Another Bay Area ED Takes Sabbatical

Another executive director of a Bay Area-based LGBT organization is taking a sabbatical, joining the ranks of several other local nonprofit directors who have recently taken similar breaks.

Though the time away may seem like vacations, some see them as crucial for nonprofits who want to retain staff.

Judy Appel, executive director of the San Francisco-based Our Family Coalition, is on a two-month sabbatical that began July 1.

"I have been around for 10 years," Appel, 50, said. "The board is acknowledging the work that I've done and that we've done as a team."

The coalition, which also has an office in Oakland, works to advance equity for LGBTQ families with children through education, advocacy, and other means.

Appel, who lives in Berkeley and has a wife and two children, plans to spend more time with her own family during the next several weeks.

She said she'd also be seeing friends, working out, doing projects around her home, and taking "some small trips."

"Our Family Coalition really values its employees," Appel said, and she's "taking time to replenish and have a little down time."

She said the nonprofit's policy is "that every five years, you get a month sabbatical, and I'm the first person to reach 10 years." Another staffer will reach the five-year mark this year and will also take a month off.

While Appel is gone, Renata Moreira, who's been the coalition's policy and communications director for three years, is leading the organization.

Appel called Moreira "really amazing" and said, "It's good for an organization to have a shift in leadership and a chance for people to grow, and I feel very confident in the skills of our staff."

Moreira, who's 38 and identifies as a queer Latina, said Our Family Coalition has "a really rock star team," and she's been supporting other staffers "and making sure everything goes according to the plan."

In response to emailed questions, Our Family Coalition board member Ora Prochovnick said Appel "was given a sabbatical for the usual reasons an organization would choose to grant one: to recognize and reward Judy for her many years of devoted leadership with the organization, to allow her time to rejuvenate and replenish, grow and learn, to have an opportunity for others on staff to grow into leadership roles for succession planning."

Summer is typically "a slower time" for Our Family Coalition, Appel said, but the group, which has a budget of approximately $1.2 million and 13 staff members, is keeping busy.

Appel said OFC is expanding its efforts to include middle schools and is doing "a lot more work in Sacramento," including supporting Assembly Bill 960, The Equal Protection for All Families Act, which was authored by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) and would update assisted reproduction laws to help ensure equal protections for all families.

Appel said she's not leaving Our Family Coalition.

Asked why the group hadn't announced her sabbatical, she said, "Why would we announce it? ... There was nothing, really, to announce."

"It's an internal thing," she added.

Prochovnick, a former coalition board co-chair, said, "This sabbatical had been in the works for quite some time, and was carefully discussed and planned - there was no intent to 'hide' it."

The Bay Area Reporter learned of Appel's sabbatical from a post she wrote on her Facebook page about it.

Appel, who was sick at the time she spoke with the B.A.R., expressed irritation about having to take time out of her break to speak with a reporter.

"You're calling me on my sabbatical to ask me about my sabbatical?" she said.

The sabbatical is paid. Appel declined to say what her salary is, explaining, "I just don't feel comfortable" discussing it.

Our Family Coalition's tax documents for the fiscal year ending in June 2013, the most recent records available, list Appel's compensation as $92,839.

Appel is president of Berkeley Unified School District's board, but she said most of her sabbatical time coincides with the board's summer break. She does plan to attend the next regularly scheduled meetings this month and in August.

Other Sabbaticals

Appel's sabbatical follows the recent departure of two San Francisco nonprofit heads who left their jobs after taking similar leaves.

Transgender Law Center Executive Director Masen Davis left that nonprofit earlier this year. Last summer, Carolyn Laub quit the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Both Davis and Laub have since been replaced.

Sometimes, local agency heads come back to their jobs.

Brett Andrews, executive director of San Francisco's Positive Resource Center, recently returned to his post after a three-month sabbatical.

In an interview this week, Andrews, whose nonprofit provides comprehensive benefits counseling and employment services to people who are living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS, said he used his time to travel and meditate.

"The organization is in the preliminary stages of embarking on a feasibility study for a potential capital campaign" as it considers purchasing a building, Andrews, 50, said.

"That's going to be a heavier lift both on the staff side and the board of directors, and I wanted to be fully prepared and ready to help lead that effort," he said.

The nonprofit is currently interviewing consultants.

Andrews said his agency now has a policy to give two sabbaticals a year. He said he's approved a break for someone else this year.

What A Sabbatical is For

Scott Miller, the gay man who owns the San Francisco firm Scott Miller Executive Search, said he's placed many of the city's most well-known LGBT executive directors, including Mike Smith, who formerly led AIDS Emergency Fund, and Roger Doughty at Horizons Foundation.

Despite the recent movement among executive directors, Miller said he doesn't see a trend.

"It's not something I see a lot," he said.

Miller indicated Appel's use of her sabbatical is typical.

"I've seen everything" when it comes to what executives do with their sabbaticals, he said, "from going to exotic locations to just taking a family vacation" or working on house projects. Some people write books or do research.

"Sometimes it is good to recharge," and such breaks allow executive directors "to come back refreshed and recharged," Miller said.

The sabbaticals breaks come "usually after a minimum" of five years, but sometimes seven, he said.

"It's an easy bone for a board to throw to offer up as a retention tool," Miller said, noting that many executive directors work 50 to 80 hours a week.

He doesn't think sabbaticals are unique to LGBT nonprofits. He also said a sabbatical is different from a vacation.

For many executives, "even when they're on vacation, they're working," Miller said. A sabbatical, which typically lasts four weeks - "sometimes a little longer" - lets people "really fully disengage and recharge and come back fresh."

He said he hasn't seen people going on sabbatical, returning to their job, and then leaving soon thereafter.

When someone takes a sabbatical, "it's a signal they're going to come back," he said. "... They're not just going to go and job hunt."

Whether a sabbatical is preferable to a leadership change "depends on the executive," Miller said.

"Sometimes an organization needs a change, and you need a different type of leadership." The board has to have that conversation with the executive director, and they "have to have a robust dialogue back and forth."

If a board's offering a sabbatical, that's "clearly a signal they want the executive director to stay," Miller said. "Sometimes," though, "it's a good time" to talk about what the organization needs and what the ED needs in their career.

"It's a two-way street," Miller said.

Rick Cohen is a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of Nonprofits.

Asked whether he sees directors coming back from sabbatical only to quit soon thereafter, or taking a break and not returning at all, Cohen said, "It's really on a case by case basis. From what we've seen, most do come back and do stay for a period of time." The time off "does sometimes lead somebody to decide they want to go in another direction, but I haven't seen that as a trend."

What his organization typically sees with sabbaticals differs from what Appel's using it for, and Cohen said sabbaticals aren't a way to give people more paid vacation time.

The breaks are "definitely not vacation time," he said. "Most sabbaticals we've heard about are tightly highly structured. They're not time off." Usually, he said, specific goals have been set "to advance the organization."

"It's not a vacation by any means," Cohen said.

Andrews, of Positive Resource Center, said, "Legally," a vacation comes from "accrued benefits that you take, so by law, that's owed to you."

He said a sabbatical involves "a particular policy that any organization may or may not want."

Cohen said sabbaticals have "gained a little bit more prominence since the economy has recovered a little bit," he said. During the recent downturn, it was time for "all hands on deck, 24/7" at many agencies.

The breaks can "reduce burnout," he said, and they can also serve as a "test for how prepared the organization is" for a transition in leadership or an absence if an agency's head has to leave temporarily.

Such leaves also give a group's board and executive director a chance to see "who could have an opportunity to move up in the future."

Sabbaticals may be preferable to a leadership change.

"If you can do a three- or six-month sabbatical which allows the CEO to recharge their batteries and you have a strong leadership team in place," it's "a lot better to have that CEO come back refreshed with some brilliant new ideas than to have to bring somebody else in," Cohen said.

However, he said, "sometimes an organization will realize it's time for a change, and absence didn't make the heart grow fonder."