No Town Hall meeting today. But the work continues!

[Jon Schull]

There is no town hall meeting today as your fearless leader vacations.   Our next meeting is in 2 weeks at 9am.   Our new guests will include film-maker Aviv Haim Green, Filmmaker at Eco No-Mads who has just begun crowdfunding a Samburu Restoration Initiative.  

Lest you think your fearless leaders are merely goofing off, I'd welcome any comments you may have on our explorations of ERA strategic options.  

Our discussions of ERA strategy are organically propagating from meeting to meeting (Steering, Development, Communications...and Membership in absentia).    

So this is an update on ERA's strategy work, along with links  that I urge my fellow strategy strategists to pursue.

We are currently pursuing two complementary strategy-development strategies

• backcasting (in which our heroes envision a future we want to see and then work backward to determine what we need to have done for that to become true).  
  We began this process during the Aug 5 Steering Committee Meeting (fathom summary below) 
  
  
• non-profit Business Model Canvas (BMC) process  (in which you hypothesise and then validate the answers to 10 fundamental questions about how a sustainable venture will work.  When you have validated answers you are a sustainable venture; until then you are a startup in search of a business model).
  

Following vacations and pre-emptive business, the Backcasting process should resume at next week's Steering Committee meeting.  

Meanwhile, I'd welcome feedback on my initial steps toward a BMC process.  This was discussed during yesterday's Development Committee meeting (Ana can you please provide the fathom?).  

One hypothesis I put forward is that an ERAfund of as little as $40,000 would help motivate and recruit Contributing Members.   A  question that arose in our discussion was whether $40,000 would be adequate.  Here is an exemplary proposal from Jonathan Ngangura for $4,000 that is I think is worth serious consideration. I speculate that collective evaluation,  feedback, approval and support of a proposal like this by Contributing ERA members would motivate and model other modest and actionable proposals as well as motivate more members to become Contributors.

The BMC process proceeds by testing such hypothesese and speculations through interviews with potential stakeholders and perhaps micro-experiments.  I'm starting with you all!  Feedback and alternative formulations are welcome. 

Backcasting Summary 

ERA Steering Committee - August 05

VIEW RECORDING - 96 mins (No highlights)

Meeting Purpose

Discuss ERA's strategic objectives and vision for the next 5 years, using a backcasting approach.

Key Takeaways

• ERA aims to be a credible membership alliance, offering benefits and support to members while channeling funding to impactful projects
• The organization seeks to leverage its collective expertise to develop comprehensive, innovative restoration projects and educational resources
• There's a focus on demonstrating economic viability of restoration methods to attract larger-scale investments and drive systemic change

Topics

Vision for ERA in 2031

• Become a trusted advisor for large-scale funders on effective restoration projects
• Develop expert think tanks to create educational curricula and act as consultants
• Successfully channel funding to projects, building credibility and infrastructure
• Create tools for impact measurement and validation of restoration efforts
• Support smaller, grassroots organizations with structuring and grant acquisition
• Demonstrate principles of stewardship and restoration through concrete projects
• Achieve stable revenue to support multiple staff and longer-term planning cycles

Themes Identified

• Shared understanding of bio-climatic interaction and efficacy
• Aspiration to be a community that learns, acts, and thrives together
• Desire to be a genuine force for inspiring, organizing, and effectuating planetary change
• Interest in leveraging capital flows for maximum impact

Strategic Considerations

• Need to identify ERA's unique leverage points and capabilities
• Importance of clarifying value proposition and communicating it effectively
• Acknowledgment of working within (and potentially challenging) existing economic systems
• Recognition of the need to integrate more holistic, indigenous perspectives into the work

Next Steps

• Continue the backcasting exercise in the next meeting, working backward from the 5-year vision
• Research backcasting methodologies to prepare for the next session

--

jsc...@EcoRestorationAlliance.org cell: 585-738-6696  

Co-Founder EcoRestorationAlliance: Restore ecosystems to restore climate.

Co-founder,  e-NABLE: volunteers worldwide making free, 3D printed prosthetics

Innovation Fellow, JMK Innovation Fund

[Jon Schull]

Hi Dee

I don’t recognize this account.  Have we met?

On Wed, Aug 20, 2025 at 12:55 PM Dee <dee...@gmail.com> wrote:

Greetings. I would like to be part of the next meeting.

Dee