Re: [TheThinkTank] Visioning Meetings
Hi,
In 2016, we crafted a long range, big picture vision when we took on the task of buying a 2 acre property with a 28,000 sq ft building in the heart of Missoula. (we raised the down payment outright with cash donations, then assembled 8 tenants to cover the mortgage)
We had many pot lucks, round tables and one on one conversations. Then our two main staff (myself and our programs director, Emily) spent a bunch of time sifting, sorting, editing, re-dreaming;
the 4 page doc is found here:
http://www.freecycles.org/vision
we update it every year or so (it's due once again for revision as time/people/energy change)
It's focused on expanding our basic Free Cycles programs (Open Shop, Build a Bike), adding new programs (a hostel, learning center, bike share), our advocacy efforts (bikeways, roundabouts, road diets, sustainable paving) and also the dream of going off-grid, carbon neutral, no fossil fuels, and local and healthy materials to retrofit the building.
the doc is brief, and our plan is to take on pieces as we can, expanding the pieces with work plans and rough budgets
happy to talk more to anyone via mist@strans.org or 406.830.7676
-Bob Giordano, director, Free Cycles, MIST
Quoting Alysia Herr alysiaherr@gmail.com:
Hi buds,
I'm with Kickstand Community Bikes, a volunteer-run space in Vancouver, BC. We're in the midst of some big changes: a shop move, general increase in volunteer-time, and increase in shop user-ship. All good things, but we've decided that it's probably time for visioning meeting. However, it turns out folks have some different ideas about what this means. I have my own ideas, but I haven't participated in this sort of meeting before, so I'm not sure how to build a framework to make this exercise useful.
Has anyone participated in a Visioning Meeting for their organization? What did it look like? Specifically, what was the scope and what were the goals? Who facilitated the meeting? How many people attended? What did you accomplish? If anyone has an agenda or outline they could share, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!
Alysia
Hey All,
I've found some visioning meeting examples / agendas / minutes from some previous sessions that I was thinking of.
We have loosely alternated our visioning meetings over the years as "strategic planning" and "visioning". Most of these examples can apply to visioning, or planning, or both. We acknowledge that agreed in some professional facilitator's circles that visioning is only a part of strategic planning. The biggest take away from this though is that having good meeting facilitation really helps ideas come together and solidifies more effective outcomes. So that being said, visioning / planning meetings should be well supported by cohesive facilitation.
In this document https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2ZfXynJYRMPYmhoaFVmZ0drQUU/view?usp=sharing, we have an agenda and statements of intent for desired outcomes. We have used tool kits from CIVICUS https://www.civicus.org/index.php/who-we-are/about-civicus on a few occasions, using this strategic planning guide https://www.civicus.org/view/media/Strategic%20Planning.pdf.
In this document https://drive.google.com/file/d/10jSLMcwW52DqrnWkMOI2pT1ItAW670md/view?usp=sharing we have an agenda and minutes of a strategic planning session facilitated by PeerNetBC http://www.peernetbc.com/, whom we've had facilitate several times over the years, and have had workshops with them on different types of anti oppression work.
This document https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TfWUPQOTUNn9JdqURhefVNSkub04_gL4/view?usp=sharing is a brief bullet notation of our visioning session of 2018. A sort of "at a glance" reference of what we had discussed and explored during our meeting. This was helpful as a supporting document to the minutes to help refresh our memories of the outcomes of the meeting.
On the topic of facilitation, we've had a few workshops over the years, and one of which was hosted by PeernetBC and they left us with this document https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxjO_HEYw1OISl9XbjNQaDVmc1k/view?usp=sharing.
So essentially our common tools have been SWOT https://www.socialsolutions.com/blog/importance-swot-analysis-nonprofit/ and SMART https://www.volunteerhub.com/blog/is-your-nonprofit-setting-smart-goals/ analysis (more participants in these will give a broader outcome and insight into the groups vision goals ), and effective meeting facilitation.
Facilitation basics (for example) https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/facilitation could have the elements of a pre released agenda at a minimum of 2 weeks in advance, and assigned roles during the meeting for time keeper, speakers' stacker, and vibes watch. The facilitator would draw the role of keeping on topic and collecting / paraphrasing / summarizing the overall expressions, and a minute taker who can usually type fast and keep accurate as possible the summary of each items. Also good tools for conflict de escalation https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/facilitation#conflict is helpful if there's a diverging / disagreeing / conflicting dynamic in the group.
And finally, we used these tools in our own way and means, that is to say, we determine how 'strict' or 'chill' we use these techniques. Mostly they've been effective tools for us and the meetings productive and insightful and not uptight and stressful! We get to talk about our visions and aspirations, and we get insight on our peers' thoughts and feelings too!
Have fun!
Jesse Cooper Our Community Bikes
On Tue, Jan 7, 2020 at 3:29 PM mist@strans.org wrote:
Hi,
In 2016, we crafted a long range, big picture vision when we took on the task of buying a 2 acre property with a 28,000 sq ft building in the heart of Missoula. (we raised the down payment outright with cash donations, then assembled 8 tenants to cover the mortgage)
We had many pot lucks, round tables and one on one conversations. Then our two main staff (myself and our programs director, Emily) spent a bunch of time sifting, sorting, editing, re-dreaming;
the 4 page doc is found here:
http://www.freecycles.org/vision
we update it every year or so (it's due once again for revision as time/people/energy change)
It's focused on expanding our basic Free Cycles programs (Open Shop, Build a Bike), adding new programs (a hostel, learning center, bike share), our advocacy efforts (bikeways, roundabouts, road diets, sustainable paving) and also the dream of going off-grid, carbon neutral, no fossil fuels, and local and healthy materials to retrofit the building.
the doc is brief, and our plan is to take on pieces as we can, expanding the pieces with work plans and rough budgets
happy to talk more to anyone via mist@strans.org or 406.830.7676
-Bob Giordano, director, Free Cycles, MIST
Quoting Alysia Herr alysiaherr@gmail.com:
Hi buds,
I'm with Kickstand Community Bikes, a volunteer-run space in Vancouver,
BC.
We're in the midst of some big changes: a shop move, general increase in volunteer-time, and increase in shop user-ship. All good things, but
we've
decided that it's probably time for visioning meeting. However, it turns out folks have some different ideas about what this means. I have my own ideas, but I haven't participated in this sort of meeting before, so I'm not sure how to build a framework to make this exercise useful.
Has anyone participated in a Visioning Meeting for their organization?
What
did it look like? Specifically, what was the scope and what were the
goals?
Who facilitated the meeting? How many people attended? What did you accomplish? If anyone has an agenda or outline they could share, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!
Alysia
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participants (2)
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Jesse Cooper -
mist＠strans.org