"Operational Summit"

[Brendan]

Hi Everyone

I'm posting this now because it is a significant budget proposal and because it might have an impact on the contract negotiations (sorry to drop this on you so late in the piece Wendy).

I've just been re-reading Kathy's report (which is pure gold and we would be fools to ignore it), and the following struck me:

• In the section on appreciation, many of the TLs thought that a knowledge sharing/work weekend/retreat/workshop among senior volunteers would be beneficial.     This should be attended by senior operations and administration volunteers, several ExCom members and possible shoulder-tapping and inviting a handful of new folks who’ve expressed interest in joining the KBOrg.  This could be a good avenue for TLs to discuss volunteer sourcing, meet other senior year-round Admin people and find out about other positions.  Some possible ways to facilitate this:

o Hold a Summit-type weekend mid-year at a central location

o Use the Weta space in Auckland as a venue for either a weekend or day-long workshop and give senior volunteers a travel stipend to attend from other parts of the country.

I feel like it's too late to facilitate this for the upcoming festival but if we don't budget and plan for it now then I fear that we won't have anything solid in time for next year either. On the assumptions tab of the budget I've noted that this wouldn't be funded for the current year and framed it as an expansion to the ExCom summit (which was purely for my own reference as a reminder to raise this).

I don't know the best way to approach this but I would like to suggest the following for discussion:

That we expand the 2017 ExCom summit to include operational leads and key operational volunteers. We could still hold additional workshops at the Auckland space but that we look into this as an option for future years.

I'd like to put forward the following ideas as to how I see this working:

* Why the ExCom summit not something different - for a start, most of the ExCom are there anyway. It would be a great opportunity to have the Ops team meet the ExCom. We've also found inviting people from Ops very beneficial in previous years (I can't tell you how good I found it having various people at this year's summit). It has also been fantastic to have access to the site to check assumptions, visit the containers, see the conditions of burn scars etc.

* Who would attend - including the Site Managers would balloon the numbers phanominomally so I suggest the Operations Manager, department leads (Gate, Greeters, Rangers, Depot, MPW etc) and other key roles like Purchasing Manager.  I'd like to include a few slots for (optional) up and coming 2ICs. I imagine including the Construction Lead but not necessarily the Temple and Effigy leads (as these are more likely to be one year only positions). The list would need to be carefully considered for a balance between wanting to have everyone there and the numbers that we can accommodate.

* Space - there aren't enough beds at Rathmoy lodge. This year we had a couple of tents and a camper to help facilitate the numbers. I envision a small tent village on the lawn beside the lodge (but maybe phrase it to Rathmoy as "a few more tents"). If we make better use of the inside space we could have one meeting in the lounge area by the kitchen and another in the larger room at the same time (see below).

* Agenda / workflow - I see this as a conference with two "streams". There would be an opportunity to meet & greet (and share expert opinions / knowledge) but would be run as two separate meetings, facilitated independently, each with their own agenda to cover.

* Timing - the two streams wouldn't need to completely overlap. The Operational side could arrive earlier or stay later, or only be there for 2/3 nights. I don't know how this would work specifically but the flexibility might help manage space.

* Cost - this will be significant (maybe double the cost of the current summit, perhaps $7k including travel). I'd like to propose to Rathmoy that we just hire the lodge and surrounding paddock at a flat rate instead of the 'per head' price in the current contract. To allow for this we'd need to either increase the ticket price slightly or save money elsewhere. I think that this will still be very cost effective compared to holding a separate event which would also have several ExCom attend and would require a venue and several of the same costs.

* Kitchen / Food - The kitchen is too small and catering to everyone's dietary requirements has been challenging (to say the least). Perhaps we could look at one "communal effort" meal each day and practice "radical self reliance" with a few gas cookers between us for the rest of the time?

Anyway, just putting this out there. Please discuss and hopefully we can get an idea of whether this will be feasible in time to make necessary adjustments to the budget and land use contract.

Thanks.

[Wendy]

I don't think this would affect the contract. We can hire the lodge anytime during the year, and there's nothing stopping us doing it more than once if we wanted.  It sleeps 11 in beds but M&A have always been great about tents for more, at no extra charge. If it were a lot more tents I reckon they would be cool with a couple of hundred bucks extra to cover loo paper and whatnot.

The last 2 summits have been more than just excom anyway, so the only thing limiting us is space.

Anyway, I'm happy for this discussion to go ahead apart from the contract.

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[Brendan]

Deleted my reply - sorry I think my comments were more suited to the contract discussion.

[Oliver Macro]

I'd rather we go with two separate summits if possible. The Excom summit is already quite condensed and I feel would be kept as simple and efficient as possible. I think the Operational Summit would be well designed to be a little more casual and could be a good opportunity to fit in some team development work. 

On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 12:02 PM Brendan <introvert...@gmail.com> wrote:

Deleted my reply - sorry I think my comments were more suited to the contract discussion.

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[Isa Ritchie]

It would be good to have an old conference later in the year than the Summit. The summit is a defrag exercise. It would be great for ops/team leads people to get together in October or November to do some useful planning stuff and get used to communicating really well.

On 14/08/2016 5:56 pm, "Oliver Macro" <oliver...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'd rather we go with two separate summits if possible. The Excom summit is already quite condensed and I feel would be kept as simple and efficient as possible. I think the Operational Summit would be well designed to be a little more casual and could be a good opportunity to fit in some team development work. 

On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 12:02 PM Brendan <introvert...@gmail.com> wrote:

Deleted my reply - sorry I think my comments were more suited to the contract discussion.

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[Brendan]

I can see the sense in that. An "operational summit" in the months leading up to the event when most of the key personnel are in place for planning etc could be very useful.

[Oliver Macro]

Absolutely, it'd be a great way of kicking off preparations!

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 7:05 PM Brendan <introvert...@gmail.com> wrote:

I can see the sense in that. An "operational summit" in the months leading up to the event when most of the key personnel are in place for planning etc could be very useful.

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[Wendy]

I think it would be a mistake to leave key admin people out if this. Ignoring the nurturing of our admin team has been a major factor in our current issues, and those people work in isolation even more than the operational leads - often never being involved in crew gatherings or knowing what each other looks like.

On 15 Aug 2016 8:46 p.m., "Oliver Macro" <oliver...@gmail.com> wrote:

Absolutely, it'd be a great way of kicking off preparations!

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 7:05 PM Brendan <introvert...@gmail.com> wrote:

I can see the sense in that. An "operational summit" in the months leading up to the event when most of the key personnel are in place for planning etc could be very useful.

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[Wendy]

Or getting thanks, or volunteer patches, or free beer. Just saying.

[Brendan]

> I think it would be a mistake to leave key admin people out if this.

I agree and I trust your judgement on the best way to involve admin. A couple of thoughts:

I think that it would be valuable to have some involved at the summit (as they're more year-round roles).

I wouldn't even object to a separate admin get-together.

Kathy's report mentioned an opportunity for ops to meet at least some of the ExCom - which is why I thought a more general "Kiwiburn summit" might be better value to avoid doubling up.

Whatever we decide on the cost is likely to be significant.

[Poppy Norman]

I am so deeply in favour of a weekend long ops summit around November. That would honestly be so incredibly helpful.

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[Oliver Macro]

Out of curiosity, Poppy - how would you envision it being most useful? Like, what would you use it as an opportunity to do?

[Nicola]

I can see massive benefit in having the ops group meet for a summit. Don't think it necessarily needs ExCom involved, except maybe the liaison.
And yes - admin is too siloed, and part of the problems we have now are because they're not well connected to the rest of us. Either bringing them together for a day, or inviting them to all/part of the summit would be useful.

[Isa Ritchie]

Maybe a team leads meet up based on the Google group?

[Wendy]

^ this

[Brendan]

So let's put a provision toward it in this year's budget. Say $5,000? More?

[Pete Wyatt]

$5k is a good line in the sand to start with

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:07 PM, Brendan <introvert...@gmail.com> wrote:

So let's put a provision toward it in this year's budget. Say $5,000? More?

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