Transformed by Four Years with AF

I had been living in Michigan for a year, working exclusively on writing a novel, before I started volunteering with the Detroit chapter of America’s Future Foundation. I joined the formidable twosome of Heather Pfitzenmaier and Katie Vernuccio, who did the heavy lifting for our chapter, planning event content and finding speakers, while I took on the role of program coordinator, focusing on logistics like reserving event locales and planning menus.

Heather and Katie had started the Detroit chapter one year before I joined them. In that year, they had worked out a good routine of regular events geared around free market policy, professional development, and networking.

Working with AF gave me conventional job responsibilities that were a pleasant change of pace from my unconventional career. Considering that my work experience involved national security issues and studying the Holocaust, the learning curve for planning events was steep, but I was excited to develop an understanding of our chapter’s needs, and to learn to budget for and plan different styles of events.

Over the next four years, I planned at least forty events. In the policy arena, we covered topics like school choice, the free market argument for supporting gay marriage, direct primary care options in healthcare, the rebirth of Detroit, right to work, and the future of transportation. On the professional development side, we hosted seminars on writing op-eds, creating an authentic personal brand, career mapping using the pivot method, and starting a business in the gig economy. Every month, I met intriguing new people, and expanded my understanding of current events and public policy. I left each event with renewed passion for spreading liberty and promoting free market ideas.

When I look back on the past four years, it is remarkable how much of my personal transformation was brought on by AF. Before AF, I was a stranger to my husband’s home state. An introvert by nature, I had made no great effort to push beyond the boundaries of my home and find a niche for myself. The friendships I have made through AF have been invaluable. I’ve come to know and value the time I spend with many of our return attendees. My chapter team members, including our newest addition, Meg Stano, have made my life in Michigan so much more joyous. I’d be remiss in not mentioning that it was at an AF event three years ago where I first met the fellow writer who would become a truly indispensable friend.

Through AF, I got to develop new skills, and push myself to grow in areas, like networking, that do not come naturally to me. AF renewed my desire to stay current on the news and both national and local policy developments, and it helped me develop ties to my community that I would have been hard-pressed to find from my writing room in rural Michigan.

Because I was part of our chapter team, AF also let me advocate for the causes I care about. Two years ago, I organized a group tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills for AF members. The year prior, I hosted an AF fundraiser for Operation Ward 57, a charity which supports amputees at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

This year, I added concrete tools to my writing skillset because of my AF connections. Since the birth of my daughter, finding time, and sometimes the motivation, to write was incredibly difficult. Through AF, I had come to know the Deputy Editorial Page Editor at The Detroit News, Ingrid Jacques, who also serves on the AF Detroit board. Ingrid encouraged me whenever we spoke to write an editorial for The Detroit News. In July, I decided that I wanted to take her up on that offer, to prove to myself that mothers who stay home can, indeed, fulfill their aspirations. Ingrid helped me pare down my initial long-form submission. I had my first print byline in August.

Upon noticing my piece in The Detroit News, Heather suggested that I sign up for AFF’s Writing Fellows Program. I was accepted, and after six weeks of Tuesday evening classes, I had published four more editorials, two in The Detroit News, and two in The Washington Examiner. Those editorials caught the attention of a radio host in Lansing, who brought me on to his show twice as a guest. Once again, my voice was being heard, and I felt that I was making a difference. It almost goes without saying that, without AF, none of those things would have been possible.

All of my own development has been wonderful, but the greatest benefit of AF is that it provides a positive environment for sharing thoughts about liberty. In the past two years, as so much of our political discourse has dissolved into online name-calling and backbiting, AF has remained a place where people of all backgrounds and ideologies can gather together and learn about innovative free market policy ideas or support one another’s personal growth. Until November 2016, I did not fully grasp how much I treasure having a place where discussions of policy were not divisive.

I encourage anyone who feels bogged down by the climate of negativity, is in a rut in their work life, wants to meet fellow lovers of liberty, or wants to keep abreast of the free market policy solutions being put forward both nationally and locally, look to your local AF chapter. Attend a few meetings, and if you enjoy them, dive in! Join a chapter team, and see how you can put your current skills to use, or work on a new talent you’ve always wanted to try. If there is no AF chapter where you live, contact AF headquarters in D.C. and find out what you’ll need to start a chapter of your own.

If, like me, you enjoy writing, then apply for the AF Writing Fellows Program. Whether you attend sessions remotely or in D.C., you will come away knowing how to get your ideas out in front of a national audience.

One thing is for certain: no matter how you get involved, AF will give you back so much more than you put in.