Join our Board of Directors!
We are excited to start building our first ever Board of Directors! Please help us spread the word.
About Apiary for Practical Support
Apiary for Practical Support (Apiary) is a new nonprofit that focuses on providing operational and programmatic support to organizations that provide logistical support to people seeking abortions. In 2021, Apiary was a fiscally sponsored project of the Midwest Access Coalition but at the end of the year we received our IRS determination and are now running as an independent nonprofit.
The Apiary team is currently made up of two staff members, an Executive Director and Deputy Director, with a third consultant providing supportive services. We also have two co-founders who serve as advisors. In 2022, we are focusing on: building a blueprint for how practical support can work that we will use to grow and stabilize new and existing groups; building a directory of resources; and raising our public profile.
Skills Requested
As a new organization, we are building in real time, including our understanding of how our Board should work. In these early days, part of the work of being on the Board will therefore include creating the norms, culture and expectations of the Board. Our programs and strategy are based on the needs, priorities and interests of the groups on the ground and therefore our Board is focused on compliance and providing depth in key areas where we need additional expertise.
This includes:
Human Resources
Accounting/financial management
Communications strategy
Fundraising (especially with existing foundation relationships within repro)
Other founders and nonprofit team members
Understanding of the abortion access landscape and the ways it is expected to shift
Lived experience of receiving or providing abortion practical support
We are looking at radical ways of thinking about nonprofit management, fundraising, team leading, and budgeting that move away from scarcity and towards abundance. We ask that our Board be aligned with this idea and willing to reconcile with the ways that white supremacy has created inequity in the movement and across the country. That will involve trust on both sides, a willingness to take risks and work nimbly, and a belief that there’s a better option somewhere. We are also unabashedly pro-abortion and all members of our team - be it staff, volunteers or Board members - must be, too.
Time Commitment
Board meetings will be held monthly in the first year with the potential for that to expand or contract as our needs become clearer, with additional ad hoc meetings as needed. Board members will be asked to commit at least 5 hours a month in meetings or supporting specific projects, with possible more hours requested if the member has capacity/interest.
We are hoping to start with a core group of three to five members to work deeply with the Executive Director and co-founders (Diana Parker-Kafka and Odile Schalit). This may require more hours in the beginning, decreasing as more members join over time.
Stipends
Board members will receive $150 monthly stipends beginning the month of their first meeting.
Application
If you are interested in joining our Board, please send a short (1-2 paragraph) description of your interest and experience (professional and/or lived), and any relevant materials that you think will help us better understand you and what you wish to bring to our community to contact@apiarycollective.org.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis (and members will be added on a rolling basis) with a goal to start onboarding new members in March.
We encourage anyone who has had an abortion and all individuals, regardless of level of experience, and especially BIPOC, queer, trans and/or gender non-conforming, disabled, and any other systemically oppressed community members, to apply.