Presenting PADA's First Full-Time Executive Director: Marjorie McMahon-Naylor
The PADA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of its first full-time executive director, Marjorie McMahon-Naylor . The Board has been discussing and planning for the executive director position for the past two years, feeling that a full-time paid staffperson could do more to help the organization than any other step we could take.
Marjorie is taking over for Lindi Sabloff (lindi AT pada DOT org). In her 5 years, Lindi tirelessly and with steely-eyed determination kept countless PADA plates spinning and not a single one crashed noisily to the floor. And she did all of this in her spare time. Everyone who has stepped onto a PADA field owes Lindi a debt of gratitude (or at least a beer) for the amount of blood, sweat, and soul she has poured into this organization. But Lindi is not going away entirely. She has joined the PADA Board to, among other things, be Marjorie's liason and adviser.
Marjorie
began her career in cultural and non-profit leadership in Washington, DC at the
Smithsonian and National Gallery of Art. In these jobs she was involved in
local and national outreach efforts by the museums’ education departments. Most
recently, Marjorie was the coordinator of public programs and
Exhibits at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. There she produced educational
activities, worked with teen volunteers, and curated
exhibits. She has extensive experience in fund raising,
event planning, organizing and training volunteers, and managing budgets.
In addition to enjoying athletics, Marjorie is also an
artist who enjoys paper and fabric crafts.
Marjorie first played Ultimate Frisbee in 2000 as a student at the
Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. She continued playing pick up and
was encouraged by a museum colleague to try the Pittsburgh summer
league, which got her hooked on ultimate. She has taken part
in various recreational leagues in Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and Mercer
County, NJ. She met her husband, Dan, at a pick up game and the
two have been playing together ever
since.
This is an extremely exciting time for PADA. Over the past several years, the organization has grown in enormous ways, expanding all across the greater Philadelphia area and offering many new players the chance to be part of the ultimate community. This growth has made it both possible and necessary to move beyond the all-volunteer model -- with 15 leagues, half a dozen tournaments, and a few thousand members playing in three states, PADA has become a vibrant...and complicated...organization. Over the next few years, we expect to have spring, summer, and fall leagues not only in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester County but also in South Jersey and the Bucks/Montgomery County area. We expect the rapid growth of youth ultimate to continue and even accelerate, and we are eager to expand the breadth of our youth outreach program, PADA YO. At the same time, we see many opportunities for raising the quality of our events to a higher level and improving our communications between organizers, captains, and players.
As executive
director, Marjorie will allow us to accomplish all of these things both faster
and more effectively. She will be responsible for executing
PADA's mission, vision, and strategic plan.
PADA members should see tangible improvements in things like league
communications, web site content updates, and perhaps the number of amenities
offered at league finals and parties.
While
having an executive director will make many new things possible, at its core
PADA will remain a volunteer-driven organization. We will still need volunteers
to fill all of the roles they have in the past, as well as new roles that will
arise as we continue to grow and improve.
I
hope you will join me in welcoming Marjorie to the PADA community, and I hope
you will offer your help in our continuing effort to make PADA the best
community
possible.
She is available for your questions via email at marjorie AT pada DOT org.
See you on the
fields,
Jon Francis, on behalf of the PADA Board
of Directors
jon AT pada DOT org
