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Center References and Recommendations

Thanks for all of your work with us. It has been a pleasure working with you. The meeting summary was exactly what we needed. We are planning to send it out to the entire organization to share with them the great discussion that took place at the retreat. You will always be on our mind as we move forward and we may call on you again when outside perspective is most of use. Good luck with all of your work. I am glad there are organizations such as yours to help.

The session you did (with our board and commission) was just excellent. It went way, way beyond our expectations. Everyone was very pleased. We all appreciated the way you did small groups as well as your demeanor and technique — it was excellent. Thank you.

I really feel fortunate to have your wisdom and experience on our team and I don't take it for granted.

I thought you were awesome this morning. You moved through an incredible amount of information in such a short period of time! So my question is, "How do I learn what you know?" Thanks so much,

Barbara, every single person this morning was deeply appreciative and impressed with your work. You were attentive, responsive, inclusive and able to drive the process ahead. Most marvelous!

Wow! Excellent and challenging summary and from my first quick read, this is just where we are and what we need to talk about. Thank you for your interpretation, the gracious way you described the challenging issues that we must tackle, and for the thoroughness of the document.

Barbara: Thank you for taking on this project with us. Your participation was very valuable and noted by many of the commissioners and council.  We look to do this process every two years and will seek out your help again. 

Barbara's experience with both nonprofit and government agencies was the key to the class being successful. I appreciated the balance between theory and application. The course was rooted in the real world. Barbara made it possible for me to learn in my own way and provided a variety of approaches to the course material.

Barbara is an interesting, engaging presenter. She makes audience members feel secure and part of the process.

I was talking about you the other day with Karen Tero (Administrative Director - Ramsey County Manager's Office) and Judy Wong Kidder (former Asst. Commissioner MN Department of Human Services) — both of them were saying what excellent skills you have as a facilitator, that you can follow all the threads of what's going on in a meeting, paraphrase in a way that clarifies the various points of view, and allow opposing points of view to be heard in non-confrontational ways.

Barbara Raye, has the very skillful ability to balance theoretical models of planning and community building with real life application. To this end, one of her key strengths lies in getting people to think and act in different ways. Ways that are right, just and empowering.

Barbara is an exceptional teacher and professional. She has a rare talent of being able to simplify complex issues to make them understandable to anyone. Graduate students at my class on planning at Hamline University are very impressed with her presentations on strategic planning and citizen participation. "I really liked her presentation" and "She was great" are typical comments from students.

I have never met anyone who values citizen empowerment more than Barbara Raye or who has worked harder to achieve it.

Barbara has the ability to look at complex issues and explain them to others in ways that are understandable and useful. This ability to help translate complexity into simpler forms is one of the ways she encourages people to become more involved in decision-making. They begin to see ways that their efforts can make a difference - and lead to positive change.

Barbara's teaching style invites the learner to become engaged in the process. She understands that quality education is learner-driven, and that one of the primary outcomes of education is to enable the learner to put their new knowledge into action in order to help create a more positive community.

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with Barbara Raye in a variety of settings and circumstances. She is one of the most clear, "on purpose" consultants I have ever met. Barbara has a collaborative spirit that pervades her work. She communicates easily with diverse groups, builds strong consensus, facilitates mutual understanding with tremendous ease and grace. Barbara has the passion of her convictions and brings her full self to every situation. I cannot recommend her too highly.

A person with unique twin abilities of recognizing real organizational and social needs and presents the means and the processes to achieve personally satisfying and practical results. It was a pleasure working with you.

The time spent on Friday was terrific; we'll move forward now with a good idea of what things are supposed to look like. Thanks again — it's great working with you!

Some comments after you left included "fascinating," "critical points we often don’t give attention to," "good energy," "passionate," and "she’s in the process of challenging everything, changing everything." Thank you for your ability to articulate why and how our “process” will determine our "product."

Barbara, I was in your Hamline class on Saturday and I just wanted to say "Thank You" for sharing your expertise and insights. I've already met with my Vice President for 1 hour sharing concepts and ideas to improve the purpose of our Volunteer Services.

I have to tell you that our chat was the highlight of my week and I have given much thought to it since then. I really appreciate it.

We really are grateful for your leadership for both those days. I think this was a crucial experience for us. We needed a boost and an effective invitation to focus and bond. You provided that beautifully.

Thanks again for all of your efforts to help our organization emerge out of the quicksand we've been in. It will take some time for us to be a "force to be reckoned with" once again, but I'm very hopeful about the short-term future as we’ve already seen good energy from board members in the week following the board meeting toward specific tasks.

Barbara, I’m elated you’ll be able to come to DC. Your good work last fall helped our leadership come to a common decision that we needed to keep this historic organization going, and we have done that at one level. Now we need to look to the next steps in our rebuilding process.

Thanks for assisting us in such short notice. As usual everyone thought you were great — especially Krista, and she is as particular about consultants as I am.

For a sample list of Center clients, visit the Center Clients Page.