Creating the Future's board meeting will happen right here on Monday, June 9th at 1pm EDT. Scroll to the bottom of this post to watch it live. To share your ideas, questions, and observations, tweet to the hashtag #CTFuture.
Board Packet Materials:
• Agenda
• Board Report: Video
Good day to you! Let’s start this month’s Board meeting post with some gratitude, shall we?
· As we approach the June meeting of Creating the Future’s board of directors, I’m so grateful for the amazing people who are my fellow leaders of the organization: Alexandra, Alex, Dimitri, Hildy, Justin, Karl, Mark and Sidney. Every one of you bring openness to exploring questions and reframing approaches to governance that we have all taken for granted for a long time. What a gift!
· I’m also truly grateful for the people who have been willing to participate with us via Twitter and the live presentation of the meeting via this blog (you know who you are…). Our deliberations have been enriched on a regular basis by the contributions you make, whether it’s a saucy comment, a timely question or a potent observation. This has been an unexpectedly welcome and enriching opportunity for Creating the Future (and, we hope, for all of you)!
· Major gratitude that our meetings are recorded and archived on the Creating the Future website. Imagine all board chairs having the chance to replay the action from a meeting in real time, where we can remind ourselves of what exactly was said during a conversation. To listen again, to a colleague who is making a case for a new approach to an old issue, to pick up nuances and comments that might have been overlooked in the midst of the live meeting. The replay gives us a chance to take a step back and watch with an eye to how we might tune up our facilitation, encourage more participation or recognize the amazing contributions of each member.
Now that I’ve said how cool the archives are, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve been watching replays of our meetings. [Yes, I know… a geek is born!] However, the Creating the Future board has been unpacking and exploring our role in financial/resource oversight since April. And the conversations have been dynamite, and well worth another look.
What I noted, as I replayed the April and May meetings, was how the board acknowledged, in a whole host of different ways, that its oversight will be about building an approach to finances/resources that are potential-oriented, inclusive, shared and accountable. Rather than being driven by fear and negativity about what resources we don’t have, we will define what resources are needed for full support of the work, where they exist, how we will engage them and what methods we will use to monitor and build them further. By doing that, we believe Creating the Future can have an impact that is long-lasting and deep.
We will wrap up this exploration by using the June meeting to consider the following question:
What process will we use and what questions will we ask in order to…
1. Identify and set Creating the Future’s goals
2. Identify the resources needed for the goals we set
3. Minimize risk (program, organization, community)
4. Uncover what we need to know in order to succeed
5. Determine if there is anything missing
Please join us on Monday June 9th at 10am PT/1pm ET. Your participation will be welcome!
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)