little fish in a big pond

ISC is an international org, although the vast majority of our work is at the community level. (We are doing some provincial-level partnerships in China.) It attracts some pretty high powered talent in my opinion. Both facts are contributing to me feeling like a little fish in a big pond. I've worked for the last few years on climate change issues at the municipal and occasionally state level in Vermont, which is quite a small pond. This weekend I had a good heart-to-heart with my former boss/mentor/friend at 10% Challenge, Deb Sachs, after a conference she and partners put on (the first annual statewide VECAN meet up, Ryan! It was fab), and she reminded me not to abandon my experience as irrelevant or too small for this new context, but to bring it as my strength. Small communities need help too with climate change mitigation, and that's where my relative strengths are compared to my new boss. Vermont's experience in some ways is ahead; in other ways our mistakes can be lessons for others. So I brought that up with my boss in reporting about the event, and he agreed it was important.

So I guess the lesson was, don't be shy about bringing whatever it is to the problem/solution table. Whether it's hula-hooping skills, or canning, or invention on the fly...it's bound to be relevant to somebody.