Dear DFC Members, Allies and Supporters,
Thank you so much to everyone who came to our first ever members’ meeting on Wednesday night. It was really fantastic to start getting to know everybody and to see so many people being so enthusiastic about the DFC. Thanks also for all your ideas and collective wisdom during the breakout session and the open discussion. It’s so valuable to get such thoughtful perspectives about everything in our industry and that is what having a membership-based organisation is all about, so thank you.
As discussed in the meeting, top of our priority list next year will be organising the election for the DFC’s first elected board in the Spring. We’ll be in touch with more information about this next year but in the meantime feel free to read about the different roles and what they mean in the Governance Resources section of our website and please do consider putting yourselves forward – even (perhaps especially!) if you’ve never served as a director on a board before.
For those of you that couldn’t make the first meeting, the bad news is that it has not been possible to raise the funds we need to run the organisation, and so from December 22nd the DFC will be volunteer-run. Obviously this is not where we wanted to be but the DFC is only six-months old and given the industry downturn this is probably the worst time in recent memory to be trying to raise funds for a new organisation. Rest assured that we’re not going anywhere and are determined to make the DFC work, even if we need to run it on a voluntary basis for a while. There is such a clear desire for this organisation to exist that we’re confident we’ll find the money from somewhere – we still have a couple of irons in the fire and are waiting to hear from a few potential sponsors and foundations, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed!
On that note, please do all you can to spread the word about the DFC or consider gifting us a one-off December donation via the banner link below. If you’re not already a paying member, please upgrade your subscription (get 10% off with the discount code DFC10) and encourage everyone you know to join too. Together we are stronger! Or, as Joe Hill put it, there is power in a union ✊
Here’s wishing everyone a happy festive period and new year. See you in 2024.
In co-operation,
The DFC Leadership Team
