Blog: Key Themes from Conversations about Great Old Broads for Wilderness

Blog: Key Themes from Conversations about Great Old Broads for Wilderness

In her first few weeks on the job, our new executive director, Reba Elliott, has spoken with 50 of our members, chapter leaders, advisors, staffers, and board members. Our wildest and most sincere thanks to everyone who shared their perspectives, helping Reba learn about us and our work!

These conversations come at a critical moment. The outlook for solving the ever-growing planetary environmental crisis is growing dim. Many people are searching for hope, and organizations like ours offer that spark of hope. These conversations demonstrate that Great Old Broads for Wilderness has what our world urgently needs: commitment, passion, and know-how from an extraordinary community of older women.

At the same time, these conversations also reveal that members see opportunities for our organization to evolve to meet this moment with the strength it calls for.

The format for the conversations was open. Reba asked each person to share whatever was on the top of her or his mind regarding Great Old Broads for Wilderness. If there was time, she asked how the organization could better help our network protect the lands and waters we love and depend on.

While each discussion opened its own lines of thinking, a few key themes recurred. These key themes are below, with a few quotations to demonstrate how these ideas were expressed by different people.

While no summary can capture all nuances, we hope that this overview of the top issues on members’ minds will spark ideas for you as we explore new paths together.

Please read on for an opportunity to share your feedback! 

Key Theme 1: The importance of bold members as grassroots leaders

There is a clear sense that our members are beloved. Words like “feisty,” “passionate,” “engaged,” and “bad ass” were used to describe us. The grassroots leadership of our highly skilled and committed members sets us apart from other environmental organizations.

• “We’re older women who are uncompromising when it comes to wilderness.”
• “This organization is bottom-up and grassroots like no other environmental nonprofit. It requires flexibility and humility at the top.”
• “People don’t wait for direction from the national level. They look at what’s happening locally and tackle it. They use their own local knowledge to figure out what’s best.”

Key Theme 2: Gratitude for relationships

Special stories about outings, meals, carpool rides, and time in nature with fellow members were shared often. Friendships between members are precious.

• “I found kindred spirits, instant old friends.”
• “I felt a sense of belonging right away.”
• “The sense of camaraderie, having a new set of friends, and even some of them being close to me was incredible.”
• “At my age, this was not expected. And so many of the women were so impactful and successful.”

Key Theme 3: Appreciation for current programs and a desire for new resources

People expressed how much they enjoy and appreciate our current programs. At the same time, they also suggested that developing new resources would be important to equip and inspire our members over the long term.

• “The Broadwalks are a good opportunity to meet people, engage new people, and see places that need protecting.”
• “The WALTS training was in-depth, really effective training for women in this field.”
• “Now we have the Broadband Connect meetings, which I find very helpful so that we can all get together to talk about a particular issue and bounce ideas off each other.”
• “I don’t see anything new on the website that excites me” and requests for resources on how to organize a hike and potluck, how to incorporate the arts into time outdoors, how to start a book club, and more.

Key Theme 4: An interest in exploring how to widen our membership

People were interested in widening our membership to ensure that the organization is sustainable and that it has the greatest possible impact. Two demographic questions were raised: age and race.

There is also a sense that efforts to widen our appeal need to be authentically member-led, rather than imposed.

Interest in age:

• “Our members are having to step away. We need more resilience and depth.”
• “We need to attract younger people–’younger’ being relative.”
• “We’ve got to keep the camaraderie and identity as older women but expand the age range so that it’s 50+ rather than just 70+.”

Interest in race:

• “We should be more diverse because different people have different perspectives or takes on the land and how it should be used. Also there are different voting constituencies that we should reach.”
• “We need to have an organization that more authentically represents the face of American women.”
• “I’d like to see more diversity. We’re not reaching out in co-leadership with women of color.”

Key theme 5: Having an authentic, effective public profile

People shared that we should boldly and proudly represent ourselves as older women. At the same time, there is a sense that our public presentation should evolve, with mixed thoughts about our name. As with widening our appeal, people suggested that any evolution of our public profile should be grounded in members’ input.

Interest in authentically representing ourselves as older women:

• “As an older woman, I feel more empowered and stronger and more opinionated than ever.”
• “Don’t downplay being older women who are experienced and talented.”

Mixed thoughts about our name:

• “I love the name.” and “The name ‘Great Old Broads’ gets a smile out of people.”
• “The name ‘Great Old Broads’ is no longer cheeky, no longer the bad-ass woman. It’s now derogatory. The name itself is a problem and is turning people off.”
• “The name closes as many doors as it opens.”
• “We need to maintain support and momentum with members within any name change.”

Key theme 6: Better developing local leaders

While people celebrated the depth of expertise among members, they also spoke up for the need for more robust recruitment efforts, a clearly defined path to leadership, and agreement about what leaders do.

• “I think we need resources or guidance on how to bring new people in and also keep people involved over the long term.”
• “It’s not clear how people get developed as leaders. It’s more like whoever has the personality just steps up.”
• “There is a huge need for training up mid-level support, people who aren’t leaders or just participating in hikes, but people who do the work from week to week, like emailing.”

Key theme 7: Honing our sense of direction and coordination

People urged the Broads national organization to develop a cohesive vision and clear plan to better guide and support grassroots leaders in achieving something greater together.

• “We need a shared mission and vision and a concise set of goals.”
• “When people ask me what we’re about, I say we’re a grassroots conservation organization and list the four pillars. This is so general and so broad. I’d like to hone it down a bit.”
• “We’ve been operating on a ‘parts’ approach, with all the Broadbands dealing with the latest thing. We need a sense of the whole from central leadership.”

While this overview summarizes conversations to date, your feedback is essential. You are warmly welcomed to submit any comments via the button below:

Your comments will be shared with Reba as she seeks to better understand where the organization stands today and how it can better meet this moment.

We appreciate everyone’s feedback as we forge a new path forward for Broads together!