2025 FGA Retreat Reflection
Dear Reader,
I am reflecting today on our first ever staff retreat at Feel Good Action. Last week, we travelled down to Atlanta to spend four days as a team. Believe it or not, although we launched FGA back in 2020, we were connecting in person for the first time in 2025! We’ve gotten to know one another quite well over the years, through Zoom, White Elephant Gift Exchanges, and personal updates on our Slack watercooler channel, like the status of our plants. Still, we felt as a team that it was important to connect in person as well. Before we gathered, we planned out a few activities to do as a group, like cooking dinner in teams of three, board game nights, and a cocktail party with our partners, Collective Renaissance Guild. Then we were off! I was a bit nervous to attend our staff retreat, battling with activism fatigue and the shift in administration that the beginning of 2025 brought. Simultaneously, though, I was excited to meet the team and see what new ideas we would come up with.
Have you ever tried grocery shopping coordinating with seven other people? Two carts, three different food lists, and a wandering focus on getting all the ingredients needed to make a few dinners together. I have a renewed appreciation for any big families tackling that each week! FGA is a small team of ten employees, and eight were able to attend the retreat, so it was the perfect number to find a space to rent for a group. We had our own bedrooms to decompress, but a common kitchen and living room to spend meals and downtime with each other. There was something special about having our morning coffees at the table, going on walks for breaks together, and discussing our favorite reality TV shows. In between strategy sessions for future campaigns and upcoming elections, we got to explore the city and bond.
When we started the foundation of Feel Good Action, we knew that we could use the power of digital media to motivate individuals to act. Our programming has grown exponentially since 2020, expanding to include content creator collaborations, digital advertising, preregistration campaigns, partnering with values-aligned organizations, research trials, and promotion of accessible voter resources. Each and every election is important, so even if your life is busy, you can rely on us to let you know when it is time to take action. We use every tool in digital engagement to help others (including you!) get ready to vote. Tackling the digital landscape as a team of ten is no small feat. We take on that challenge because we believe in the power of democracy and social movements.
By the end of the retreat, I could feel a lift in my energy and optimism in the fight for change. In social justice work, fatigue and burnout can be difficult to combat, especially if that change is coming slowly. Coming together as a team to bond relieved some of that burnout. Our work at Feel Good Action is essential, but sometimes it is more important to take a beat and connect as a community. If you haven’t touched base with your community in a minute, I couldn’t recommend reconnecting more.
- Hailey
