of extended dialogue with anyone and everyone who has an opinion about the future of the Eastside, a conversation that will ultimately inform our programming and set a standard for the way we serve this community. I didn't come to Bellevue to build my dream. I came to help build yours.
I am optimistic about 2008. I have every reason to believe that we will more than double our fundraising progress by the time the tulips bloom. As I learn more about this community and meet more of you and hear about your hopes and dreams, I am increasingly convinced that PACE is the right project in the right place at the right time. Perhaps the most gratifying thing about this moment is seeing how many people agree.
Clarke's Law of Revolutionary Ideas holds that every transformational idea – whether in science, politics, or art – evokes three successive stages of reaction: (1) "It's completely impossible! Don't waste my time"; (2) "OK … it may be possible, but it isn't worth the effort"; and (3) "I said all along it was a great idea!!" Most of the people I meet are well into stage three.
Let's make 2008 the year in which PACE is the big idea whose time has come.
I wish you all a Happy New Year. A year of peace. A year of harmony and understanding. A year marked by Beauty in all its forms. A year, in short, replete with the blessings of the arts and the joy of creation.
Sincerely,
