Creating the Future's
Board / Community Meeting:
Monday, April 12th, from 10am - 12pm Pacific time
Topics:
1) Using Catalytic Thinking to design our Board Recruitment process
2) Applying the "Integrity" lens to day-to-day operations
Watch the meeting LIVE at this post. Just scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Details about how to participate are below.
Recruiting New Members to our Integrity Board:
What would it look like if your board's primary focus was integrity? At our February and March meetings, our board considered what that "integrity" lens looks like regarding recruiting new members to our board. (Links above are to summaries of those conversations.)
• What will those new recruits make possible for Creating the Future's mission?
• What will being part of our board make possible for those new recruits?
• What conditions will lead to all those outcomes being realized?
At our April meeting, we will design the Board Recruitment and Orientation processes that will create those conditions for success, for the organization and for our board members.
Applying the Integrity Lens to our Day-to-Day Operations:
This month, the board will begin creating the nuts and bolts of what it will mean to be an Integrity Board. What questions will they want to be able to answer when it comes to the day-to-day workings of the organization? And importantly for team members doing the work, what questions will they want to be sure they are paying attention to?
As we begin these conversations, here are just some of the issues to which we will be applying our Integrity lens:
- Fundraising: Are we walking the talk of our values in how we raise money? What will the board want the operations team to be able to answer, to know we're walking the talk of our values?
- Budgeting and accounting for the finances: What will the board want the team to be able to answer, to know our accounting aligns with our values?
- Job descriptions and hiring: What will the board want the team to be able to answer when it comes to hiring processes? What will they want to see in a job description, that will let them know it is aligned with our values?
- Compensation: What will the board want the team to be able to answer regarding our compensation policies?
As always, you are invited to be part of these conversations!
• If you are curious about more effective ways to recruit board members, and want to watch and think things through quietly alongside us...
• If you are interested in new ways of thinking about boards and/or governance in social change organizations...
• If you would like your voice to be included in this discussion...
YOU are invited to join in*, in whatever way you feel comfortable (see the various ways you can participate below).
How to Prepare
First, let us know if you plan to attend by sending a note at this link. Per the "How to participate" section below, please let us know which of the 3 ways you would like to participate.
Second, please read the summaries of the first two discussions about recruitment - here and here. That will bring you right up to speed, to dive into the next questions we will be tackling.
If you are not familiar with Catalytic Thinking or the Integrity functions of our board, the following will be helpful:
This PDF graphic of the Catalytic Thinking Framework will give you an understanding of the flow of the conversation. We recommend printing it out or having it otherwise available during the meeting, to spark your thinking during the discussion. You can also follow along with the questions that guide Catalytic Thinking at this link.
To get a sense of the context of our Integrity Board, this post introduces our thinking about that.
How to participate
If you have never been part of Creating the Future's work, all our strategy and board meetings are open and participatory, for anyone who wants to be part of the discussion. You can see more about that at this link.
Where we meet:
The board meeting will take place right here at this post. If the video does not appear precisely on time, please be patient – we are probably just running a few minutes late.
There are 3 ways you can participate in our meetings.
- If your familiarity with and commitment to Creating the Future’s work - or your own experience with re-imagining organizational systems - is calling you to be actively involved in the meeting discussion side-by-side at our online “meeting table,” let us know, and we will send you an invitation to join us online.
- If you want to participate but are unable to be in the meeting itself (perhaps you’re at work, or maybe at home with kids running around, etc.), watch the live-stream in real time and tweet your questions and ideas to us via the hashtag #CreatingTheFuture. We read those tweets aloud during the meeting, just as if you were there. This is a great first step for those who are not as familiar with our work, but want to get more involved.
(Please note: We will only see your tweets if you use the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag. In addition, during the meeting, we will not look at blog comments here at this post. While we will check those comments later, during the meeting we will only be following the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag in the Twitter stream.)
- Lastly, if you want to simply watch, or you want to think about what you’re hearing and respond later – or if you will be watching the recording after the meeting happens – please add your thoughts into the comments here at this post. We will include that thinking into the mix of things.
We look forward to your being part of our discussion on Monday, April 12th!
* All Creating the Future's board meetings are open for anyone to participate, or to watch afterwards. To learn more about the thinking behind this openness - and our experiences with being open - click here.
Watch the meeting HERE on Monday
Note: if the meeting does not start on time please be patient as we may be running a few minutes late.
Logistics: The meeting will happen right here at this post.
or, After the meeting - LISTEN TO THE MEETING HERE
or Download the MP3
(To download to your hard drive, right-click {or click and hold on a Mac} on the link above and select "Save Target As".. or "Save Link as"... depending on your browser)