The Day of Service Journal – Part 7: When the Plan Changes

Last week, I wrote about protecting a place on the calendar for the things that matter. This week, we changed the calendar.

Our Day of Service was scheduled for September 18. The date had been announced, marketing was already in motion, paperwork had been prepared, companies had begun committing, and volunteers were making plans around it. September 18 wasn’t just sitting on our calendar anymore. Other people had started putting it on theirs.

Then I sat down with Ryan Elliott of The 516 Project.

From the beginning of our conversation, there was an honesty about Ryan that I respected. You could see his heart for the families The 516 Project serves and, just as clearly, his heart for God. The 516 Project is a Christian-based nonprofit ministry, and talking with Ryan, the faith behind that mission didn’t feel like something written on a website. You could hear it in the way he talked about the families, the work, and the responsibility that comes with showing up at someone’s home to serve them. That mattered to me.

During our conversation, Ryan recommended that we move our Day of Service from September 18 to September 25. The change would better align our project with The 516 Project’s schedule and the families they’re positioned to serve, while giving us a better opportunity to maximize their resources and support on the day of the project.

The recommendation made sense, but I also knew immediately what changing the date meant. Marketing would have to change. Paperwork would have to be updated. Everyone who had already received September 18 would need to hear from us again. Companies had made plans. Volunteers had made plans. We’d spent weeks building toward one date, and now we were considering moving it seven days.

There was another concern that was harder to quantify:

Would changing the date this far into the process make us look like we didn’t have our act together?

We had already announced September 18 and asked other people to plan around it. Part of me wondered whether changing course now might look like a rookie move, or whether someone would tell us the more professional thing to do was simply stick with the date we’d already announced.

That’s where the decision became bigger than the calendar. There is a temptation in business to confuse consistency with never changing your mind. Once something has been announced publicly, you feel pressure to defend it simply because you announced it. Sometimes that’s discipline. Other times, you’re protecting the appearance of having gotten everything right the first time.

The more I listened to Ryan, the easier the actual decision became. We didn’t partner with The 516 Project so they could simply help us execute whatever plan we handed them. We partnered with them because this is work they know. They understand these projects, the resources required, and the families they’re serving. If their experience told us September 25 put us in a better position to serve the family well, then sticking with September 18 just because we’d already printed it would have missed the point of having the partnership in the first place.

The right partner doesn’t just help execute your plan. Sometimes the right partner makes your plan better.

So we changed the date. Our first Real Property Management Regions Day of Service will now take place on September 25, 2026.

Two companies that had committed to supporting the Day of Service reached out after learning about the change. Neither will be able to participate in person on September 25, but neither backed away. Both told us they still wanted to support the project financially. They couldn’t commit to the new date, but they were still committed to the reason behind it.

Then yesterday, I informed Neighborly about the change. There was no suggestion that we should hold onto September 18 simply for appearance’s sake. They understood why we were making the decision and were nothing but supportive.

I had spent time thinking about the marketing we’d have to redo, the paperwork we’d have to revise, the people we’d have to notify, and whether changing course might make us look less prepared. Instead, God had already surrounded this project with people who understood that getting it right for the family mattered more than protecting a date we had chosen weeks earlier.

The paperwork can be changed. Marketing can be updated. Calendars can move. What mattered was whether the people surrounding this project believed enough in the mission to move with us. This week, they did.

Several weeks ago, in Part 2 of this journal, I wrote about why the right mission begins with the right partners. At the time, we were talking about choosing the people and organizations we wanted beside us. This week gave that idea a little more meaning.

Partnership is easy when everyone agrees with the plan already on the table. It becomes more valuable when somebody you trust looks at that plan and says, I think there’s a better way. Then you have a decision to make. For us, the answer was September 25.

The date changed. The mission didn’t. If anything, we’re now better positioned to fulfill it.

Next week, this journal moves another step closer to the reason this entire journey began: the veteran family at the center of it. Every date we’ve discussed, every partner we’ve brought to the table, every company that has offered support, and every adjustment we’ve made ultimately has to answer the same question:

Will this help us serve that family better?

If the answer is yes, I’m getting a lot more comfortable changing the calendar.

Join the Journey

Our Day of Service is now scheduled for September 25, 2026. If you’d like to volunteer, support the project, or learn more about the community work behind Real Property Management Regions, we’d be honored to have you join us.

Learn more, volunteer, or support our Day of Service.

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