village life (tarrytown-style)

From Drop Box

The purpose of the NYC trip was to attend my very first EPIP board meeting in Tarrytown, NY. I had been consumed with travel anxiety around the logistics, since there was a train ride out of the city involved. Thank GOODNESS my friend and colleague felt the same way (or at least pretended to) and met me at the airport and accompanied me through the whole ordeal. We’re talking planes, running through traffic, cabs, trains, and a shared cab before finally arriving at… the Sheraton Tarrytown! 

Now I had been “traveling” since the wee hours of the morning, and East Coast time is the worst, so I fully appreciated the glass of champagne they offered, and was slightly weirded out that they also gave me a single red rose. How depressing that the most recent flower I’ve received came from a kind of rude and scary woman who intimidated me enough not to grab one of the chocolate chip cookies on the desk next to us. 

So let’s see… what next. I’m currently too lazy to grab my camera and upload photos, so they’ll have to come later. I suppose we gathered for dinner at the Sweet Grass Grill, where I met other board members for the first time – so nice to put names and voices to faces!

The bulk of our time was spent at the Rockefeller Archive Center, my first experience with philanthropy in a true historical sense. I’m probably going to get my facts wrong, but here’s the gist of it: the house was built for John D. Rockefeller Jr’s wife Martha, who actually never spent a single night in the house. It was built in the ’60′s even though it’s designed to look like an older English colonial home. Or something. There’s an unsupported staircase that is to die for, fantastic art, John D. Rockefeller Jr and Sr’s desks which we sat at to gain some kind of “wisdom”. 

Being on the board is definitely a new experience, and feels like the best way possible to stay connected with the philanthropic world while I continue to explore new things. I’m really excited about the work and what’s in store for the year- though there’s a lot ahead of us! “Us” being the really amazing folks I met over the weekend and over the phone. 

I don’t have too much more to say about Tarrytown except that we made it back safely on the train and then I went on a subway adventure that just HAPPENED to work out in my favor. I’ll recap my tracks through Brooklyn and Manhattan as soon as I can truly figure out where the heck we were.