CARD and Community

I can still feel it when I close my eyes. The cool creek air on my skin as we sing our camp songs in the morning. Camp Chi-Da-Ca is my home away from home. I saw the shore of the creek change and evolve as much as I saw myself change. When I got too old to be a camper, I jumped on the idea of volunteering. Before I knew it we were in the middle of a pandemic and extremely short-staffed. I was hired nearly on the spot and became a leader of my own group. For 2 more summers I served as a leader and officially became Angelfish Adela. That is what the Chico Area Recreation and Parks District means to me, those cool mornings and hot afternoons, the people I met, and the campers I worked with. CARD is an integral part of the Chico community and last month I had the pleasure of speaking with the woman who is leading CARD today.

Annabel is a strong, integrity-driven woman with a unique personal history and great insights and knowledge about her current, amazing position. The conversation I had with Annabel covered her early life and career, we also discussed meetings, project management, and her advice for women in the workplace. I learned how we can be involved in our community by being involved in meetings and committees, connecting different opportunities, and relying on different women and people for support.

Short Bio:

• Works: General Manager of Chico Area Recreation and Parks District

• Lives: Chico CA for about 19 years

• Born: Tucson AZ.

• Advice: Always be open to and listening for different opportunities

Growing Up:

Annabel grew up in Tuscon Arizona in a large Mexican family. She has one sister who is 5 years younger. When she was younger she wanted to be a lawyer or a judge but that wore off once she learned she wasn't a history lover. She was the first in her family to go to college and later got her master's in business administration. Before college, she joined the Navy where she served for 9 years.

Career Overview:

The Navy: In the Navy, Annabel learned that she is good at managing money and people. While in service she lived around the world, and afterward she moved to Chico with her husband and daughter where she currently lives.

After the Navy: In Chico, she consulted for a number of companies, including aerial firefighting and even NASA. Annabel worked at California State University, Chico for 8 years as the Associate Vice President of Business and Finance where she oversaw budget, audits, compliance, and health and safety

CARD: During COVID, CARD was recruiting for a new general manager, she was a little apprehensive, "I'd never done parks and rec before" but they convinced her, explaining "It's okay, you've managed organizations and budgets before and it's the same" and from there she poured her heart into CARD.

Who is Annabel:

Annabel's friends and coworkers describe her as;

• a badass

• determined

• tenacious

• loyal

• principled

Day to Day as the General Manager:

Her job is to manage the organization from a strategic perspective. Annabel focuses on partnerships, growing, and following through with the vision given to her by the board of directors. She is in charge of operationalizing the plan for the future that they lay out.

Meetings:

Her experience: Annabel is in all sorts of meetings every day, some by the nature of her job and some simply by her own nature. Annabel is very invested in her community and in going above and beyond whenever she can. She is on boards and committees everywhere including the Chico Chamber of Commerce, Chico Noon Rotary, Explore Butte County, and Travel Chico, she is also the president of the California Special District Butte County chapter. All of this involvement and public service on top of her team at CARD means a lot of meetings.

Efficient meetings: The important components of a successful meeting according to Annabel are:

being on the same page through different channels of communication

keeping in mind who else outside of the meeting room needs to know and making a plan for how the information will get to them

being mindful of time, scope, and content

Annabel gives everyone a minute to go around, check-in, and say hi, then it is important to make a distinct transition to business and follow the agenda.

Annabel reminds us that there should always be an action at the end of the meeting. The important knowledge to disperse about this action is

• Who is going to do the action?

• When does the action need to be completed?

• What is the action?

Projects:

Along with many meetings, Annabel also manages many projects. The big one on the horizon for CARD right now is the Aquatic Center. She isn't 100% hands-on but is managing from a larger scope. Annabel gives us a list of the 4 main things we need to manage a project:

• A plan

• A budget

• Milestones or broken-down tasks

• Accountability at each milestone

  
  

With that being said not every project runs to the absolute best-case scenario, “we set guiding principles and we manage to that plan, it’s okay if we get off track, we have to agree what moves and what doesn’t move”. Annabel emphasized that part of managing projects is rolling with setbacks. It is important not to try and run away from this aspect “out of every project you always learn something that you carry to your next one”. We never fail if we take something with us to make the next project better.

Community:

CARD builds community. It brings people together and gives them a way to participate in the active social and physical environment they live in. With its parks, programming for adults and kids, and its community spaces everyone can find a place in CARD. I asked Annabel what community means to her and how we can all participate more actively and she said “it’s really about how do you serve your community the best way that you can and make sure that you are including everybody”. Everyone can contribute and aid their community in different ways and it is important to recognize that a community is never one type of people, it is everyone working and existing together. “You have to be genuine, in that drive to serve your community, and do it through a lens of partnership” as individuals we are partners with everyone, CARD also has a number of partner organizations in the community, next I asked her how she and CARD manage those relationships.

Relationships with different entities:

CARD is a giant community organization that exists in a web of other community organizations. The public, city, county, and CARD all move with each other in unique ways. “It’s not about who is better or who is best, it’s about how do we together serve more of the community”. Annabel emphasized how important it is to pay attention to each of them as they relate to one another. "Opportunities are everywhere" All it takes is piecing together the people and the places to help organizations work together. Annabel describes how she attempts to plug other organizations into CARD’s mission in a mutually beneficial way.

Being a Woman:

Annabel's outlook on being a woman in business is simple, "we are all people". We should all value the diversity that each of us brings to the table, we all carry a unique perspective and experience. The Navy taught Annabel some hard lessons: it was 95% male and she had to learn quickly and the hard way to toughen up and be resilient. She has learned to be positive and never thinks that there’s anything she can’t do. "I can't undersell it; be honest and direct” We are conditioned not to be outspoken as women but honesty goes a long way and is necessary in our careers. “Sometimes folks have a hard time speaking up or sharing opinions because it’s intimidating, learning that confidence and modeling that confidence, is really important for our future leaders”. This confidence aids in speaking up but it also aids in asking for help. You should always feel able to reach out with ideas and with questions.

Advice:

Always be listening for opportunities: pay attention to different resources and connections you make along the way that might fit into the puzzle later. We all have moments in life where something comes up but it's not the right time or place, Annabel reminds us to keep that stuff in mind and look for places where it might work in the future. Whether it is an idea for a project, a resource, or a person with a certain set of skills, often you’ll find a place further down the road.

Be genuine: Throughout the conversation, Annabel echoed a tone of being genuine. She explained the importance in being genuine in service to your community, in being a woman, and in going out for what you want in life. Don’t dim your light or change for others, keep in mind who you are and bring that strength to the table.

Life Motto:

The right thing to do isn't always the easy thing to do: Annabel places the highest importance in doing the right thing. In public service your job is to serve the people, this can sometimes be a hard and confusing definition so Annabel makes sure to trust her gut and follow her intuition, even if doing the right thing is hard.

Annabel is an amazingly strong woman who is teaching us all to use our voice and to keep growing and developing our skills. We are all a part of various communities and have the opportunity to grow and learn from them while giving back and investing in them. We have to take it from Annabel that we will never silence our voices and that we will continue to be involved and efficient in our business adventures.