B Local Series: Nurturing Leadership and Diversity with Kel Moody of B Local PDX
Aug 20, 2023
Dirigo Collective
We're thrilled to share our conversation with Kel Moody, an esteemed board member of B Local PDX, who shares their intriguing journey from a woodworking apprenticeship to a leadership role in the B Corp community. Get a close-up view of how Kel spearheads events designed to foster a sense of belonging, optimism, and a strong focus on social and environmental justice. Curious how a woodworking apprenticeship can lead to such impactful work? You won't want to miss this!
Our discussion extends into the heart of B Local PDX's operations in Portland, where they are making waves in community engagement and board succession planning. With a rich two-year tenure as board chair, Kel shares their upcoming transition off the board and the succession plan set in place. Hear their thoughts on the critical two-year commitment from board members and the shadowing process that equips new members with the organization's core values and objectives. Sounds like a daunting task, right? You'll be surprised at how Kel and the board manages it all.
But every journey has its bumps, and for B Local PDX, it was the pandemic. Discover how they navigated the challenging terrain of event engagement during these times and their ongoing commitment to represent diverse voices in the business world. Kel's intentional effort to create a welcoming space for people of color is noteworthy, as is their reflection on the relationships built and the support received during their tenure. Finally, hear Kel's inspiring story of breaking the mold and embracing their unique identity. Want to know what it takes to break free and embrace your unique identity? Kel's story is a testament to the power of authenticity. Tune in for a dose of inspiration!
We're thrilled to share our conversation with Kel Moody, an esteemed board member of B Local PDX, who shares their intriguing journey from a woodworking apprenticeship to a leadership role in the B Corp community. Get a close-up view of how Kel spearheads events designed to foster a sense of belonging, optimism, and a strong focus on social and environmental justice. Curious how a woodworking apprenticeship can lead to such impactful work? You won't want to miss this!
Our discussion extends into the heart of B Local PDX's operations in Portland, where they are making waves in community engagement and board succession planning. With a rich two-year tenure as board chair, Kel shares their upcoming transition off the board and the succession plan set in place. Hear their thoughts on the critical two-year commitment from board members and the shadowing process that equips new members with the organization's core values and objectives. Sounds like a daunting task, right? You'll be surprised at how Kel and the board manages it all.
But every journey has its bumps, and for B Local PDX, it was the pandemic. Discover how they navigated the challenging terrain of event engagement during these times and their ongoing commitment to represent diverse voices in the business world. Kel's intentional effort to create a welcoming space for people of color is noteworthy, as is their reflection on the relationships built and the support received during their tenure. Finally, hear Kel's inspiring story of breaking the mold and embracing their unique identity. Want to know what it takes to break free and embrace your unique identity? Kel's story is a testament to the power of authenticity. Tune in for a dose of inspiration!
Welcome to the responsibly different mini series exploring the different B locals around the United States and Canada. B locals are placed based communities of people that are using business as a force for good in their region. B locals are made up of people and businesses that are helping to transform the global economy to benefit all people, community and the planet. Throughout this series, we will hear from different B local leaders in their community and we will learn about the work they are doing and how others can get involved. In this episode, I will be talking with Kel Moody with B Local PDX, which serves Oregon and Southwest Washington. Well, welcome to the show, kel. We are so excited to have you back again with us, which is awesome. First you were with Ben and now you're with me, so we're just like we're sharing Kel all around. Just in case if people didn't listen to your episode with Ben, let's pretend nobody knows who you are. Give us a little bit of background. Who is Kel?
Speaker 2:
Well, I was born and raised here in the Portland area. My family actually dates back to O'ergan Trail in 1847. They got here before Portland was even a full blown city and we're farmers and I have about six generations of family that have been here on one side of my family and several generations on a couple other sides. So I have deep roots as a white settler here, which is kind of an interesting tension that I'd say that I hold a lot. I feel very deeply connected to this place and lived most of my life. I've lived all my life in the Pacific Northwest. I've never left Oregon or Washington for a long term, living outside of my study abroad experience in Thailand for six months, but outside of that I've lived in the Northwest my whole life and I love it here. I feel kind of because of my history, I feel a pretty deep responsibility around repair with communities indigenous communities particularly that have experienced the violence that white settlers imposed upon them generations ago and continuously. So I take that responsibility seriously and I intentionally hold that tension that exists and acknowledge it.
Speaker 2:
I've done work in a lot of different areas in my past and I've kind of had a winding and spiraling career, but I've been part of the B Corp community since 2016 is when I found my first job at a B Corp. I was actually a woodworker at the time, so I was building fine furniture and then transitioned into doing their commercial and wholesale sales and then eventually found myself in a B Corp consulting role because I was just so fascinated and in love with this community and the idea of it. I've been on the B Local PDX board since 2018, I believe maybe the end of 2018. And I've just kind of never looked back from this community. I've really just been very involved and very absorbed in it and committed a lot of time to this community and I it's paid back in all sorts of different reciprocal ways tenfold at least.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, just the value of relationships, and I never would be where I am without this community. So started alluvium gatherings a little less than a year ago, so just kind of getting things off the ground and it's been really exciting. But I really love doing events. I love getting people together, gathering. I love the idea of seeing people connect and feel a sense of belonging and feel inspiration and motivation. I think that events are a really good way to get people feeling excited and feeling hopeful and optimistic. I really enjoy doing community building and movement building kinds of events that really kind of focus on social and environmental justice spaces.
Speaker 1:
And that's the whole purpose of your business. Now, correct? You are doing events and, if I'm not wrong, one of your more recent events was actually in partnership with B Local PDX, where you organized the BLD, correct?
Speaker 2:
I actually was not a big part of Bill this year, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Oh no.
Speaker 2:
It's a rare thing for me not to do.
Speaker 1:
Oh OK.
Speaker 2:
But I yeah, I mean I'm the board chair now. So, like the board chair typically hasn't been super involved in the Bill planning team, I was definitely, like you know, tangentially involved, but it was mostly led by Wes, our director, and he did a phenomenal job, although I will say I don't know that it's fair to ask him to do that every year because it's so consuming. So, who knows, maybe I'll be involved more next year.
Speaker 1:
OK.
Speaker 2:
A different capacity more of a gathering, but yeah.
Speaker 1:
All right. So you touched on so many things in your story that I want to kind of I want to go back to a few of them and say so you first were introduced to the B Corp community Through a woodworking job and just because I also was introduced to the B Corp community through my first job at a B Corp. But I didn't go to the company knowing about B Corps. So I want to ask you like did you get, did you take that job with the woodworking company because they were a B Corp, or was that something that, like you learned as you started working with them? Like, what was that like?
Speaker 2:
I knew about B Corps before. It was a factor OK, so my career before that I spent years as a tour guide. I was doing food tours in Portland and I would do city tours and I did like winery and brewery tours. I loved that, but it was such a seasonal job that I like could not make it work full time year round. And then I found myself in the coffee industry. I was working for a really high end coffee roaster doing their kind of account management for their wholesale accounts, and at the time I was like this isn't what I want to be doing and I was like what I really want to do is build furniture, build stuff, because I'd grown up doing that with my dad and I was, you know, taking some classes and trying to find ways to kind of grow my skill set around that. And it there just happened to be an apprenticeship at the joinery, which is a B Corp in Portland. They've been a small, very high end woodworking business, I think for 30 plus years at this point, but they've been a B Corp I think since like 2010. Oh, wow. And when the opportunity came up to do that job, I was like, wow, this is perfectly aligned, it's a B Corp and I get to do this cool thing that I've been wanting to try out.
Speaker 2:
I first learned about B Corps from one of our local grocers. It's a it's called New Seasons and they are kind of like a better and smaller family kind of vibe, but it's like a natural culture. They are very like. They have a lot of local foods, they do a lot of fun stuff. There's a lot of great partnerships that they have with local makers and food producers and I remember getting like they have the, the B on their, their paper bags, and I remember seeing that like probably in 2012. And I was like what is that? What is it? And I remember googling it and finding out and I at that point was like I need to work for a B Corp. This makes some of that. So it took me a few years but I got there.
Speaker 1:
Cool, and we were so happy that you did eventually get there and now you're in the community with us. We love this.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Um, sorry. So I want to dig in a little bit before we dive into the B Local work, which I understand. You've devoted a lot of your life to that as well. But you're a brand new business owner and I just want to like first of all say congratulations, like that is a huge deal, so good on you. But I'm like let's talk about your business for a second here, like who do you serve? What's your ideal client? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, you know I've been doing similar work to what I'm doing with Alluvium Gathering, so like a community event planning and production, for the past four plus years. I did a lot of events on the board with the local PDX and that's kind of part of what got me to dive deeper into this space. But I think you know, this year I've done a lot of exploration of kind of trying to learn, do a lot of relationship development and kind of trying to learn how to refine what I'm doing in different ways, that kind of lean into the spaces that I want to lean into and the roles that I want to be leaning into. So what am I doing right now? I'm really into like content development, really into content design for events. I'm doing some work with B-Lab for a Champions Retreat in 2024, which is super exciting and loving that. It's been really great to kind of work with all the different stakeholders involved in that and get different input and, you know, have like so much familiarity with the community and the vision and all that. It's been really nice. And also, you know, really like to do general community building and movement building events with nonprofits or individuals even, or communities and social enterprises.
Speaker 2:
I've done a lot of stuff in the past around like salmon, wild salmon preservation and working with indigenous communities kind of up and down the West Coast and I'm kind of interested in leaning a bit more into the LGBTQIA plus community.
Speaker 2:
As you know, a trans, non-binary masculine of center person and being in the time that we're in politically now, I feel a pretty deep desire to support that community and use my skills in a way that are going to provide more safety and stability and access to care and all sorts of things for the trans community, especially right now In a rough couple of years for the trans community as far as like political action has gone. So definitely want to find ways to lean into that. And you know I've been doing a lot of work kind of all over Alaska, bc, washington, oregon and I really want to kind of do a lot of local work now. I'm like I want to lean into the community around here. I'm still I still love traveling because it's so much fun, so for the right events I would absolutely be going around, you know, wherever is needed, but really like the idea of leaning into my own community.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I, oh, I can appreciate everything that you just said. But I'm like, as you're talking, I'm like, wow, okay, how can I get Kel to work with Derego Collective on an event? And I'm like, crap, kel doesn't want to come to the East Coast. And I'm like, okay, I'll settle for Kel's work when I come to Champions Street.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, I'm not opposed to going to the East Coast.
Speaker 1:
Okay, great.
Speaker 2:
For an alliance, you know for a B Corp thing, absolutely All right, great.
Speaker 1:
We'll. We'll keep that in mind. All right, great, so let's dive into your work with B Local, kind of. As you mentioned, you've been with B Local PDX for almost four years and I'm wondering almost five? There you go, there's my math playing, playing tricks on me Almost five years. So I guess, like, what is your role now? Where did it start? Has it changed? Or have you always been chair of the board and like and walk me through what what that work kind of has looked like?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I joined the board at the end of 2018 as the events chair and, fitting, I know, right, I ran the like kind of three main annual events that we do during the year, which is B Bash, which is our annual party celebration. We have Day of Service, which was new in 2019, which is a day that we provide, you know, a couple dozen volunteer opportunities for people to sign up for, and then we do a party afterwards. So it's a way to kind of utilize people's paid volunteer time. That makes it super easy and also an opportunity to kind of build community and relationships with nonprofits and then build. That said, going, starting in 2020, we actually started hiring an outside contractor to do build, and myself and Karen Lickteig, who was on the board of B Local PDX and now works for B Lab, we ran the 2020 builds.
Speaker 2:
And then in 2020, what year is it? So 2022 and 2023 have been my years as board chair. Okay, and the way that we have the board set up is there's there's pretty, pretty specific succession planning, and so the board chair only serves two years and then steps down, and so we currently have an incoming board chair and vice chair that I'm working with to kind of pass things off. So this year I will step off of the B Local PDX board, which is really hard to imagine, to be honest.
Speaker 1:
I want to stay there for a second because, with the time that I spent on the B Local Boston board, something that you just said was like would have been really great for the B Local Boston board to know. So I'm wondering, if there's boards out there, whether they're B Local boards or just nonprofit boards, you have a succession plan. So I want to dig into that in the sense of if, if your chair is leaving which every two years you've got a new chair you identify the vice chair in the new chair before the old chair can leave. And I guess, like the point of my question is like, what happens if a vice chair or a chair doesn't like identify themselves? And like what does the board then do? Like, are you open call recruiting or does it have to be somebody already on the board? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we have a max of overall for any board member. You cannot serve more than six consecutive years.
Speaker 1:
And is that actually an issue for you all Like? Are people trying to serve for more than six years?
Speaker 2:
Well issue? I wouldn't say it's an issue, but I think there are people that would have served longer.
Speaker 1:
Hmm.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Fascinating.
Speaker 2:
You all have some strong volunteers Not always but there are a few Okay and and we a lot of board members, I mean we have two year terms at a time. So you commit a few years. When you come on the board, at that point you're kind of just on the board until you want to roll off before those six years. It's super, not necessarily like, ok, your two years are up, we need to reassess whether you want to stay or not. But it's kind of just like each year, people are like individually yes, I'm going to stay on or not? Ok, we ask people to commit to two years at a time and then with the chair's position, the chair is always coming from within the board itself and we select the chair-elect.
Speaker 2:
The vice chair position is actually going to be a new position as of next year, so that's something that we just created. So each year there's going to be a chair-elect and a vice chair-elect that comes on in the following year. The way that we're now going forward with it is that the vice chair is theoretically, as long as they choose to stay, moving into the chair position after their two years as vice chair. So this is, like now, a little bit complicated, but the chair and chair actually shadow for an entire year as they're playing their other roles in the board, so it's been really successful. Honestly, they have like offload off, are kind of handing off shadowing, being able to share how things run, and by that time they've already served at least two years on the board. They're coming into the board chair position and they have a pretty good idea of what's going on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I would say one of my next questions is going to be what do you think that your B-local does really well? And I would say, from an outside seat, looking in, it sounds like you all do the rea. I don't want to say recruiting, because it's not recruiting, but like structure of the board and filling in the board roles really well. That sounds like a very strong plan and it sounds like that plan is working for you all.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we've done. I mean we have never had an issue with interest in board roles. We're actually starting recruitment for 2024 this month. We decided to.
Speaker 2:
We used to do recruitment for the following year in like October and have selections made by like the end of November and then just have people start right away.
Speaker 2:
This year we're starting it early because we want to create, we want the last quarter of the year to have opportunities for shadowing, because it just we realized that when we brought new members, board members, in, it took them sometimes like a quarter or maybe two to really kind of get their toes wet and really understand what we did and how we did it.
Speaker 2:
And so we just realized that there was so much catch up and kind of onboarding that was happening that it just it really limited our ability to move things forward quickly. So we're going to start recruitment now and then have our new board positions, which I think there's going to be five or six new board members coming in 2024. They're all going to be shadowing the last part of the year, so they'll come to the board meeting. They'll maybe sit on some sub committee meetings. We have a board of 13 people, which is huge, but our recruitment will probably get 20 different board applicants. I would say is pretty common in the past of getting between 10 and 20, sometimes a few more than that, applying beyond the board.
Speaker 1:
So that makes me think that your board is doing a really good job of growing the community and gaining the support of the community. So I guess I want to kind of ask you from your perspective, what does the community feel like in the Pacific North, with Northwest? Do you think that you're all this super tight-knit group? Is it only in Portland where you all hang, or are there subsets of like? I'll forgive my lack of knowledge of the Pacific Northwest, but like? Is it state-based, like community groups, or is it like Pacific Northwest, your home, your family? We drive five hours to see each other Like? What is that community like?
Speaker 2:
The B Local PDX community is pretty Portland-based, I would say. There also is the Washington B Corp Collective, which is fairly new, but they're kind of getting up and running, which is exciting to be able to partner with them on some things. We do have some folks come down from Seattle or various parts of Washington to some of our events, especially build. There's also a fair amount of well, a handful of B Corps and Eugene, which is a couple hours south of here, and then Bond, which is kind of on the other side of the mountains from us, it's about three hours from Portland. There's some statewide representation, but it's predominantly Portland-based or Portland, vancouver, suburbs of Portland, portland metro area.
Speaker 2:
I would say based is the community, but there's 150 B Corps. So there's a good amount of B Corps and we've been doing builds since 2016. 2017, and they've been pretty good size events 100 plus from the get go and now we're looking at more between two and 300. Right before the pandemic we had a 400 person build almost. So we have a pretty engaged community and it does feel really welcome and open and really supportive. The way I describe it is everybody just wants to see each other succeed, so there's a lot of mutual support and willingness to make connections and willingness to be like okay, well, I'm going to find the B Corp that does the service that I need, so I'm going to use this community. Yeah, I think it's been really lovely to see it develop and it's obviously evolved over time. I mean, there's new energy, fresh energy with the new B Corps coming in, and there's also the folks that have been around for eight plus years.
Speaker 1:
Would you say that the B Local is everybody's hub for collaboration and partnerships, or do you think that I mean with 150 B Corps? That's wild, I think I love Maine. I personally live in New Hampshire but I feel like Maine's always toting that they have so many B Corps and it's like I think they only have 30. So it's wild to think that you have 150 right in Portland.
Speaker 2:
It's like Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Speaker 1:
Right right With the 150 B Corp companies. Do you feel like there's good avenues where they just reach out straight to each other? Do you think that they all kind of like centralized? Is your B Local the hub of them all collaborating and connecting?
Speaker 2:
I think it's a both. I think that B Local is definitely a hub and we do intentionally create opportunities to try to allow for companies to connect with each other and be able to collaborate. But I definitely know that there's relationships that maybe originally were formed through B Local but are now independent of B Local, within B Corp. So there's a lot of connections that have been made that have just been maintained on an individual basis, but there's still a lot of them are rooted in the connections made through B Local.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, okay. So then, to kind of do the exact opposite of what we've been talking about, I'm wondering, like, what have been maybe some challenges or struggles for your community that the board is like really working to bring the community together, to like try to face them together and create solutions together?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean, you know, being the board chair through the pandemic was really challenging.
Speaker 2:
You know, I think it was hard to maintain engagement because there was so much going on for people and on some level I'm kind of like I don't we couldn't have expected anything other than that, but there was some good support shown through it and I think it was.
Speaker 2:
I think we're at this point where we're kind of shifting what our expectations are around Event engagement. I think you know as much as our events, people seem to find our events you know, through feedback that we get seem to find them really valuable and worthwhile. The attendance is still not where it was and I think there's just a general Shift and people's priorities. You know, I think that people are really getting burnt out from virtual events, so we're kind of Leading away from from doing more of that. But we also, you know, ever seen less attendance than our in-person events and I think that's partially because people are just being really judicious about when they are choosing to spend their time and I actually totally think that's great. I think, you know, maybe we just need to shift our what a success look like from you know max number of people to just the quality of Of the event itself and the quality of the engagement, because I think we are getting really strong quality of engagement.
Speaker 2:
We are really meaningful Events and it's been. I think you know just a different way of looking at success. The other challenge that We've experienced, that I think a lot of the b-corp community experiences, it's just like trying to make sure that our community is, is representative of the diverse voices that exist in the business world. I mean, there's always more diversity. That's needed and Portland in general is not Well known for its racial diversity in this city. You know it's. It is absolutely one of the widest urban cities in the country and that's something that Portland and Oregon as a state on a whole has, you know, been challenged with for a long time and that's deeply rooted in Oregon's history. It was, you know, basically illegal to be black in Oregon for quite some time. There's lots of, you know no, we're not a state from the south that has, you know, you know the Like, the history of that level of like, slavery and Confederacy, but we have really, really tarnished and horrific Past around racism in Oregon. Uh, and I think that's something that you know, we really Need to be intentional about creating a space that that feels open but it often feels like this chicken or the egg thing. You know, we can't create a space that's welcoming to people of color If you don't have people of color there, right? So there's a lot of work. That's that you know we've done and, working with Some consultants who are part of our bee community, we've we've created, you know we've had a bike park happy hour. That was actually quite successful.
Speaker 2:
Um, I think our build this year I don't have the stats on me, but it it felt Way more diverse than any other event that we've had in in the past. So it's it's a slow, incremental process but it's something that we're really committed to. And Um, that also includes, like, representation on our board. Um, you know, our, our next we're, you know, as a non-binary trans mask of center person like I, being in being representing the trans community as a leader in this community feels really important. Our next board member is a woman of color, or, excuse me, incoming board chair as a woman of color and I think, like you know, she's individually has been a huge kind of leader in doing work in Uh and around representation and and Jedi work in general. So I feel really confident that she will maintain the focus on on increasing diversity and representation in our community and uh, and I know that that will be kind of an ongoing effort.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful. I really appreciate everything that you just said, but that focus is so important and I would say similarly some of the New England states that Digo Collective is involved in also. It was focusing heavily on adding some diversification to our events, but also, yeah, like you said, we have to make space for everybody to feel welcome at our events, but also everybody can't feel welcome if they're not there. So, yeah, working on that. Okay, so, to close us out here, your time on the board is coming to a close and I'm just wondering that, as you look back and you reflect on your five years of being involved on the board in some capacity, what are the moments that you're going to cherish? What are the moments that you're going to hold on to that helped you grow as an individual? What is your future in the B Corp space look like if you're not on the board? Are you going to stay involved? No pressure, but you know all those things. I'm curious to just hear. How do you reflect on the time that you spent with the B Corp community?
Speaker 2:
Well, I'm not going anywhere, that's for sure, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
But I am so grateful for the time that I've been on the B Local PDX board. I've gotten so much out of it, so many relationships and so many connections and just a lot of encouragement, and I don't think that I would have had the courage to start a business without this community standing beside me. I really feel like, like I said, I just feel like everybody wants to see each other succeed and that level of support and that kind of camaraderie that has existed in this community is absolutely everything. I think it's so important to have that, as a business owner, an entrepreneur and I think you know I've seen other people do it and been encouraged by those people and you know that is I really would not be where I am without this community at all. I've gotten so much confidence in myself, so much encouragement, so much just mental and emotional support. It's just, it's huge. I don't think there's necessarily like one or two, even moments that I could describe, because really been just all of the kind of the general vibe of it all.
Speaker 2:
Yeah great and I mean I think you know, being able to put on some really amazing, big, successful events has been very rewarding and really led me to what I'm doing today. I looking forward, I'm excited to get involved in the proud network which is the LGBTQ plus kind of action network that we're forming for the whole be local US and Canada community. I also, you know, potentially exploring being a be local advisor for the Western region so I can still kind of support other be local leaders and, yeah, I mean within this community I'll definitely be, you know, at the events and maybe helping organize some of them. And you know, I think it'll be a very I'll still be very much engaged, yeah oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:
As many of the past chairs are still very engaged and passport members we have quite a few folks who have, you know. Sure they're off the board but they're still around and still really engaged.
Speaker 1:
That's pretty special and unique, so I'm very I'm super happy to hear that you cherished your time. I love hearing that you are staying involved. I'm excited to see how your work shows up in the B Corp community across the whole US and Canada region because obviously I'm not super local to you, but seeing your work at Champions retreat will be awesome and I will be following along closely with the Be Proud group so excited to see that, see that group forming and that work coming together.
Speaker 1:
Kell, is there anything else that you want to add before we close out the episode?
Speaker 2:
I don't know.
Speaker 2:
I think you know there is this perception that there's some sort of like special sauce that the Portland community has, and I often think about that, you know, when engaging with a bunch of other B locals.
Speaker 2:
There is this like uniqueness that Portland somehow has kind of captured some magic and I really hope that there's ways that that can spread across the US and Canada. I think, you know, we do have some some just like logistical and geographical benefits, in the sense that we have this really concentrated community and it's Portland is a city that's fairly easy to get from A to B and, you know, get across the city is not, you know, extremely challenging, as it is in, for example, like the Bay Area or something. But I really think that that can be captured and shared. And you know, I just think that there's a lot of systems that you know we've developed and have been developed before even my time here that are really functioning pretty well and have evolved as they have needed to. So yeah, I think there's there's really a lot to be gained and to learn from some of the things that we've done and many of the things that I had nothing to do with. But it's cool to kind of see the kind of revitalization of this community post post pandemic.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. Well, I hope other people can also gain their, their little special sauce that makes them unique as well.