Collaborative Networks Community of Practice Call 4/30, 9:30-11 AM PT
Odin Zackman
Dear Collaborative Networks Colleagues—
I’ve been in touch with many of you about the opportunity to create an ongoing community of practice around collaborative networks. Many in the “Network Consultants Practicum” initiated by June Holley and Kristin Johnstad have expressed their interested in widening our monthly conversation time to include other practitioners in this space, and I would like to invite you to a call next Wednesday, April 30th at 9:30 AM PT for 90 minutes.
Calls take place the last Wednesday of every month from 9:30-11 AM PT.
Given that this is the first call of a potentially much larger group, I’d like to propose/ask a few things:
· I will design an agenda (and facilitate) based on your feedback…in the future, I’d love to have rotating facilitation and partners to help manage monthly calls and other elements of a community of practice we might design.
· I’d like us to start with some highlights and introductions…depending upon the size of the group, we may be able to introduce everyone briefly and do a handful of highlights/expectations, OR we may have to manage some of this via a chat in the platform we’ll be using (likely AnyMeeting)
· I would love to hear from any volunteers willing to profile a network story or challenge….one of the approaches we discussed at the April 10-11 Collaborative Networks Peer Learning Open Space/Consultative Session on “Continuing the Conversation” was Joel Solomon’s approach of presenting a story, opportunity or challenge for a few minutes, having a few respondents with ideas to contribute (usually three), and then having time for some additional questions or learning conversations. Given the potentially large number attending these calls (but who knows, there may be just 6 of us!), I’d like to explore this as an ongoing feature.
· Of course, I’d like this to be of value to all, so would also recommend that we have some time talking about what our goals for this are and what might be useful.
Please RSVP and offer your agenda suggestions, and I will circulate an agenda and call-in/platform information by Monday evening, April 28.
[I’ll send it to this entire list, but would like to know if you’ll be attending so I can anticipate numbers]
What I’ve proposed also includes a recommendation for quarterly regional gatherings face-to-face and I’m planning on hosting/co-hosting one here in the SF Bay Area in June…if there are other takers who would like to volunteer (Janne, Michael, and Kristin in the Twin Cities? Elissa and Ron in LA? Ken, Derrick, Laura in the PNW?), I think that face-to-face interaction is not only an important relationship-building feature of strong networks, but that it would be a powerful opportunity to complement our learning and more virtual monthly calls with practicing together, exploring more opportunities for skill-building and potential collaboration (whether that is a peer assist or a potential joint project).
There have been some comments on the proposal I put together and I’d invite you to visit that (if you haven’t) here to review and offer your thoughts:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SMq4IBwnBZ-aLUj5vJAawNHCHB38HYXVtkplJCAeykc/edit
You can also add colleagues you think would be interested in this type of learning community/community of practice, and you are welcome to forward this invitation and/or have them reach out to me for more info (ultimately, others interested will find their way to a listserve for these announcements):
At some point soon, we’ll talk about some light infrastructure…a listserve (either using one that’s existing, or generating a new one if that doesn’t cause too much inbox havoc for folks) and a place to share/store information related to Collaborative Networks practice (there has been some discussion of this type of repository being included in the on-line “field guide” that Garfield Foundation folks are putting together).
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on next steps, and please feel free to be in touch with any questions or additional ideas…you are welcome to respond to me directly, to the entire group, or simply share your comments on-line at the link to overview I drafted.
IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THIS, and would rather not receive future messages from me about monthly calls or other potential Community of Practice activities, please let me know and I will REMOVE YOU from future e-mails.
And future e-mails will be more brief. J
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Best,
Odin
Odin Zackman
Principal
DIG IN