I’ve had the pleasure of leading the fabulous team of volunteers at Delft MaMa over the last 18 months. Since I was pregnant in 2007 with my first child, Delft MaMa has been a huge support to me and my family. Back then, I was briefly one of the original board members of this not for profit, but then relocated back to Australia from late 2007 until 2012.
When we returned here though, it was by reconnecting with this organisation that helped me find friends and information about parenting in Delft and surrounds. I rejoined as a volunteer and helped out ad-hoc with the playgroup, various events and also the social media channels.
Chairperson of Delft MaMa 2022-23
In January 2022, after speaking to founder Lucie Cunningham and the current team, I applied for and was accepted as chairperson. Delft MaMa had been without a chairperson for some time, and Lucie was now based in Scotland. With the added challenges of COVID, there was a lot of support needed to ensure Delft MaMa could rebuild after the lockdowns cancelled playgroups, workshops and events for an extended period of time. Many members of the community and volunteers also relocated back to their home countries.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to both give back to this organisation as chairperson for around 18 months by sharing my skills, as well as learning a lot about leadership myself during this time.
As of 1 July 2023, I have stepped down from this role to focus on other things, as well as hand over to a great team with children younger than mine. I’ll still be continuing behind-the-scenes to support this wonderful organisation where I can.
2023-beyond
I’m thrilled that Robyn Hall has taken over the role of vice-chairperson and along with her team already has many great plans underway for 2023-24. You can contact her via www.delftmama.nl
My highlights as Chairperson
The rest of this post is to record and share some of the highlights of my time as chairperson and some of the lessons I learned.
There is also a blog post here that covers many of these aspects too:
Leading the 2022-23 Board of Directors
During my time as chairperson in 2022-23, I had the privilege to work with a wonderful team of women.
The main lessons learned here were to be flexible and realistic. Our whole team were volunteers who also juggled work and family commitments. Though we all had the best of intentions at all times, often other priorities had to come first, and rightly so. I learned to re-write our plans and manage our finances, taking into account the fact that things may go as planned – or more likely not. Still, it always seemed to work out ok!
I also learned a lot about leadership. Though I believe in a team all working together, it is often important that one person is the key contact to pull everything together and keep everyone informed and motivated.
Organising the 2022 Halloween party
It’s not just the kids that love this party! Though there were plenty of kids in fabulous costumes, I’m not sharing those photos for privacy reasons. However the adults involved also had a great time.
Main lesson here was to work with a strong partnership. Kindergarden Delft Zuid hosts the Delft MaMa playgroup already and offered to host our Halloween party. Due to their great space, as well as the enthusiasm and experience of their team alongside ours, we were able to design an event that was flexible and fun.
I’ll add more lessons here later….meanwhile if you have any comments or questions, feel free to contact me!
Zestee 
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