“Umm—I guess—well, I guess I need to know what you all want,” I get out at last, using rooted tree pose to open my chest and take deep breaths.
“We want to save the turtles,” Cheryl replies.
The other two nod fervently. Mars does nothing, standing slightly back from the rest of us.
I look to him. “Mars? I need to know what you want from me here.”
“We want to save the turtles,” he echoes.
I huff a laugh. “Well, you guys just downloaded an hour of data into me and the long story short is that the options seem to be endless.” I gesture around at the quiet expanse of beach. “I mean, is this a conservation group? Beach walks and clean ups and ‘save our oceans’ rhetoric? ‘Cause you’re already doing some of that.”
They glance around at each other.
“Or is this a citizen science group where you’re tagging and monitoring turtle nests? ‘Cause you’re doing that too. Do you wanna raise awareness about turtles and their nesting grounds for the general public? Or is this a civic action group? Are we taking the fight to local lawmakers and beachfront property owners, fighting for change?”
“Well…can’t we just do it all?” says Joey with a shrug.
“Yeah, it all needs to get done in the end,” Nancy adds with a nod.
“In my experience, the fastest way for a nonprofit to fail is for it to try and do too much at once,” I explain patiently. “I just listed off enough work for like five different organizations to tackle over the next ten years. You can do one of those things really well and two of them well enough. If you try to do all five, you’ll just flounder and fail.”
“But they’re all interconnected,” says Cheryl. “We certainly need the conservation education just as much as the citizen action.”
“I don’t disagree,” I reply. “But it’s about specializing.” My gaze lands on Ilmari. “Take Mars Attack here for example,” I tease, flashing him a grin. “He plays hockey, right?”
They all nod.
“Well, to play hockey you need people passing the puck, right?”
They nod again.
“But you also need guys protecting the other players,” I go on. “And you need someone standing in the net. When Mars gets on the ice, he doesn’t play all the positions. He has to trust that other people will fill those roles. He does his job and only his job, and he does it well. We gotta think of this the same way. We need to specialize.”
“I say that’s what we do, then,” says Cheryl, smiling up at Mars. “Let’s all play goalie.”
“What do you mean, honey?” says Nancy, glancing at her wife.
Cheryl gestures around at the expanse of dunes. “This is our net. This is our home, Nance. Our beach. And we’re going to protect it for those turtles. I say we’re dune defenders now. Let’s step out of the net and take the fight to all the bullies and the businesses who want to tear these dunes apart. If they want a piece of this beach, they’ll have to get past us first.”
“Yeah, goalie power,” says Joey. “I’m in.”
“Save the turtles by saving the dunes,” Nancy says with a smile. “I like it.”
I smile too. “It’s perfect.” I glance back at Mars. “And I think Cheryl just gave us a name for the rebrand.”
Ilmari raises that scarred brow at me.
“What, no more Northshore Turtle Crew?” says Joey, glancing between us.
“Nope,” I reply. “With NHL superstar Ilmari Price as our key patron, a goalie-themed name feels very on-brand. The fans will love it. Thanks, Cheryl.”
Cheryl looks from me to her wife. “What did I say?”
I grin wide. “Folks, welcome to the first official stakeholder meeting for Out of the Net.”
23
After our beach walk, Ilmari treats us all to lunch at this lovely little oceanfront restaurant. We chat over bloody marys and vegetarian tacos. I learn Cheryl and Nancy are retired architects who live on the beach. They have a little bungalow and some dune property that they’ve turned into a green energy oasis. With nothing better to do, they seem ready to make Out of the Net their new obsession.
I name Cheryl our new Chief Financial Officer, while Nancy is officially our Project Manager. Joey gladly accepts the title of Volunteer Coordinator. And Mars is, well, Mars. He’s present in all our conversations, quietly listening. But he doesn’t engage much. I can see the wheels of his mind turning, but he offers virtually nothing to us except his polite presence.