Doodle Launched for July ESAG Meeting

[Susan L]

Here is the link to doodle your availability for our July meeting:

http://www.doodle.com/pctb2pweszyrtcf2

Our main agenda item will be exchange of information regarding the GCC
strategic planning for the NVC Global Network. Since we are no longer
formally connected to the GCC, we will be counting on people who were
nominated to the GCC's strategic planning committee to provide
information since those people are now being included in the
preparation phase of this initiative, including the selection of
participants. And without actually auditing the spreadsheets, I know
of at least three of our members who have already been selected as
participants. You know who you are, so please show up! I am one of
those people who were nominated but not selected, so I have the
information; however, besides being in departure mode for my
relocation and so not having the spaciousness to digest the
information as thoroughly as I'd like, I really, truly don't want this
meeting to revolve around me! I'm already facilitating, and I'm
longing to hear other voices in addressing the agenda.

I have two other agenda items so far. One is the Regional Reports.
This item tends to get scheduled for late in the meeting, so it tends
to get tabled because some other Content item preempts the time set
aside for it. At the same time, this item has been recognized as
contributing more to meeting needs for connection as well as
information than other items, so in a departure from our past
practice, I'm going to propose TWO check-in rounds, a "lightning"
round (name, location, what's alive in you at the moment) followed by
the (brief) Regional Reports so that we can share recognition,
appreciation, and celebration as strategies for deeper connection
before we move into the more emotionally-charged items.

The other agenda item that has been requested is to work up a Vision-
Mission-Aim (VMA) statement that would provide a self-image or purpose
for this group. So that you can begin to think about this beforehand,
below are the definitions of VMA from our membership survey:

Vision - What does the perfect world look like?
Mission - What goal or purpose do we hold to actualize the vision?
Aim - What will we create or do to achieve the vision/mission?

The way these are listed, they appear to progress from the more
abstract to the more concrete, from the more general to the more
specific, from needs to strategies. In practice, groups often find
that it's easier to start from the mission or even from the aim. Also
in practice, crafting such statements tends to drain the life out of a
meeting; what is more likely to happen is that I will do a picture-
forming round where everyone will have the opportunity to articulate a
VMA, a reaction round where everyone will have the opportunity to
respond to anything that stimulated them in the preceding round, and
then propose that a subset of us work with that input to draft the VMA
for further discussion in this egroup and consent at the next meeting.

Finally, I had thought we had a shared agreement that anyone can
propose an agenda item by writing to the egroup or contacting me as
Clerk off list, but apparently, I was mistaken in assuming that
everyone knows this. It's an agenda preparation process that combines
the sociocratic process in which group leadership proposes the agenda
in advance and invites objections and consent early in the meeting and
the OST process in which the agenda is built "on the fly" early in the
meeting. Because we do not have the luxury of face-to-face meetings
that both of these models presuppose, this modification was introduced
very early in our proceedings as a way to mitigate our dependence on
teleconferencing.

So the moral of that story is that I will try to remember to make an
explicit call for agenda items (or ask the Facilitator to do so) when
I post the doodle as a reminder that we are a leaderful circle. YOU
are the ones you've been waiting for! If you have items for the
agenda, please Reply to this group so that others who might have the
same thing in mind will know that it's being addressed and we won't
get snowed under with emails. For the same reason, if any negotiation
about allocation of time or order of the items is needed, we can do
that off list.

I look forward to connecting with "whoever shows up" in two weeks!

[Susan L]

This is a reminder to doodle for the July meeting. Here is the link:

http://www.doodle.com/pctb2pweszyrtcf2

I have taken away the dates for this week and added some times on the
remaining dates, so even if you have already responded, please revisit
the doodle and update your response. Note: Be sure to use the
horizontal scroll bar in order to view ALL of the options.

Please be as inclusive as possible; you can always return to the
doodle and edit your response if something comes up. To edit your
response, scroll down and click on Edit an Entry below the poll. A
notepad icon will then appear to the left of your name. When you
click the notepad, your name will be moved from the poll to the same
sort of input template you used when you first gave your response.

In the face of the GCC announcement that this group has disbanded
(http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dc5whkcr_49gww6cqc6&hl=en), it is
really important to me that we meet in order to assert our existence.
See below for an idea about what I've got so far for the content of
the meeting, and remember to Reply to this email in the next couple of
days if you have other items for the agenda.