At the grand gathering, held Thurs., Aug. 14 at the Wichita Art Museum, Dr. Kaye Monk-Morgan shared a story that probably sounds familiar to many of us.
A born and raised Wichita person, she admits to knowing lots of people. But she was on a call and there was a person on the call she didn’t know.
“I was like, ‘who that?’ Who is that gentleman?”
Finally someone on the call asked him to introduce himself, and he said he would be happy to introduce himself, but he and his family were moving from Wichita the next week.
The individual had been in Wichita for two years, and was still struggling with where to find a place to get a haircut, where to take his children to play in community with kids that look like them, a church community they could call home and some folks they could play golf with where they could tell “different kinds of stories.”
This individual had not connected to the Wichita Black community, so they left.
The Grand Gathering is designed to keep that from happening again.
“This is an absolute response to how do we not only retain the talent that we create, but how do we retain the talent that comes to us,” said Monk-Morgan.
The idea of the Grand Gathering is to connect people who are new to Wichita, with people who may be more familiar with the community, but it’s also an opportunity for people who’ve been in Wichita a while to get to know people, beyond a simple greeting, but to make real connections.
With a nod to economics, the event also offers an opportunity to talk to and connect with a person about business.
An estimated 200 people attended the event that set aside time for everyone to get to know the people at their table and afterwards everyone was assigned to get to know someone else in the room they did not know.
The event included a mix of older and younger members of the community with an additional goal of connecting across communities. Elders were encouraged to talk to younger attendees and younger attendees were asked to connect with an older attendee about a path for going forward.
The final ask was to set up a meeting for lunch, dinner, coffee or a drink with someone in the room as a way to get to know them and develop a relationship beyond the event.
From the boisterous sounds of the room, connections were being made.
Junetta Everett, a retired executive with Delta Dental, was the visionary for The Gathering. She solicited a dozen or more community members and leaders to help her plan and organize the recurring events.
In addition to the Grand Gathering, the group also holds smaller gatherings throughout the year.
This time, the Grand Gathering was sponsored by Fidelity Federal, and their president Clark Bastian was in attendance and spoke to the group.
