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My Fellow Docents – 

It is an honor and privilege to write my first letter as Docent Council President to this esteemed group!  First and foremost a thank you to my predecessor, Kent Foutty.  I want to recognize the  challenging and unprecedented (a word I’ve grown to hate) period Kent led us through during his tenure from 2020 – 2022.  I’m thrilled to have a fantastic Docent Council and support from Lori Nelson as Vice President / Treasurer and John Schneider as our Secretary in 2023.

A quick introduction for those of you who I have not had the honor to meet. I am a member of the class of 2019 (go Bovines) and have served on Docent Council since election as our class representative. While the events of the last couple of years have impacted the number of tours I’ve been able to give, I still get a thrill every time I’m out on the street sharing our amazing built environment!  

While I have been in Chicago since college (two decades this May), I am embarrassed to say it took me well over a decade to discover the (then) CAF – but I was hooked from that first tour.  Growing up, my mother literally wrote the book on our historic neighborhood – well not a book, but the application to establish a historic preservation district.  I spent many an hour scraping layers and layers of wallpaper off the original 1893 plaster walls of the home my parents restored throughout my childhood.  I was early to architecture tours – giving walking tours around Ames’ Historic Old Town starting in my pre-teen years. My partner, Lisa, and I live in Lakeview where we are privileged to have fantastic views of the downtown skyline, lake, and Wrigley Field.  Summer evenings on the roof deck watching planes line up for landings at O’Hare with a beverage are one of my favorite ways to unwind.

New Year, new opportunities, new excitement, new challenges!  As I look ahead, I am focused on re-engaging the docent corps, working closely with Eleanor and CAC Staff to improve partnership between the docents and the CAC organization, and help to make our ranks better represent the demographics of the city of Chicago.

To that end, we are off to a running start – on Saturday January 7^th the Docent Council and Committee Co-Leads met for an offsite Strategy Workshop (a huge thanks to Havas Chicago – my dear friend Jeana Munoz, in particular, for hosting us last minute).  We spent the day working on where we want the organization to be in five years, the actions needed to unlock that vision, and starting to define a plan for 2023 to get there.  We will, of course, publish that plan to The Bridge, and there will be many opportunities for all of you to get engaged.  One of the initiatives I’m particularly excited about is a task force focused on defining the Docent Experience (DX) – what does it mean to be a docent?  Why do we dedicate so much time to this organization? How do we recognize and build on that culture?

I’m so excited for what 2023 has to offer!  I’m looking forward to meeting more of you  throughout the year!  I want you to participate in shaping that future!  Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions, suggestions, or feedback – ro**@ro*******.com

I look forward to serving you!

Best,

Ross

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