Open Letter to Leaders

From: LEAVEN, Vol. 37 No. 3, August-September 2001, p. 86

Dear Leaders,

As a new "Letters to LLLI" team moves into place, we'd like to introduce ourselves and explain the role of the Letters column. Writing a letter to the LLLI Board of Directors is not the same as a letter intended for the Letters column-as explained in the "Letters to LLLI" column in the June/July 2000 issue of LEAVEN.

The team consists of one or more LLLI Board members and a Contributing Editor (CE). The people in these positions, like all positions in LLL, change over time. Recently retired as the contributing editor is Diane Beckman of North Carolina, USA. Diane served as CE for this column for four years. She did an exemplary job and we thank her!

New to this position is Cynthia Sherar of Minnesota, USA. Recently retired from the LLLI Board of Directors, Cynthia worked on several Letters responses and serves as one of the Board liaisons for a year.

New Board liaisons to "Letters to LLLI" are Sandy Davis of Tennessee, USA and Rachel O'Leary of Cambridge, Great Britain. Sandy has been a Leader for almost 27 years and has six children, ages 10 to 28. She has served in various positions in both the Conference and Leader departments. Rachel has two grown daughters and an 11-year-old son. She was the Division Publications Administrator for the International Division.

Letters to LLLI seeks questions about broad topics that are of interest to a wide Leader audience. Oftentimes the letter asks for clarification of an LLLI policy. Sometimes the letter shares an idea and asks how the idea might work for the larger organization. In other instances, the letter discusses an issue that affects our work as Leaders and asks for ideas on how Leaders might respond to that issue.

Due to space limitations, LEAVEN does not print all letters received. We do, however, respond to all letters. This response is sometimes written by the Letters team, and sometimes it is written by a member of the Board of Directors or LLLI staff.

When a letter is chosen for publication in LEAVEN, it may be edited for clarity or length. In writing a response, the Board liaisons endeavor to find the best possible respondent. This may be someone with particular expertise in the area of concern; it may be a Board member, staff member, administrator who has an interest in the topic, or the liaisons may choose to answer the letter personally. Once a respondent is found, she has considerable latitude in what she wants to include in the response. The Letters team works closely with her, providing insight and suggestions as she goes. The Letters team also works to connect her with Leaders from around the world who may be able to provide differing opinions, ideas, or experiences on the subject. We feel that when these differences are shared, we not only learn from each other but we enjoy the diversity and vitality of LLL.

If you have questions, concerns, or issues you'd like to see considered for publication in LEAVEN, they may be submitted in any language and the Letters team will endeavor to find a translator. If you are interested in helping the Letters team as a translator (letters are usually fairly short), please contact any of us at the following email addresses. If you would like to be considered as a respondent and are able to work in English, please contact the Letters team with your name, LLL background, and email address.

Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:31:53 UTC 2007.