From June 5th to 7th, CEOs and senior leaders of WA Clubs convened at Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, WA, for their fourth annual leadership retreat.
This year’s focus was on growth, encompassing both the organizations and personal and professional development. The integration of Artificial Intelligence into Club administration and operations was a key topic, with insights from Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact team and ChatGPT coaching from Neesh.ai. Chief operating officers joined Club executives in a session aimed at optimizing operational effectiveness, learning from case studies presented by Boys & Girls Clubs in Skagit County and Southwest Washington, which have implemented Lean Six Sigma and the Entrepreneurial Organizational System, respectively.
Club leaders exchanged best practices, successes, and challenges, marking over a year of deliberate collaboration with #culturedrop coach Galen Emanuele. This partnership has led BGC organizations to design and establish a well-defined, purposeful culture within their teams. The initiative is set to influence employee behavior, mindset, and experiences, thereby enhancing engagement, team performance, trust, retention, and accountability. Adopting Galen’s “Clarity, Commitment, Consistency” framework, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Washington State are embedding this cultural work into their daily operations, resulting in a more uniform and positive employee experience, healthier leadership, improved relationships and communication, more unified teams, and greater overall success in fulfilling their mission to support youth and families.
The retreat continues to be our Club leaders’ favorite networking, collaboration and relationship building event of the year. Both in the learning sessions and during fun team-building activities and dinners, Club leaders are continuously evolving the Clubs’ culture and vision for every Club kid, teen and family.