This IS NOT primarily a money pitch (though sure money is needed to keep things going) nor is this about asking you to put a "Proud to be Basque" bumper-sticker on your car or wear a beret every day.  This IS ABOUT asking people to accentuate "Basqueness" as one of their multiple identities (e.g., as a parent, spouse, child, football fan, American, etc.). We're hoping to 1) raise the "awareness of Basqueness" across the generations and 2) find folks-young and older--willing and able to contribute their time and energy to keep our culture alive. 

To do this we have to work hard and work smart. NABO and our member organizations are at work maintaining current offerings and developing new ones to keep "Basqueness" something alive and engaging. This is being developed around a four-year plan (2008-11) that begins with an assessment of what we have and where we need to go. 

ZATOZ Part 1: ZERGATIK: Why do we need a four-year plan?

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."   - Proverbs 29:18

CROSSROADS. If a culture does not possess effective means of transmission from one generation to the next, then that culture is doomed to perish. Somehow, someway, against the odds, our ancestors found a way to preserve “Basqueness” across thousands of years.  Now it is our turn. We—those of us age 30 and above—cannot be the generation that breaks this long chain of continuity of one of the world’s oldest cultures. Our Basque community here in the Diaspora is at a crossroads: what will we choose to define as being Basque in the 21st century?  What aspects of Basque culture will be chosen to emphasize and perpetuate?

WHAT DIRECTION: The Basque Government recently released an introductory DVD titled "Euskaldunak."  Well written and produced, the program makes use of a metaphor: estropadak or the rowing boats of about a dozen rowers.  The rowers look behind them as they row forward to make the point that Basque society keeps an eye on its past while it moves forward.  Whereas the slogan "moving forward" can be very appealing, it by itself doesn't really give one much direction.  From a starting point, forward can be in any of 360 degrees of direction.  When a team is rowing out into the sea, it's advisable that they have a direction to point their boat.  That's the relevance of the above quote:  if the people on the boat don't have a good idea where they are going, they might well just row out into nothing and ... we know how that ends.  What we are trying to identify clearly for NABO is where should we point the boat? 

WORLDVIEW CHANGE.  What is being proposed is nothing short of a fundamental change in how we think about directing NABO and our local clubs/organizations. Previously NABO was encouraged to implement a plan but it did not happen.  This is not to say that NABO has no accomplishments; NABO has succeeded in many ways.  However, NABO had not developed a comprehensive, integrated plan of action that analyzed how to best transmit Basque culture from one generation to the next. With few exceptions, the same can be stated for our member organizations.

While making some recent adjustments to new realities, our Basque-American community is still primarily running on the worldview of the older generation of Basques. The Basque picnic/festival model with the usual lamb BBQ meal characteristic of every NABO club, for example, was how an older generation decided to best celebrate “Basqueness.” Once again, this is not to be taken as a negative criticism of older Basques or a lamb BBQ. Quite the contrary, if not for these folks we would not have in place what we do today, and of course people then and now enjoy getting together for a party.  Any plan that is potentially developed must keep in place what this founding generation enjoys and prefers. Thus the hope is not to replace but rather supplement what we have going in our Basque communities.
 

The reality is that most young Basques today do not self-identify as being Basque to the same degree as their Basque parents and grandparents did. Part of this is to be expected as we move from generation to generation, as Basques marry non-Basques, the number of alternative identities, etc. but there is still a window of opportunity available to the older generation (those age 30 and above) to find viable means of keeping “Basqueness” alive. To do this effectively, we have to take advantage of thinking in terms of developing and implementing a plan that will be effective at both the local and NABO levels.  For this to work we have to successfully fuse the "dreams" (positive initiatives that benefit your club/organization) and the "doers" (the people who step up and get the necessary work done) to address our collective needs.

 

ZATOZ Part 2: IKERTU, LERROKATU ETA EGIN: 2008 Research, Recruit & Implement

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.  -Abraham Lincoln

NABO has never developed and implemented a four year plan, thus it may not be very realistic to lay out a four year plan without first doing some necessary research to assess needs, identify and articulate worthwhile initiatives and recruit the people who might be willing and able to make things happen.

BEHARRAK: Assessing Individual & Collective Needs A plan has to be developed with clear objectives in mind, thus an assessment of NABO needs is needed. Accordingly the first part of our plan entails NABO compiling relevant data (Requested NABO member data) to better know what are our collective and specific needs.  This will be one of the primary objectives of the first year of our plan 2008.