Make space, take space, make space

2014 Welcome HB party with the then (now mostly former) Board of Directors, during HB's first month as Executive Director.

January, 2021
Beloved Out in the Open Community,

I'm writing this month to share with you that I'm going to be taking a 3-month sabbatical from Out in the Open February-April, 2021. I first mentioned this idea to Lucy, our Board President (pictured above on the left during both of our first months with OITO), after our March 2020 board meeting just before we buttoned things up at the start of the pandemic and here we are nearly a year later. It’s hard to believe this time is upon us!

After 7 years with me as the primary voice of Out in the Open, it's a wonderful time to continue deepening and broadening our organization's leadership. I cannot wait to see how Ain and Eva, our full time staff members; our board; volunteers; and community members grow into their leadership and power in my absence. I feel very lucky to have the full support of our staff and board, to have this chance to rest after building through these first years of OITO, and to have the space to dream/vision about what our next phases of work can and will look like.

I am so so proud and in awe of what our community and organization has done, how we’ve pulled together, how we’ve held each other, what we have tried, what we have dreamed, and what we have breathed into being, all these years. And I’m so excited to see how my making/taking a bit of space offers room for others to move into the fullness of their leadership too.

Thank you to our fabulous Board of Directors and staff who have said yes to so many of my wild ideas throughout the years including saying yes to this sabbatical. Additional thanks to those folks for their work, time, and energy in these upcoming months! And thank you, dear community, for all the very many kinds of support (time, ideas, laughs, energy, money, resources, phone calls, social media boosts, collaborations, and more) that you have given to me and to Out in the Open all these years.

We will be adding one big support during this time. I am so pleased to share that long-time OITO community member, Jo Lum, will be joining us in the role of Interim Managing Director while I’m away. See an intro/hello from Jo below!

I will look forward to connecting with many of you in different ways over the next few months and to returning to Out in the Open in a refreshed way in May!

With much love, care, and gratitude,
HB
--
HB Lozito
Executive Director, Out in the Open

​Meet our Interim Managing Director, Jo!
I'm thrilled to join the team at Out in the Open! While I've spent the majority of my adult life trying to be a city queer in New York City and Minneapolis- I grew up in Cambridge, NY just over the mountains from route 9. Over the years, Out in the Open has reminded me there is a vibrant, diverse queer family here to come home to- so I did and it has been such a sweet homecoming.

Currently I own a coaching business, Outstanding Returns, where I specialize in supporting liberal folx with wealth heal their relationship with money and take bold action for social and environmental change. I'm jazzed to bring my background in coaching, facilitating, fundraising and organizing home to my rural queer family at Out in the Open. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can for a hike, a zoom thing, or to jump on The People's Trampoline some time soon.