By Anja Walson who received an ROI Micro Grant to attend JPropel in August, 2011.

Leaders combine the qualities of being both on the dance floor and on the balcony. These words by the magnificent rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand recently reminded me of the powerful impact of the ROI Community.

With the support of an ROI Micro Grant, I recently stepped out of my local dance floor in Amsterdam to connect with fellow European Jewish movers and shakers at the regional ROI gathering, JPropel, in Uppsala, Sweden.

Arriving right before kabbalat Shabbat I was warmly welcomed to a delicious and delightful dinner with a diverse group of young people at Anneli Rådestad's home. I had connected with Anneli both at the first ever European regional ROI gathering in Vilnius, Lithuania in freezing February 2010 and the recent ROI Summit in Jerusalem in July 2011. She kindly invited me to stay in her beautiful home where I enjoyed sunny mornings and late night shmoozy tea sippings.

The kabbalat Shabbat dinner was also a great opportunity to ROI-union with Samuel Sjöblom who I had met at the most recent ROI Summit in Jerusalem this past summer. I seized the opportunity to learn more about contemporary developments in the Scandinavian Jewish communities and together we explored many points of overlap in our personal narratives.

While looking forward to the start of JPropel, I spent the next couple of days breathing and biking through sunny Stockholm, tasting licorice ice cream and strolling through parks with other ROI’er’s. During my first weekend in sunny Sweden I bumped into the guys from ABBA while dancing through the streets of Stockholm for the Gay Pride Parade while waving to the enthusiastic bystanders on their balconies. Surprisingly enough, this funky combination was a perfect introduction to the JPropel ROI European regional gathering.

JPropel was an amazing opportunity to continue exchanging information and inspiration with an ever expanding ROI Community. Reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones, involving countless high five hugs, hocus pocussed a smile on my face.

My participation in JPropel sparked many new ideas for inspiration and collaboration. My JPropel roommate Julia Itin had recently invited me to present at Limmud Germany after hearing my presentation at Limmud Hungary last year. The brainstorms during our late nights and early mornings resulted in several ideas for collaborations which we're both excitedly working on.

After witnessing it at the ROI summit, I was happy to contribute to the community case study where Stephen Shashoua of the Three Faiths Forum was able to crowd source solutions with this effective tool for collaborative challenge tackling.

The shmoozing over some fika (a swedish version of ruchelach) resulted in a tacheles immediate impact when I was asked to join the Muslim Jewish Conference dream team by fellow ROI'ers Ilja Sichrovsky & Orly Schwartzman.

The analogy of effective leadership as being both on the dance floor and on the balcony resonated with me and inspired me to reflect on the impact of the ROI community. For some of us it might come more naturally to be in the middle of the dance floor, while others feel more comfortable on the balcony with the view. The whole JPropel experience was a powerful reminder about how we need to balance both. What moves us to boogie on the dance floor? What inspires us to lead? Who or what reminds us to step out on the balcony and see the swirling patterns of the moving masses? While many of us wish we could clone ourselves (ethical concerns aside), what does it actually take to become a more effective leader by balancing both? For some, our reminders to balance both being on the dance floor and the balcony come in the form of Shabbat or actual dancing or cooking (or fill in the blanks with your own reminders) and for us lucky ROI’ers we’re also reminded of this by connecting with fellow balcony dancers through the ROI community.

So may we continue to be both on the dance floor and balcony and when we get stuck on either, let's remind each other to boogie on the balcony.