On November 13-16, 2008 the National Icarus Coordinators went on an organizational retreat at High Point Farm.

You can view the image slideshow from the retreat here.

Present:

• Mimi
• Madigan
• Molly
• Sascha
• Nick
• Michael
• Will

Schedule

Thursday Evening - Dinner Gathering

• Invite Icaristas past/present/future!
• 4-6 Help cook, set up space
• 6-9 Meet and Greet at Surreal Estate

Friday - Connecting / creating space for dreaming big

• 9am Meet at Fountain House
• 9:30-10:30am Tour/ Discussion/ Meet FH people
• 11:30 – Leave FH, Review agenda / modify as needed during transit
• 1:30- 2:00 Arrive at farm, chore orientation / settle in
• 2:30 Lunch, Opening ritual / intentions / gratitude
• 3:30 Walking together, finding common rhythms
• 4:30 Chores
• 5:30 Training for Change Team Types Activity (Medicine Wheel, Working Styles)- Madigan
  • (http://www.trainingforchange.org/content/view/60/39/index.html)
• 6:30 Dinner
• 7:30 Appreciative Inquiry: Mapping past/ present/ future, Timeline of accomplishment.
  • Where have we been? Where are we? Where do we want to be?

Saturday

• 8:30 Breakfast & agenda review
• 9:30 Chores
• 10:00 Icebreakers / Check in
  • Intro to Playback Theater / “Flares” Game- Molly (http://www.playbackschool.org/about_us_about_playback_theatre.htm)
• 12:00 Education/ Outreach Evaluation and Discussion- Michael G.
  • What’s working? What could work better?
  • Defining and focusing our work
  • Fountain House relationship
• 1:00 Lunch
• 2:00 Campus Icarus Evaluation and Discussion- Annie
  • Update on events past, present, future, review fliers and materials
  • Defining relationship between organizing collective and Campus Icarus
  • Update on student volunteers and what their role has been
  • Hiring a new organizer
• 3:00 Lessons from the Womens Encuentro
  • Share our understanding and rumors of “what was the encuentro? What did it mean?”
  • Read feedback on the organizing structure from the women of the womens encuentro
  • Discuss and debrief using a Fishbowl Discussion (http://www.trainingforchange.org/content/view/282/39/index.html)
• 4:30 Chores
• 5:00 Our mission, shared vision and values
  • Brainstorm “What is the Icarus Project?”, chart our responses on a collective poster project
• 6:30 Dinner
• 7:30 Media Evaluation and Discussion
  • What’s working? What could work better?
  • Define and give focus to media work
  • Discuss publication proposal submitted to the collective
  • publication priorities/ distro plan/ merch design
• 8:30 Review Sunday agenda

Sunday

• 8:30 Breakfast & Chores
• 10:00 Evaluate Working Group Structure
  • What’s working? What could be better?
  • Try to cluster ideas for improving the structure into proposal(s)
• 11:30 Flow of information/ Website/ Database/ Organic Groups Tool/ Database- Nick
  • Feedback from Web Working group
  • Define and focus web team work
  • Demonstrate progress on data collection in drupal
  • Show how organic groups could work with the campus icarus site and for local groups
  • answer questions about other icarus tech tools
• 1:00 Lunch and BREAK
• 3:00 Intergalactic Community Conference Call
• 4:00 Chores
• 5:30 Budget Process Review & Feedback
  • Funding brainstorm- how can we diversify our fundraising sources to put the power back in the grassroots?
  • Fundraising as organizing strategy
• 7:00 Dinner
• 8:30 Hiring Discussion
• 10:00 Assign Chore Teams for clean up

Monday

• 8:30 Breakfast and Chores
  • Laundry
  • Clean Up
  • Packing
• 10:30 History of Community Acupuncture and group treatment
• 12:00 Follow the leader game and closing ritual