Paula Bidle Resigns Executive Director Position, Remains as Active PML Volunteer
We are grateful to Paula Bidle, PML Executive Director, for the great energy and expertise she has brought to the task of supporting and working closely with PML standing committees in Minnesota and with our coordinator and consejo in León, to enhance our work in Nicaragua. She has competently laid the groundwork for her successor to carry on and continue the forward momentum. We are sad that she is resigning but delighted that she will continue to work with PML as a volunteer. Paula's letter follows.
Dear friends in PML,
It is with great sadness that I find myself having to leave my position as Executive Director of PML, in order to assume a full-time position as chaplain at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.
My time with PML has been brief, yet full of excitement and new initiatives, which have been the result of lots of dedicated work by our boards, committees, volunteers and staff in Minnesota and Nicaragua. Advocacy has become a top priority, as you have noticed by our new mailings. Rice-and-beans updates keep us up-to-date on recent developments in Nicaragua. Our delegation calendar is full for 2004, including a new medical partnership initiative and streamlined donations process. Our coordinators and Nicaraguan Consejo/board are doing successful leadership development with the rural community of El Chague, and our historical projects in Nicaragua continue to thrive. Semester-long internship opportunities for high-school and college students are in process. Our restructured administrative committees and website are doing a great job of keeping up with all of these developments!
It would be impossible to overstate the influence of PML’s Executive Director Emeritus, Nancy Trechsel, who has accompanied this partnership since its beginning. PML would not be where it is without her dedication, compassion and commitment, and we have been blessed to have her with us. Nancy continues to be active with our Outreach committee and is our website maven!
An inner-city Chicago pastor once told me: "It takes fifteen years to begin to be a player in this city, to begin to create the trust you need to do substantial and lasting work." In the Latin American context, this is equally true. With over twenty years of accompaniment of the people of León, PML has proved itself to be a trusted partner, laying the necessary groundwork to be able to do substantial and lasting work which transforms lives on both sides of the border. We have done this by being open-hearted and generous, by taking risks and making mistakes, and by being honest and being ourselves, and always committed to the overall goal of creating the conditions for peace. PML has much to celebrate as we look at the past, and much to anticipate as we move forward into the future! In many ways, we have only just begun.
Un abrazo fuerte.
Paula Bidle