History:

Had been trying to figure out how to expand the owl collective for a year or two so the idea was hatched to come up with a transition team. Folks were invited and asked to pull together a “flight plan” with guiding documents, policies, procedures, etc. Some folks would stay on but most would work for six weeks. They would clarify tasks and roles. Feedback was given from the womens encuentro and those invited to the transition team. The idea morphed into a proposal for a working group structure. Coordinators of working groups would serve for 3 months and then we would evaluate. We put it off and it became six months. Sascha and Madigan wanted to step back more in their roles so they were given “support” positions in a reduced hourly capacity. Core responsibilities were drafted for each collective member.

• How do we commit to this and get buy in?
• Do we transform it into something else?
• How do we invite or include others? Self selection? How does hiring work?
• How to pair down the job descriptions and prioritize tasks?
• How to map this in a way that doesn’t consolidate power and operates more like a constellation?
• How to structure in a way that resonates with our own principles of non-hierarchy?
• Seems like a default board of directors and the cultivation of volunteers hasn’t happened.
• That work is the most energizing work (more than decision making body) but there isn’t the time to do it when we’re always bogged down in procedural stuff.

Madigan

• Need more feedback about what a support role could look like
• Wants annie to work on education outreach
• Looking forward to a collective meeting monthly
• Gratitude for the work and trailblazing nature of the structure
• How are the working groups working together and internal communication needs improvement

Michael

• Core responsibilities look good, haven’t been able to get all the pieces together due to working style issues
• Lots of upheaval and transition have made engagement with community hit or miss
• Floundering due to the drama surrounding fountain house relationship
• Retreat and the documents are grounding, feedback about communication is helpful
• Would like to see annie take on campus icarus organizing maybe

Mimi

• More money for local groups, microgrants to decentralize control over money for locals
• Membership drive to diversify fundraising approach
• Support roles should be volunteer, not paid
• Hiring should be open
• Transparency of collective and more use of working group structure
• Need better consensus, and to think of consensus as a process with the whole Icarus community
• More power in the grassroots
• More communication about what we are doing and how folks can plug in or have an impact on how we’re operating.

Sascha

• Molly is shouldering a lot of weight and want to support her support role
• Unless we have people on board who are bolstering volunteer coordination, problems could arise
• Support role people should get people excited and help plug them in
• Commitment to process but the people who are around and excited about the work should be hired

Nick

• Working groups are going well
• He was hired by doing a task and since he was doing it and it didn’t get questioned, but maybe it should have been questioned more
• There wasn’t a hiring process
• You have to be able to trust people with passwords and complete control of the internet
• Seems to make more sense to hire annie than it did to hire him
• Difficult to share development work and has been difficult to replace empties but it would be important to do that and have more collaboration with the moderators and users on the site
• Envisions 2 coordinators for website, one a development coordinator and one a forum or content coordinator
• Generally pleased with the way things are going

Molly

• Wanted this conversation in May
• This is where we are and we’re working it
• Commitment to structure and are we a club or an organization
• How to include others and decision making should be more in the hands of an advisory group
• There isn’t a lack of people there is a lack of communication and using of the network and the skills within it
• Transparency and how we engage is key

Will

• Working group structure was a crystallization of a non-linear process that had been going on for years
• We should budget for and raise money for a national gathering or two national gatherings, one open and one business
• Virtual volunteer coordination is not one of his skills and has trouble doing that by email
• We need to raise money by grants, donor solicitation and merchandising
• Founders syndrome tends to mean founders step back with their funding contacts, and that’s happening with sascha
• More of a balance between structured, focused work and more autonomous projects. Ad hoc committees could do work without a lot of formality.
• When you start an organization its good to say what you’re going to do, but now we need a base line self esteem to state what we are doing and what has been accomplished
• We’re not doing anything unethical or mismanaged, but wake me up if I’m wrong…

Madigan

• Sounds like consensus on the structure
• Cooperative, worker owned model is exciting
• Ad hoc projects are exciting
• Once a month report backs would be helpful
• Intention has been to hire icaristas who have been involved already
• Womens encuentro taught about nepotism
• Twice a year gathering would work well

Proposals for Improving Organizing Collective Structure

• Once a month report backs for coordinators, get more clear on ad hoc projects, hire annie based on her volunteerism, self selection, share opportunity with icaristas
• Co-op worker owned model
• Lean towards hiring Annie based on self-selection but some other ideas about diversity

Michael

• Pull from people who are involved in icarus (admin job was unique in not being icarus connected already)

Molly

• Commitment to grounding in the proposal
• Sort out core priorities and other pieces would be ad hoc
• Envision working closer towards once a month rhythm and routine once a month check in, other weeks being outreach
• Start identifying our advisory body and developing it
• Build in an evaluation process
• Seasonal blog post routine
• Minimum standards for meeting core responsibilities

Sascha

• Get more of the community on board
• Use the plans we make to fundraise
• Wants to figure out where he fits in
• Would like to fundraise
• Who are we accountable to and who makes us accountable

Mimi

• Hiring- who is an icarista?
• Do we want education outreach to include campaign management skills? Sounds like maybe.
• Once a month calls, Membership drive, Database project as priorities

Nick

• Find a replacement for empties, each person could alternate being on the calls
• Montly Blog post that would draw from organic groups

Will

• Bring fundraising skills into the collective
• Regular meetings
• Get on the same page about hiring annie, not hire her right away
• Ad hoc working groups

Proposals for Improving Organizing Collective Structure, Version 2.0

Will

• Raise money now
• Bring in fundraising skills/ working groups
• Not hire annie right away
• Build a worker owned structure
• National organizers meet more regularly (every 5-6 months)
• More ad hoc working groups

Madigan

• Hire annie based on self-selection principle, (eg diversity?)
• Hire from within
• 1x month report backs
• Appreciation culture

Michael

• Agree with Madigan
• Maybe look to hire annie

Molly

• Re-ground and commit to re-write organic evolution document
• Sort core priorities of each working group
• Once a month meetings
• Connect with community to bring to ?? meet
• Advisory body as communication flow
• Seasonal blog posts

Sascha

• Share proposal with community
• Use proposal to raise $
• Raise $ from contacts
• Hire annie
• Look at job description

Nick

• 2nd person to replace empties, job share
• Alternate conference calls with 2 co-coordinators
• Organic groups for work groups
• Monthly blog posts drawing on organic groups

Mimi

• Diversify fundraising, membership drive
• Database, user friendly tools
• Once a month calls
• Microgrant program
• Regular retreat, tied to microgrants
• Regional clusters
• Move away from “self-selection” as a code word for exclusivity
• Go through a hiring process where we prioritize those who have volunteered with Icarus
• More intentional in how we share power drawing from lessons of encuentro
• Explore adding campaign building skills to the organizer job description