One of the many joys of my job is to have a regular opportunity to meet lots of interesting and creative people who are trying to change the world. This week is typical.

Ben Paul of Communiteach. He is creating a forum for people to both sign up for learning opportunities and offer to teach others the special skills they possess. It is a kind of barter system for education and a very cool idea.

Linda Raybin, Managing Director of Community Foundation Services for The Council on Foundations. She has an exciting initiative she is starting in order to help community foundations to be as strategic as possible as they move through the recession.

Jeff Malloy, Director of Finance and Administration at the James Irvine Foundation. We spoke regarding a new initiative the foundation has launched to help its grantees with financial restructuring. We have been invited to serve as the Foundation’s consulting partner in this endeavor and are very excited about the possibilities this presents for real change among some key nonprofits in California.

Shiree Teng of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She is doing a retrospective of the organizational effectiveness movement. It turns out, by complete happenstance, that I was there at the inception, or is it conception, of the concept. In fact my firm was born out of the first stirrings of the OE movement, with Irvine, Packard and Hewlett as the original investors.

Eleanor Clement Glass, Chief of Donor Engagement and Giving at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. She is a long time colleague of probably twenty years. We spoke about the state of affairs in her community’s nonprofits and a variety of ideas for helping them through this difficult time.

Exciting conversations with dynamic people. Like I said, I have many joys in my job!