Community Engagement Planning Conversation:
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
12pm-2pm Pacific time / 3pm-5pm Eastern time / 8pm-10pm UK time
Watch the meeting LIVE at this post. Just scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Details about how to participate are below.
Crafting a Community Engagement Plan
Over the past few months, the conversations of our Integrity Body have been considering what's next for our mission.
Following our values, as well as the very first question in the Catalytic Thinking framework, our first step is to ensure that decisions about our future are led by the people most affected by those decisions - our community members. And so, for the past few months, we have been crafting a plan to engage our community in that conversation.
Over the course of five meetings so far, we have followed Catalytic Thinking to craft that plan. You can find a summary of Meeting #1 here, where we discussed who would be affected by our engagement efforts, and listened to what is important about engagement. The summary of our second meeting is here, where we reached for what "good" would look like - what engagement makes possible, especially for the people being engaged. At our third meeting, we dove into the conditions that need to be in place in order to those outcomes to be realized. The summary of that meeting is here.
In our 4th discussion, the focus turned inward, reflecting on the people in the room and the communities they feel part of. That personal discussion led to significant aha's about what "good" vs. "bad" engagement looks and feels like. It also led back to the ongoing discussion of the term "community engagement," and the need for language that better expresses our intention to be in relationship with the people who are part of our mission. The summary of that discussion is here. And lastly, our 5th discussion is summarized at this post - a lively conversation you may just want to listen to yourself!
We will be wrapping up this planning work on Tuesday, August 30th. Having spent several deep discussions of the conditions that would lead people to feel like they actually have the power to effect whatever is next at Creating the Future, at this last meeting, we will be creating the action plan that puts those conditions into place.
This is critically important, because the goal of engaging folks at this key juncture is that our community members design what's next for Creating the Future. Because YOU are the ones who will be affected by whatever is decided.
We hope you will be part of this conversation, because this is not theoretical - this is actually determining the next steps in Creating the Future's evolution!
How to Prepare
First, let us know if you plan to attend by sending a note at this link.
Second, if you are not familiar with Catalytic Thinking or the Integrity functions of our board, the following will be helpful:
For those who think visually, this PDF graphic of the Catalytic Thinking Framework will give you an understanding of the flow of the conversation. For those who work best with text, you can follow along with the questions that guide Catalytic Thinking at this link. We recommend having these pieces available during the meeting, to spark your thinking during the discussion.
To get a sense of the context of our Integrity Board, this post introduces our thinking about that.
Third - and importantly - review our prior conversations about this topic, to be fully present for this meeting. You'll find summaries in the links at the top of this page. In reviewing those conversations, if there is anything you might add, please do so in the comments!
2 Ways 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 2 ways you can participate.
While we normally invite people to sit inside the meeting with us, this particular meeting is already at capacity. But never fear - there are 2 other ways to be part of the conversation, in real time as well as after the meeting.
- If you would like to participate in real time, you can watch the live-stream here at this post, and tweet your thoughts to us via the hashtag #CreatingTheFuture. We read those tweets aloud during the meeting, just as if you were there.
(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.)
- If you prefer 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!
* 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.
Logistics: The meeting will happen right here at this post. Details are below.
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.
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)