Dear PFLAG Supporter,

An important aspect of chapter leadership is being sure to listen to and incorporate feedback into leadership practices. It’s not just about hearing folks complain, though, it’s about being sure to honor and center their contributions, too! Have you taken a moment to acknowledge the great work and support your chapter and community leaders are providing? If not, this is me reminding you to! There is a lot going on in the PFLAG universe and our communities, you are doing a great job. Thank you for everything you do, always. 

Along the same lines, as we continue our branding rollout, we heard your feedback about wanting more templates. We’re excited to share that Powerpoint Templates are now available! They are located on the Chapter Leader Web Portal on our website. Additional canva templates are being added regularly, too! Be sure to keep an eye out for these easy to use resources to support your chapter. 

One Hour A Week to Branding Success

In last week’s issue of Leadership Matters we continued the One Hour A Week to Branding Success series; this seven-week strategy to do low-lift branding tasks that will take no more than an hour of your time. Last week’s task focused on updating your chapter name everywhere it’s listed!

Week 7: Verify & Update Your Chapter’s Mission & Vision Statements

All PFLAG chapters and PFLAG National follow the same organizational mission and vision statements, which were updated last year. 

1. Refer to your spreadsheet or list from week 1.
2. Visit each platform that’s maintained by your chapter and verify, change, or update your chapter’s mission and vision statements to reflect the newest version of our mission and vision statements. 
3. Don’t forget to save your changes and updates so they reflect the work you’re putting into this project! 
4. Reach out to the organizations, entities, or people who maintain places where your chapter’s mission and vision are listed but not under your control and request that they update these statements to reflect our newest mission and vision statements.

Did you complete this task? SUCCESS! You’re done for the week!

Extra credit: Check for Language and phrasing consistencies in written materials 

You’ve been doing great work so far, if you’ve got some extra time please take a moment to wrap it all up! In addition to checking the chapter brand guide section from pages 9 - 13 on “Talking About PFLAG,” and messaging topics to ensure you’re using the most up to date PFLAG language, it’s a good time to ensure that you’re only using the word PFLAG to describe our organization, so we can ensure we’re welcoming and inclusive of all. As a reminder, PFLAG’s membership voted to change our name in 2014 to simply be PFLAG to foster greater inclusion and awareness for all of the communities that we support as an organization. 

Regional Roundup

As we gear up to make your plans to attend in-person events with your chapter this Pride season, keep safety a top priority!  As chapter leaders you have an obligation to help prepare and protect our people as best we can, especially as communities come together to collaborate and support each other.

Take some time to review this Emergency Plan document from PFLAG Jersey Shore. I want to highlight some considerations this document has that I appreciate.

• Like all well-developed safety plans, this safety plan has procedures for different types of emergencies.
• The inclusion of immediate response and communication between the board and expectations post incident response plans.
• Many chapters have been talking about the safety of their in-person meetings, and this plan highlighted a great way to tackle that question - a sign up form! 
• There is an internal expectation to keep the plan updated and review its practices for use.

These types of considerations can seem heavy and daunting. However, as your chapter develops safety plans and considerations these practices will be less foreign and even become second nature. It’s better to have a plan and not need it than to not have a plan at all.

As always PFLAG National is here for you!

Stay safe,

Sachelle Brooks (she/her)

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