2025 DDAA Breakfast Report

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DDAA hosted its traditional annual breakfast meeting at the NADO Training Conference in Salt Lake City, UT on October 16. DDAA President Dennis Stripling welcomed DDAA members and provided brief updates, and Jaclyn Courter from ARC and Brendan Buff from DDAA shared updates with the audience. Notably, ARC is transitioning to the new Pathways reporting system for its new quarterly reporting format. DDAA has an open awards nomination window – due October 31 – while there is a Revolving Loan Fund Peer Meeting on December 9-10 in Tuscaloosa, AL.

During the meeting, DDAA encouraged attendees to share how they are managing uncertainty with each other. Several key themes emerged:

With changes to the Federal budget and various programs, how are you managing staff and board expectations?

  • Being honest with staff and managing fears
  • Avoiding sharing speculation
  • Contingency planning
  • Frequent and transparent conversations with board members
  • Educational conversations with legislators
  • Organizational redevelopment and reorganization conversations
  • Review of membership fee structure
  • Diversifying into other programs
  • Engaging the private sector

What do you want to see from DDAA in our next strategic plan?

  • Align with ARC plan
  • Refresh training conference content
  • Increase communication and timeliness of ARC updates
  • More information on policy for mid-level management
  • Increased communication
  • Support of ARC program funding and local government pograms

What do you no longer have time to do in your workday?

  • Forward planning
  • Reading important documents and emails
  • Deeper, more engaged conversation with elected officials
  • Community engagement and project readiness workshops
  • Strategic discussion when more urgent matters exist
  • Visiting in the region

Thank you to all those who attended and contributed!