Bill Purcell on helping our families

William (Bill) Purcell returns to Crossroads United Way of Elkhart, LaGrange & Noble Counties after almost 30 years, from when he was Vice President of the United Way of Elkhart. Prior to returning to United Way, Bill was a faculty member, advisor and administrator at the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame for over 18 years. He also served in nonprofit and ecclesial leadership roles before that in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Our conversation with Bill is about what he's finding as he returns to serve this community.

This show is a production of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. It is powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded in the Viaggio Studio at weIMPACT in Elkhart's River District. Editing is done by the award-winning communication students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listen to Globe Radio at 91.1 FM. Learn more about the Community Foundation of Elkhart County at inspiringgood.org You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Music is provided by Sensational Sounds. Thanks for listening. We hope you are inspired and inspire good and your community.

Transcript

Marshall V. King: 0:02

Welcome to the Inspiring Good Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, which serves a vibrant community in northern Indiana. Known for its generosity, and strong network of nonprofit organizations. I'm Marshall King, your co host with Kevin deary, a veteran nonprofit CEO, who now serves as the Director of Professional and organizational development for the Community Foundation. We're here today with Bill Purcell, President and CEO of Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and noble counties. Welcome, Bill.

Bill Purcell: 0:42

Thank you so much for being here. And Kevin,

Marshall V. King: 0:45

I turn it over to you.

Kevin Deary: 0:47

Thank you, Marshall. Bill, it's so good to see you. I believe that we met back in 1994. I was a young CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs. And you were working at the organization, which was not Crossroads at the time he was United Way of Elkhart County. And you were working as a vice president there, weren't you? Yes,

Bill Purcell: 1:08

sir. We go way back. And now we have a little bit of a wisdom stripes over the years as a form. But Kevin and I, again, you were came in and from New England, and came in change thing. And that's left the legacy with the Boys and Girls Club. So thank you for the great leadership you've done over the last 30 years.

Kevin Deary: 1:28

Thank you, I was surrounded by a wonderful leader of staff, board members, community people. And I'm privileged to be able to work at the Community Foundation. And now you've come back full circle. Now you're President, the CEO of the United Way, Crossroads United Way. And I'd like to talk to you a little bit about can you tell us, first of all about today's United Way? And then also, how did Crossroads come about? Sure,

Bill Purcell: 1:52

again, I was here 30 years ago, and things have changed. Again, the wonderful thing about coming back is seeing the changes, but also that how United Way has changed. And the United Way here for crossroads. You know, one is that we're at the crossroads of America, right. And because we are a regional United Way, we needed a regional name, so that we can think beyond counties. And I've been working with my board to do a regional vision. And working on that. So we first included Lagrange. And it's been a wonderful relationship back and forth. And also people go back and forth between the counties, but also large Amish or plain people population was a large Latino population. Then we also then included Noble County joined us. So you have towns like kendallville, you know, Ligonier, in Albion, and we have actually another we have a sub office than over in kendallville. Because we're trying to work regionally. And we're in discussions right now possibly including a nother county, possibly in the future.

Kevin Deary: 3:01

Wow, that is big news. We are can't wait to hear that it will that change the name Crossroads or it'll remain? No, that's

Bill Purcell: 3:08

a nice thing. The beauty of being Crossroads United Way is, again, how do we continue to be creative, innovative, and really be ambassadors for the nonprofit community. And the one thing that's the same with the United Way, as United Way is about community and gathering resources from the community to provide those resources back out to be philanthropists. And then what we try to do then is how do we do advocacy and education and be ambassadors for the nonprofit community? So that we continue to do I would say the difference between when you and I knew each other back in 94 to 96, is there was a lot of legacy. I would say nonprofits that were supportive and certain structures, I'd say now, what we focus on is how do we do community impact now is how do we be systems thinking, meaning how do we look at, you know, root causes and systemic change? In the last 30 years, that's what I've spent my career and building that muscle memory of nonprofits to do that. So it's fun now that I retired from Notre Dame last fall, this past fall, and to finish out my career in a way that I can work on systemic change back on the ground again,

Kevin Deary: 4:25

you have a fascinating professional journey. You mentioned Notre Dame, you also walked worked in Washington DC. Could you tell us like from the time you left in 96, the United Way, and then started your journey? Could you tell us a few of the stops along the way where you gathered this wisdom that you now can unfertile for us?

Bill Purcell: 4:44

Sure. Thanks, Kevin. So I again I had a wonderful, wonderful time working here for the United Way of Elkhart county because I not only worked here but I worked in the 17 counties of Northern Indiana and I was paid through the Indiana Association United Way's and through Lilly Endowment, who's still supportive United Way will have in 17 counties. That was exciting because it was a regional approach of trying to do, again, empowerment and development. While I left here from the 17 counties, I went to Washington DC, because my new territory was the eastern half of the United States. I went and worked for the US Catholic Conference of bishops. So the Roman Catholic Church is they have a program called Campaign for Human Development, which is now a Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which looks at systemic change. The it's actually the second collection of the weekend before Thanksgiving in the Catholic Church, they are received millions of dollars, and then they give that out. And two main ways to try to do that approach. One is through community organizing, and then also funding economic development projects, such as credit unions, or CDFIs, and things like that. And so I worked in Washington, DC. And I enjoyed that again, I had the eastern United States, so I traveled around a lot. But finally, my wife was like, why do we live in Washington, DC, and you're not here? I'm not a real big fan. Can you do this in one specific place? So then we moved to Chicago. And I had worked for the cardinal in Chicago and I ran the office of peace and justice. And I did everything from again, all the justice issues from we did partnering of parishes, from the inner city to the community, suburbs, to we funded community organizing to we did the international development, and any kind of justice issues worked a lot on housing. Xe got a lot of money from the MacArthur Foundation and Chicago Community Trust, that would, we would do the systemic change issues around that. So that when Catholic Charities would do the bricks and sticks, they wouldn't run into the nimbyism or the different issues because we had already worked with both the local community as well as dealing with the politicians and the aldermen and things like that. So and then from Chicago, then I was actually recruited to come to the University of Notre Dame by the head of the Center for Social concerns. The Center for Social concerns was founded in 1983 to work on the experiential education and kind of social justice education for Notre Dame and so I was brought in to run a minor to teach but also the run the day to day of the center and so I did that the last about 19 years and then came back here October 2 Replace pill wreath so they replaced it with another bill Bill Purcell, we both have two sons and a daughter. We both have an M div. We there's like so many similarities, it wasn't even funny. I'm like that they have a little checkbox that they went through. But it's wonderful again to be back here in Elkhart County.

Kevin Deary: 8:00

If you were so close to Bill wreath. Do you also have a Klingon name?

Bill Purcell: 8:03

No, I do not. I'm not a Star Trek fan. I'm I'm originally from Buffalo. So I'm a hardcore Buffalo Bill recovering fan as well as the Sabre fan.

Marshall V. King: 8:13

So do you tell better jokes than Bill Rieth?

Bill Purcell: 8:15

normally tells I do not do dad jokes. Okay.

Kevin Deary: 8:21

Well, Bill wreath obviously was a legend here in our county for 25 years as leading our our local United Way. And also did all the legwork to open up Crossroads to happen and to bring in those those communities of Lagrange and Noble County. I've worked in a little bit in LaGrange and Nova county worked with Junior Achievement, pulling the Junior Achievement East noble, West noble center noble together. So I know that that community is split into threes very much based on their high schools. also did some work with the public library to help build that public library. Just help with some friends over in the grains. You know, that brings a one of the changes that we as nonprofits face is how we are structured as board members and through governance. There's a lot of regionalization that's happening across the country. We're seeing here in Elkhart County, it almost blurs the lines. You can work with the Elkhart County Community Foundation if you're serving Elkhart people, but it's amazing how many commute how many nonprofits have actually regionalised now, including our own crossroads, correct. Can you talk about some of the regional issues, some things that face boards and CEOs that are unique than just having one board and one community?

Bill Purcell: 9:43

Yeah, the reality is because again, things become larger and you're dealing with problems that are regional that you can only do sometimes regionally, you know, within that, and so we all know for instance, there's education issues in each of our areas. But we're also trying to do, you know, early education and doing that regionally is much better, because the reality is, for instance, Indiana, they're passing laws. There's different things that get done. And we're working with the politicians are working with the systems. So some of the folks I work with, whether it be things like a cog, like the machine Area Council on governments, the Elkhart South Bend partnership, a lot of the organizations I work with are not just the Chamber of Commerce, for instance, about cart, but I'm working with all those chambers of commerce. I'm working with Olivia, who's the Community Foundation person, you know, over in LaGrange County in Margarita, who's the Community Foundation? Because we're dealing with all of them, because the issues and that's what I'm working on right now with the board is how do we look at these things regionally? So for instance, how do we look at a coalition of the Latinx? community? And so they've been talking with each other on the the people's Latino leadership institute, and so they're looking at regionally is how do they develop leaders, and they don't just want it one county, they want regionally. So talking those those different folks, like Alberto Perez, and Manny Cortez is because they're working thing regionally. So then I talked to one custom Tina over in South Bend. And so I'm talking to multiple counties and working on how do we do this, you know, regionally, and we have an impact on issues of housing education, that you can't just do within a county because the lines don't stop there. Especially when many of the folks the way they work, they crossed lines, many of the decisions they get made, are cross counties. So that's why you have organizations that can make a buck, because we're talking about the region. So and issues of jobs, issues of inflation, issues of skilled labor, right, that crosses lines,

Kevin Deary: 11:59

including state lines, yes, we have a lot of Michigan residents that work in all three of the counties that you serve. So with your board of directors, you're looking at shaping regional policy, as much as impact to family and kids. Exactly. But you still serve families and kids. Yes. Which is so important. And we talk a lot about some of your programs, sir.

Bill Purcell: 12:21

So again, as much as anything else, and again, reminding folks that United Way is we raise funds, right? Resource Development. And so the board has to help with that, and multiple ways that we act as philanthropists. But the way that we do philanthropy is the board and committee members, they decide where the money's going. It's not up to build Purcell. Right? So that means they have a hat to sense of what is systemic change? What is an understanding of what does that mean, to do that? Because they're helping them make the decisions? And I can't make those decisions for them. I gotta do those decisions with them. Right? And so making them understand that, how do we do that? So they have to take ownership, it means I do really need their time, talent, and treasure, all three of those, because the one thing you'll get oftentimes as well, I can be on a board or I can be on a committee. But, you know, I've got a lot of commitments. And we all have a lot of commitments, and of course, busy people are the ones who like to take, but how do we really look at if we're going to address the community issues, we really need people from the community to have a role within that, overall within that. And so if we're going to be ambassadors of the region, then we need to be able to, for a little thing, for instance, is having our board meetings in different counties, right. So they have a sense of that it can talk about it, but don't have an understanding. We have make sure there's representation from each county on the board. Because those people have different understandings. Is

Kevin Deary: 13:50

there a percentage between the three is it based on community? sighs?

Bill Purcell: 13:55

Yeah, so we kind of have a community size overall within that so that again, Elkhart county would be the dominant where the folks are, but then I would say noble, Noble County, and then Lagrange County, and

Kevin Deary: 14:08

you have offices located in those three counties. So we have

Bill Purcell: 14:11

offices in Elkhart and Noble County, we don't have an office in LaGrange. But again, we'll have to think about that in the future. But we work very closely. And in fact, some of our best nonprofit leaders are in LaGrange County. And Crossroads United Way was recently nominated to be nonprofit of the Year by the Lagrange County Chamber of Commerce. So we were one of the top three and I was like, I definitely don't want to help one of them because the two people were against word by two of my favorite and there's one that I wanted to win it and they want it so Elijah haven that which was domestic abuse. Fantastic. Executive Director, really awesome. Organization. And again, Lagrange County. We love Lagrange County and they love us and there's lots across a For back and forth, and so it's nice to know that, you know, you're noticed. So something like crossroads that to be lifted up by the Chamber of Commerce is wonderful.

Kevin Deary: 15:09

How can how big do you see you're talking about taking a fourth County? And what point does it get? Governance wise? And not only that, but your staff? The stress that comes with that? Yeah, I

Bill Purcell: 15:23

know, there's pros and cons that we talked about that just last week. And as talking to the executive director, the place where we've talked about that and talking to my board chair, because that's some of the reality is there's needs that need to be met. And if you centralize some of the administrative services, then how does it make sure for us at cross origin Attaway the dollars that people give making sure those dollars go out? And so how do we supplement that how to do the administration in other ways, because we want to make sure we're addressing the, you know, the root causes, and that's going to take good dollars, when we will always have emergency food and shelter, program money that we give out. So we want to make sure that then the money we're raising, from, you know, again, the worker on the floor, at a boat factory, that their dollar is going the furthest possible, and in our counties, we actually can show you that one in four people are impacted by the work that we're doing. So the dollar goes pretty far. And I'd say, you probably don't want to, you know, I'd say you could, we could probably go up to five counties, maybe 567. But I wouldn't want to go beyond that. Because you just want to make sure that again, you're you want to make sure you're continuing the personal touch. You want to make sure that you're there's representation and true voice. And then number three is you want to make sure that the funds, again, get collected, stay in those counties and be supportive. And the reality, though, sometimes is, for instance, Elkhart county sometimes is supplementing these other counties.

Kevin Deary: 17:00

Well, I have a feeling Mrs. Purcell may have been voted in that if you get too far out, say Washington, DC again. So we are grateful for all the things that you do for our local families and our children. Let's flip it around a little bit. Let's talk about the businesses. So you, you get money from employees, but you also get corporate matches many times. Can we talk a bit about what are some of the challenges you're seeing, comparing and contrasting between Lagrange noble, Elkhart County? What when you're talking to the business leaders? Yeah,

Bill Purcell: 17:32

as some of it is, I mean, a big thing is the issue of skilled workers. You know, some counties have more than others, and or they're losing their workers to other counties. Again, the human resources. There's also the issue like in this region, you have 50,000, you know, plenty people, Amish people. And so the impact they have, and they work on a cash economy. And that just causes a different way of addressing issues, and about some people saying, you know, taking care of your own, but how do you make sure you're building community? How do you make sure everyone has voice? So for instance, one of the things that crossroads we've talked about is, how do we have make sure there's more Amish voice on our committees? Within that? How do we have more Latinx voices, Latinos, Latinos, making sure they have impact? Because if you go to a place, like Lagrange County, just go to the corn school corn school has been going on since 1870s. And we participate in that. And we actually coordinate a kid's parade about every third vendor is Hispanic, Latino, right. So talk a

Kevin Deary: 18:45

little about for those of our listeners who aren't familiar with corn dance, can you talk a little more in school? Yeah, so

Bill Purcell: 18:50

yeah, so corn school, was started in the 1870s. And it was actually actually teaching children how to do you know, Corn Development in and harvesting. And so it's been going on since then. And I think it had the support of Purdue. And it's been a long tradition. And so it's in October every year during harvest time. And so it's educational, but it's also a way of bringing the community together. Because again, part of economics is also quality of life. Right? So what they're trying to do with corn schools, how do they build that community? And so it brings out the Amish community, the Latino, Latin X community brings out everyone. So they have these cut off downtown Lagrange in the county. And people come from all over the county and they have fare and food and events and we actually do a kid United evening, and we do a parade and have the kids dress up. And and we're a sponsor, we get corporate sponsors to support that. That's great.

Marshall V. King: 19:56

Bill, what can you update us a little bit on where things stand with the Alice family initiative that the United Way has been so integral in on in Elkhart County. Sure,

Bill Purcell: 20:08

just so you know what Alice is. So Alice is a term, essentially, it's the working poor, but Alice stands for asset, limited income constraint employees, those would be the folks that would be from poverty line to really just make, you know, if just barely making it. And that number then becomes a much greater number than just the people in the poverty line. Because those are the people that are, you know, one refrigerator breaking down their car breaking down. Bad hospital bills in there definitely go below the poverty line. And so what we do is we actually look at the numbers of Alice families, and then how do we try to direct the funding that we have? And how do we measure so one of our goals, for instance, is to help at least 150 Ellis families to move beyond that, right? The Alice level, so it'd be like having someone past the poverty rate is having someone move past that Alice level. And the way that comes came about was that the United Way, North Jersey, worked with Rutgers and developing the metrics for that. And so one of the things we're doing locally, across Virginia Attaway is we're working with the Lucy Institute over at the University of Notre Dame, and they're helping us to take the out the Alice data, and to even oftentimes, we can get the numbers county wise, is to look at that municipality. So we can look at a place like kendallville Noble County, and they can help us break that down. So that way, we're the way that we're using the funding to help Noble County we can be more effective and efficient in using that funding.

Kevin Deary: 21:52

There are two things that caught my eye in your program. When I was reviewing and I knew I knew of one of them. The other one I didn't know. But could you talk about the puppy, puppy PAGE PAGE program and also Dolly Parton library?

Bill Purcell: 22:07

Sure, thanks. First, let me talk about page the puppy page. The puppy actually, was an idea that was actually in another state that people were trying and then we took it and ran with it. And so it's a local, we're the only native way that has paged the puppy. And so it's a program for early learning for zero to five. And there's a set of four books that the family get English and Spanish to help the children on 10 skills. And it's those 10 skills that were selected. Were by the local educators in Elkhart County, to help us think about what are the most 10 skills that are needed for kids to succeed to enter kindergarten. And so what they do, the goal is to overcome barriers to literacy and learning by placing the books resources and activities directly into the home to help those families and to work with the students together for kindergarten readiness. So we do build a build a puppy workshop, for kindergarten kickoffs. And so they get a bag with the puppy and the stuffing and with the different items within that. And they build, then the puppy and they take home the puppy with them during the summer so that when they go to school, it's someone that's their friend that they can think of overall. And two new things we're doing with Paige the puppy for 2024. One is we're partnering with caps. And I know you're speaking to Rebecca soon, and caps and Healthy Families divide their home visiting staff. So when the Capsa with a full page, the puppy kit to take home, to the home visits, so to help the children to break down to let them talk. And so we're excited with that new partnership, that a partnership we're doing is with W nit the public, PBS Kids. And we're using their educational materials from PBS Kids and we're putting those in the packets also. And so we're having that partnership with PBS. So that's kind of paints a puppy. The other thing we've been excited and we are the designated now, local program partner for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, Indiana and this is something that Indiana has been a great move forward is they provided matching funding for Dolly Parton Imagination Library counties. So for each child, it's about $13.20 for the year, they receive books at home, one each month from zero to five and just had to sign up for it. The state actually pays the other half of the cost for those. And so they passed I think for last year would have been $2 million. And again, it was a budget year so they pass it for both years. This year. It's 4 million that goes towards it. Well, we are we're the official partner we launched it now for Elkhart. Lagrange and Noble County, and the official kickoff hasn't even occurred yet. It's actually happening this Friday. And we already have 1445 kids signed up in Elkhart County, and we have 1964 and have three counties. But we're doing a kickoff this Friday for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and we even have a stand up Dolly Parton that we take with us that we have for the different counties. And we're getting it for sign ups where we bring it to the library or we bring it to the carwash. So we bring it dolly to different places you can get your picture with her and you can sign your kids up. And so it'd be a type of thing that will take to the Elkhart County Fair,

Kevin Deary: 25:41

those pitcher opportunities with dollar is that only nine to five.

Marshall V. King: 25:47

Kevin's on a roll, yeah. Couldn't resist. Yeah. And Bill. So this will likely air after the the official launch. But people will have opportunities, like you said over the coming months to sign up. Yes. And our job into this program. Our

Bill Purcell: 26:03

goal is to get 22,000 Children signed up, you know, so we'll we'll just keep in. So we're willing to go anywhere. So if people are interested, and especially businesses that have us hosts or libraries or public places, please contact crosswords you know, way, come to our website, reach out to us and Gil Yoders Corp, our volunteer coordinators coordinating word dallies going for those signups some places will just go for an hour or two hours. But the main thing is getting families to sign up because it's something free. It's an it's there's low barrier, the books come. And there's books in Spanish and English. And

Marshall V. King: 26:38

this is a key initiative of building strong brains are a key part of the initiative building strong brains, which is a cooperative of the Community Foundation and United Way and three other institutions who have come together to help you know, early childhood, kids getting ready and having the skills they need when they arrive in kindergarten. And I know that that on the on that initiative side, there's a lot of excitement about the Dolly Parton library and what it could mean for for kids in our in our

Bill Purcell: 27:11

area. Correct and it's just they're a great partner and great resources. And the wonderful thing is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library coordinator for Northern Indiana is actually from Noble County kendallville. In fact, she's even gonna host be the emcee for our power of the purse at that county. So that's nice. We have local support that's also statewide. Speaking

Kevin Deary: 27:33

of power by the purse, you also have large fundraiser which is very unique called the boat race, which I have participated in both as captain of a boat. Also a lifeguard going out to pull people out after their boats may have fallen apart. I've just been a volunteer every day. And I've probably been there every year but last year because of travel for a bit tell us a little bit about the boat race.

Bill Purcell: 27:58

The boat race is one of the biggest fundraiser events that crossroads you know what does so we do different things in different counties is you know, we we talked about doing corn school and Lagrange county would do power of the purse and Noble County. Well in Elkhart county every August. Now we do the boat race this year will be Friday, August 18 16th. And the what it is it's a cardboard boat race. So again, we folks have to get cardboard and they can use duct tape. And they have to make a boat and it has to be a two person boat. And we actually cross with Jeanette away there is a pond in front of our building. And so they race across that we have the support of the local fire and the local police. But now it's gotten up to there's two to 3000 people that come for the annual boat race. So it's one of the biggest events, the nice thing is a lot of people, you know, United Way or self included to do a big dinner, but it was a way of how do you bring people together in another way. And that raises almost $150,000. And that's a one day event. And so it's a wonderful event that it's almost like a giant tailgater where folks come they spend the day and then they can sponsor different boats and use it as fundraising. And it's a it's a way to evolve. Even some people maybe who won't be comfortable with something like a workplace campaign, but they're one there would be participating in an event like this special event and being sponsored. And I

Kevin Deary: 29:34

have seen over the years very strongly engineered cardboard boats. Yes. A lot of thought that goes into

Bill Purcell: 29:42

the fact I was at Ivy Tech recently. Some of the folks that were saying it wasn't fair. Our first year we went there we like these people are serious. They take some serious boats, I mean, they build monsters out of them. They did all different types of things, and they realized that they had like their engineering team at their RV industry work on the build the strongest fo possible. But there are rules, there's a whole packet. And there's different things they can and cannot do. And so you know, we want everyone to be safe. But really, it's a fun day. It's a it's a day that people come out. So I was, you noticed he was talking me trying to bring me here to crossroads. So like, come to our vote race. So I went, that was one of the selling points, why that I gotta come back. If nothing else, I got to participate in the animal boat race.

Kevin Deary: 30:30

So I want to go back to boards. Can we talk? What is your vision of a highly effective board of directors, that is now regionalised. Serve

Bill Purcell: 30:43

I, for me, the Board of Directors, you need to have, you know, a really strong executive committee. So you will, because you need that strong executive committee to be able to talk to you. So I think communications with that executive committee on a regular basis. And they better be hands on. Because because you're dealing with such a region. And there's lots of different issues that come up, for instance, a county coming saying, Hey, you guys, we like what you're doing, can we join you? Well, I can't make that decision alone. For the staff, I need to do that with the board. And as I tell my board, you're the bosses, that means I need you to work. So I think that I need them to be creative, innovative, I need them not to do management, that's my job to do management, but I need them to do the governance, I also need them to be involved in the committee's those committees are set up so that we can share the work so that they don't get overwhelmed. And, and those committees are key and making sure that the communication is regular, you know, with myself, I do a board bulletin every two weeks, that goes out to them, letting them know where things are with all the different counties, whether the different elements that are occurring. I have regular meetings with my board chair, making sure at least every month, you know we're touching base, our board just meets every other month overall. But again, wanting to make sure it's not a show and tell it's not me there to tell them, you know and do PowerPoints, it's for us to discuss and to solve problems, especially when we're trying to address things systemically. And so I really need their brainpower. And then I also need the resources. So they need to give, you know, they need to practice their their duty as a board member, because their fiduciary responsibility. I've been in a lot of boards myself, and I've had to do some really tough things. And so I need that board to have their muscles flexed so that they can be involved in case for the good things that happen as well as the bad things. And I need them to show up.

Kevin Deary: 32:41

One of the it's only fair, of course, I asked now. What's your vision? Or what how do you define a highly effective CEO and president of a non for profit today?

Bill Purcell: 32:53

I think number one is being relational. One of the things is being flexible. I mean, things are changing all the time. Just look at technology, right? The different resources and how they change all the time. For instance, I'm trying to talk to my both my board and my staff is how do we think of things like artificial intelligence, and that artificial intelligence can make our job easier? Right. So unless you have the flexibility and and are open to that different ways, I think that's going to make you a better organization.

Marshall V. King: 33:28

Okay, so, Bill, in your time since you've come back to Elkhart County, I'm curious what has given you the most joy or delight, and I'm curious what you're hopeful about. And I asked these two questions as we as we wrap up today's conversation.

Bill Purcell: 33:48

Sure, again, it's the people, it's the community, I just love, I get to get up every day. And I get to go around the community and see things like Habitat for Humanity, I've gone to, you know, five, house blessings and openings, you know, around the holidays, I get to go over to the Greens County and see a new health clinic for the for the Amish community that's been built to help them with particular things that are unique to their community or their health. You know, I get to go over to Noble County and see a family Senator that's helping women with domestic violence and trying to think long term about how to give them stable housing. So for me, I get to meet beautiful, wonderful people who are problem solving, and making us communities where we can thrive and not just survive. So that not only gives me joy in my heart, but it also gives me hope, with all the different dark things that are happening. I've been just in the past year I've been to Bangladesh. You know, I've been to multiple different places. And I've seen some really tough things we get to go every every day out in Elkhart and noble Lagrange County and we get to see you The beauty of success.

Marshall V. King: 35:05

Thank you so much for joining us today for being part of this conversation. This show is a production of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. It's powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded at weIMPACT in the elkhart's River District. Editing is done by the award winning communication students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listened to globe radio at 91.1 FM. Learn more about the Community Foundation of Elkhart County at inspiringgood.org You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Music for the show was provided by Ray Caldwell, one of the Community Foundation's amazing staff members. Thanks for listening. We hope you are inspired and inspire good in your community.