Board Agenda & Minutes 09/10/08

CNVC Board Minutes DRAFT 09/10/2008 Meeting

To provide feedback on any of these decisions, please complete the following form: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6HBFi7KGIumoPEP5UgVAVw&hl=en

In attendance:

Board Members:

Gail Taylor – Board Member

Jori Manske – Board Member

Margo Pair – Board Secretary

Robert Gonzales – Board President

Absent:

Marshall Rosenberg – Board Member

Stefan Wisbauer – Board Vice-President

Valentina Rosenberg – Board Treasurer

Observers: Doug Johnson (US – Arkansas), Faye Landey (US - Atlanta), Glenda Mattinson (Canada - Toronto), John Abbe (US - Oregon), John Wiley (US – California), Lorna Ritchie (Germany), Martha Lasley (US – Pennsylvania), Pan Vera, CNVC IT Coordinator (US – Vermont), Susan Livingston (US - Virginia) ? Facilitator: John Buck Recorder: Elin Skappel

Summary of Action Items:

1. Next meeting – Tuesday October 14th – 1:30PM MT (12:30PM PST)

2. All Board Members – Please respond with your acceptance or request for changes within a week (by Tuesday Sep. 16th) to the email Margo sent out in regards to proposed dates for the 2009 events, including in-person board meetings.

3. Margo: will continue contacting potential board members.

4. All Board Members: Please review the recommendation for a new Board Member from Robert that Margo will be sending to you.

5. Robert: will send John and Margo an email with times that he would be available to meet in regards to preparing an agenda for the Strategic Planning meeting.

Summary of Policy Decisions:

1. Policy Decision: The $10,000 annual budget for face-to-face meetings will be used first for the venue, and room and board for the board members, and facilitator/consultant fees. Depending on the agenda items of the in-person meetings and those who will need to be present, we will also make sure that those needs are met, whether it is facilitator, staff or other consultants that we are asking to come in. If board members would like to receive assistance, they will make a request to the Admin Director. If it looks like the total of all needed and requested funds are going to exceed the budget, the Admin. Director will bring it individually to the board members for input, and potentially adjust the agenda some to help us stay within the budget.

Future Agenda Items:

1. Glenda’s proposal to shift the meeting schedule into a consistent week of the month.

Announcements & Administrative Matters

• Our VP Stefan Wisbauer became a proud daddy on August 31st! The board wishes Stefan, Lavinia and their baby girl the very best!
• The board also celebrated that Inbal Kashtan got married two weeks ago!
• Minutes for the August 13, 2008 were approved by the Board.
• The agenda for today was accepted, with the addition of CNVC IT Coordinator Pan Vera doing a demonstration of the new governance pages on the website.

Review of Action Items

I.) $10,000 annual budget for face-to-face meetings

Observations & Needs:

Observations:

• The current policy for the $10,000 annual budget for face-to-face meetings (dated January 2006) is:

1. F.3.b. The Board may expend up to $10,000 US per year to defray the expenses of Board members for face-to-face Board meetings.?1. F.3.b.1. The Board shall develop a plan for the effective utilization of these funds.

• Over the past several years, this budget has been used for the venue, for room and board for the board members, and for facilitator/consultant fees.
• The current guidelines regarding requirements for Board members funding their own travel is (stated in the Face-To-Face Board Meeting February 22, 2008):

Responsibilities of board positions were reviewed; qualities and abilities for a prospective Board Member to possess were identified. * Self sufficient, ability to fund travel expenses anywhere around the world

• Some Board members have expressed a request for support for travel expenses

Needs:

• Inclusion – global participation and diversity
• Understanding - that in order to have worldwide participation, for example from third world countries, board members may at times be in need of financial assistance in order to be able to participate in the face-to-face meetings
• Openness, responsiveness - to the potential needs of current and future board members, on a case by case basis

Policy Decision: The $10,000 annual budget for face-to-face meetings will be used first for the venue, and room and board for the board members, and facilitator/consultant fees. Depending on the agenda items of the in-person meetings and those who will need to be present, we will also make sure that those needs are met, whether it is facilitator, staff or other consultants that we are asking to come in. If board members would like to receive assistance, they will make a request to the Admin Director. If it looks like the total of all needed and requested funds are going to exceed the budget, the Admin. Director will bring it individually to the board members for input, and potentially adjust the agenda some to help us stay within the budget.

Financial Report (Margo Pair)

• Please see report at end of minutes
• There were no questions from the board in regards to the report

Communication Coordinator Report (Glenda Mattinson)

• Please see the COMMUNICATION COORDINATOR REPORT FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 09/10/2008
• In regards to the participants of the Communication Circle, a suggestion was made to ensure the sociocratic upward-downward link function, and as part of this to have one more person from the GCC be part of the group in addition to Glenda to represent the “world at large”. It was also suggested that instead of having the leader for each team participate in the Communication Circle, that each team choose a representative for the group.
• Glenda expressed frustration and a desire for greater shared understanding with the Board about the concepts raised above, about which she has received a lot of training.
• Glenda made a request to the Board to consider shifting their meeting schedule for the Board into a consistent week of the month (1st, 2nd, 3rd), to bring more ease and consistency to the wider schedule of meetings for the many CNVC teams that meet each month – and thus a more predictable and even distribution of communications to the network. Jori explained the background for the current schedule - first double digit Wednesday of each month - that was decided upon in order to hold the meeting as close to the middle of the month as possible. Due to time restraint, a decision was not reached.

Future Agenda Item:

• Glenda’s proposal to shift the meeting schedule into a consistent week of the month.

New Potential Board Members (Margo Pair)

• We have someone who is still interested in being a potential board member, but because of technical difficulties and prior engagements, he will be unavailable for the remainder of 2008. We will stay in touch with him and revisit the invitation closer to 2009.
• We are in the initial stages of contacting a business person from Germany, who has been very involved with strategic planning in his line of business, and attended an IIT past summer.
• Stefan Wisbauer is communicating with a potential candidate.

Action Items:

• Margo will continue contacting potential board members.
• All Board Members: Please review the recommendation for a new Board Member from Robert that Margo will be sending to you.

Admin Team Report (Margo Pair)

Information Technology (IT Coordinator Pan Vera and Admin. Director Margo Pair):

• We are looking to create more ease and intuitivity in finding information on the website, and to ensure that the work that our certified trainers are doing around the world visible, so that they can participate in ways that they find to be of value to them.
• Pan has been working to improve performance and speed of the web site, and it is now moving quite a bit faster, according to tests and feedback from the network.
• Pan provided the Board with a live demonstration of the new Governance pages.
• We are considering opening up a new section for news, where the various teams can display their news, the portion of their minutes that they want to share with the network, in a less formal way outside of the static area of the Governance pages.
• One thing we are working on is to encourage people who visit the page to sign up and log in, so we have the opportunity to alert them of trainings in their area, and to create a sense of community.
• At the request of Gail, Pan shared that he is working to determine whether Forums would be a good way to go about enabling the various circles to share their news with the network.
• We have ordered a new server for the CNVC office to improve performance and security, and will be using the old server as a backup for added disaster recovery ability. Backup tapes and external drives with snapshots stored offsite also contribute to security and disaster recovery.

“What NVC means to me” followed by report on status of preparations for strategic planning to be done in November (All Board Members)

** The following is a synopsis, not a transcript, of what was discussed**

John: Last meeting there was a wonderful moment where Robert recalled us to the spirit of what we are doing, what I would like to do is to continue to focus on spirit and start this section by asking each board member:

I: What does NVC mean to you?

Jori: On one level the question itself is odd, because for me NVC is about process and the question is so static, so I’ll answer it how it is moving through me right now. Personally NVC for me is meditation off the cushion. It is a way of being with myself in a world that supports presence and compassion and a quality of connection that acknowledges our inseparableness, our interdependence. It is also a process that has a simplicity to it that points to universal truths that seem to weave through a lot of different disciplines.

Robert: For me I am taking that question and expanding on it with the implications that are given within the context of strategic planning. What it means to me would manifest in at least four different dimensions of reality that anybody familiar with Wilber’s Integral Theory can follow. For me there are certain structures in life, one is an individual interstructure, there is the structure between relationships, there is a structure of our systems that social change is aimed at, there is the structure of our body. Each of these structures require attunement so that they can be a vehicle for spirit and for being. NVC for me is a powerful structure where we are bringing spirit and being into our inner consciousness, into the field of mutuality, between relationships on all levels, individual relationships, families, groups, organizations, and through Social Change we create systems that become a vehicle for spirit. So NVC on all those different dimensions, and even on the bodily level, we can live it with an embodied consciousness that is full and alive, so we can bring that fullness into all levels of life. So when we talk about strategic planning we are really bringing all those different areas with the focus on the field of mutuality, the internal relationship, the intersubjective field and the systems that the CNVC as an organizational system. The challenge for me is how to bring this consciousness and beauty of equality that we all talk about with truth, honesty, autonomy and cooperation, all the qualities that the needs represent, so that we do it in a way that creates a structure that is consistent with that spirit, that’s the challenge for me, and that’s the focus that I’d like to bring for it. So the question, the challenge is, what kind of systemic structure is going to be a vehicle for the spirit that the CNVC is trying to communicate. So that is an outline of a more in depth comprehensive topic.

Gail: Mmm, how much I love this question. I, for me, NVC lives in three general ways but they have very deep meaning for me. I see it as a tool, as an opportunity to contribute to a paradigm shift in myself and others and on the planet, and also a lifestyle commitment. And what I mean by that is that as a tool, NVC helps me embody and practice my awareness of the interdependent system that we are. So that gives me a way to do that, how I can do that, that is more effective than anything I have seen before. And while that tool serves, the paradigm shift is about this remembering and embodying and living from the awareness of the interdependent system and also being a commitment to that embodiment being a voice of spirit, a voice of the divine, not just my head, not just my body mind, and not just a bunch of us interacting a bunch of strategies but embodying what it is to coexist as a transmission of spirit through the humanity that we are. And that lifestyle commitment for me is a really profound commitment to dancing in tandem with source and this gives me that support structure to help me live that lifestyle commitment. So in terms of strategic planning, you know, my questions in previous meetings about what are the dreams and concerns of the different circles, is in effect an invitation to help me more effectively integrate awareness that I don’t have of others’ concerns and dreams so that I can most effectively contribute to strategic planning while dancing in tandem with source.

Margo: In honor of our time for this meeting and valuing how just a few words can mean a lot - the energy of what NVC means to me is life enhancing, nurturing, compassionate living. For me it’s all encompassing.

II: Where do we stand in regards to preparation for strategic planning:

Margo:

1. At yesterday’s Leadership Team meeting, the upcoming survey was introduced as a strategy in preparing for the strategic planning session in November. It was requested of each team to provide three to five questions in the areas of their responsibility that may be used in compiling the survey. The information is to be provided within two weeks. We also reviewed a possible draft of the survey as an example to facilitate the discussion.

2. The office has contacted the local College and University for an intern position (free of charge) that could assist in collecting and organizing this information. We have started to receive applications, and hope to have someone by next Monday.

3. We still need to identify a Point Person, as mentioned in previous meetings, and would appreciate receiving further recommendations. The ones we have contacted are not available due to time constraints.

4. The budget that was prepared last February has been sent to the Board Members as requested, and I am happy to entertain individual questions. At this time I would like any input that the Board Members have, and would like to know whether the Board Members feel that it would be useful to go through this budget or year-to-date comparison from last year, as background information as we are discussing the strategic planning.

Margo: Strategic Planning has many levels. There’s the brick by brick practical level and then there is the overall umbrella level. This is where I would like to see the Board Members place their time and attention. I would like the Board Members’ opinion on where they see the face of the CNVC in the future and in the global network. Would we perhaps like to open up local chapters, or provide memberships for different levels of access or different types of support. I am looking to the board and network, for input and information, what direction would we like to go. If you have thoughts on that now, even before we receive the survey information?

John: I would like to have an agenda for the Strategic Planning prepared to be approved at the next meeting, so we are not putting things together at the last minutes. I would like to set up a meeting with Robert, Margo and myself to get this together.

Action Item: Robert will send John and Margo an email with times that he would be available to meet in regards to preparing an agenda for the Strategic Planning meeting.

John: Let us go back to hearing more thoughts from the Board in regards to how to get prepared for a productive Strategic Planning session in November, other things we should be doing in preparation, other than what Margo mentioned about sending out a survey to the network.

Gail: Yea, this service is going to inform me a lot. Is there anything, Margo, that would support you or help expedite getting a point person so that initiative can be completed or at least initiated as quickly as possible?

Margo: I would love to connect with you offline on any possible recommendation of someone who has the skill, experience and hopefully the interest, and the time to take on such a task.

Gail: Great, and can I drop a note to the observers also when we do our checkouts, if you have any recommendations, names of someone who might be interested in being a point person, that would help me also. Thank you Margo.

John: And a point person, for the observers, is someone who would be helping to pull together the preliminary thinking on the Strategic Planning.

Gail: Yes, we have a starter list of questions and we want to hear from the different circles and different groups, as many as possible, to hear their responses to those questions, so you would be the, or the point person would be the collector and harvester and communicator of that information to us so we can include that in the strategic planning face-to-face meeting.

John: It is important what you said, that we are looking for responses from CNVC organizations as well as from individuals.

Gail: Yes, yea the groups globally.

Jori: I am really resonating with what Margo said about getting really clear about our purposes, and having some overarching clarity before we do strategic planning and go off and “do”. I think there is work to be done before that point.

John: What I am hearing is that it is important to include this aspect in the surveys that we send to the network.

Jori: Actually before we even ask other people, that those at CNVC be clear on what they are willing to contribute to, because if we ask these questions, and then we say “no”, because it is not something we’re even remotely interested in doing, I’m not sure we have supported living in the way we would like.

John: And given that thought, what are you suggesting should happen?

Margo: I would like some picture forming of the current Board, just as we asked the Leadership Team Coordinators to do. To assist in our being open to what may possibly be, within the context of some possible outcomes. A beautiful part of strategic planning is not being practical but being crazy, really just putting the dream out there. When that becomes alive for everyone, the practical parts we thought of will fit into place. But I would love to hear the board’s dream or daydream, individually, about what is alive for them and what they would like CNVC’s face to be in 10 years from now.

III. What is your dream for the CNVC?

Margo: My dream is an organization that provides support for those that are interested in sharing NVC in a wide variety of manners, while holding the integrity of NVC. A union that is a living consciousness, with a support system that can help sustain the growth and needs of the network, and receiving support back through their skills, expertise and also financially. We have our beautiful certified trainers, we have an educational program, and then we have supporters who are very interested in sharing NVC but not interested in being certified trainers. Then there is also circles and networks that are really starting to form, made up of a wide variety of people - how do we connect with them, what services can we provide for them, that they find of value and would not mind supporting, whether it is through memberships or through chapters, or helping to set up individual circles – a lot of that, the GCC has been working on. Some type of self sustaining system to where CNVC is not the “Mother/Father” that everybody has to go to, but it is a reservoir that they can come to for inspiration, knowledge, and other valuable assistance that would help them share NVC, whether they are an individual meeting with another individual, or group, or businesses that use NVC as a tool, or counselors, mediators. It is a lot of needs to meet, but I dream of us all, together, helping to support what we have mutually agreed upon is important.

Jori: What I would like us to keep focused on is what our vision is and to consider what the role of CNVC is in that vision. It is a worldwide vision and it will take many of us to fulfill it. In terms of NVC – that lives on with or without this organization. To keep our focus on sustainability or that it is about the survival of this organization, is off course, but this organization can be a model that people can look to, in regards to how we live in this place of compassion, mutuality, resourcefulness and creativity. That, to me, is really important. And then, since this organization does have a lot of resources, how those resources would best be used to fulfill the world wide vision.

Robert: I like everything that Jori said, and don’t have anything to add right now.

Gail: So the question on the table is then what would be my response to a dream or a fantasy or ideal hopes for the direction of CNVC?

John: Yes.

Gail: Inherently I’m a synthesizer, so for example if I live with a family, or if I’m living with a lover, their needs become my needs, they become at least as important as my needs, and their dreams, their concerns inform my dreams and my concerns. So if I ask myself “What is my dreams?” or “What are the hopes that I have relative to CNVC and strategic planning?”, I have to ask myself “Who is CNVC? Who am I dancing with, who am I living with?” that I would synthesize in order to formulate my dream or my hopes. And when I ask myself “Who is CNVC?” I think of the members of the Admin Team and I think about the members of the Leadership Team and I think of the members in the GCC and the members of the Communication Circle and the Certified Trainers, at the very minimum, and this is I think I just named four or five circles, and I recognize that CNVC is a world wide vision, so even a little inclusion of the concerns and dreams of just those five circles that I mentioned would begin to inform me to synthesize in what I would reply is a dream or a fantasy or a hope, I don’t have that information, and I believe I would be even better prepared to answer that when I have at least some sort of input from the world wide circle, and I know that is much more time consuming and I don’t know that that is going to happen before our face-to-face meeting, but I am really reticent to formulate a stand-alone, independent vision or dream or fantasy without having the information that I can synthesize from at least those circles that I named. That is all I have to add.

Closing Round Comments:

John Abbe – I appreciated where Gail is going and that is exactly what I was speaking to in the last meeting, about being aware of the larger circles of the entire NVC network that you may never get to hear from directly, and the even larger movement of the culture shift that we are all engaged in. And the other thing that comes to mind is the work that Linnea and Margo had done in interviewing at least a couple of hundred people about a year ago, and that there might be some stuff there to draw from in terms of being aware of what people in the NVC network are looking for. And just to summarize what I got from talking with her about was three main things - One is that people want to belong to something, the second is that people want to maintain their autonomy, so those two make for an interesting balance, and then the third is that people want to be connected to the right people and the right information.

Elin Skappel – I really enjoyed the energy of everyone in the meeting.

Doug Johnson – I think that one of the major components for successful use of NVC both for individuals and groups, is any efforts that are made to make situations safe for people, for people to say what is really going on and live them. My dream would be that we continue to make individual communication safer and safer for one another.

Glenda Mattinson – I have put a draft survey together for the review of the Leadership Team. I am noticing that I would somehow like to ensure that questions that the Board has and areas that the Board would like to see focused on is also included in that, and that may be something we have other ways to capture. I have this fear of developing a survey based only on input that has been provided by the individual leadership teams, and that somehow there would be something missing if the input was only directed by that.

John Wiley – I have really enjoyed listening into the meeting because I hear an overall direction toward mutuality and decentralization and that has long been my vision for the organization. I am happy with the direction, and a little sad that it has taken us as long as it has.

Pan Vera – I particularly liked the level of discussion that is currently going on and the idea of seeing the CNVC as a world wide organization, and creating greater levels of inclusion, because I believe that we gain a great level of strength that way, and when I think about the ways that Glenda is working to allow us to listen to many voices in a coherent way, I get excited about what the future is for this organization .

Lorna Ritchie – I was actually meant to go away about an hour ago, but I have been fascinated and excited about the global connection and really enjoyed listening to you all, and I would love to see more of what I have seen happening this evening on the website, and I would love to see all of that in all the languages of the world. I am very excited about the changes I’ve seen in the past two years have happened, and the speed that things are changing. It’s fantastic! And very exciting. Thank you for letting me be part of you. And I look forward to – on Friday we have an NVC circle in Berlin and I will bore everyone to death about what I’ve heard this evening, and will also on the board meeting of the Dach, where I believe the next teleconference call is on the 30th of September, and maybe minutes will be ready by then but if not I will report as best I can from what I’ve heard, so thank you very much for sharing with me.

Susan Livingston – Very exciting hearing about the preparation going into the Strategic Planning meeting. The Americas Circle has a meeting next week and I’ll be reporting to them. I wish I could even think of requesting the content of the survey by then but I guess that is not a practical or doable request, but I’ll certainly put the hint out there, that input is being sought, and get back to the Americas Circle as soon as that is available. I am a little daunted by the size and enormity of the vision you are holding about collecting this input from the global network, my goodness! I would love to have the confidence in my own capability to be your point person, but I am a little daunted by the prospect of trying to do that. I am certainly willing to help out, at least in the Americas circle and do what I can as far as assisting you in the harvesting that you were talking about, I like that term.

Faye Landey – I have so much enjoyed the entire three hours that we have been together! I love the vitality and the aliveness of the web site that I am seeing – thank you! I want to say in regards to strategic planning and our little organization in Georgia, we’re trotting along, with our vision bring NVC to more people, and I love the thought that the mothership might be available for cheerleading and material that we can be using as a revitalization for us. I am so grateful that you are putting out a survey for us, make sure that one gets to Georgia! I am going to, not bore them at our next concentric circle in Georgia, but excite them I am sure!

Margo Pair – My heart is just expanding with appreciation. I so appreciated Gail’s comments around harvesting of information, and also John Abbe’s comments, along with what everyone else did, but those two comments are really nurturing me right now. And also, that we have so many observers on the line, I appreciate that you are taking the time and the interest, and I have a great gratitude to all.

Gail Taylor – Just checking in, give me fifteen seconds - - I have to say I am really, really moved by what I am interpreting as amazing commitment from everyone around this strategic planning meeting. What I mean by that is, when I hear the number of questions, or John when I hear you repeat, you know, I would really like to have discussion or, you know, really like to pull together, not a table of contents, but an agenda, you know, and not have that be at the last minute, and hearing what everyone has input about, their dreams and their concerns, I’m just, I’m really, really, really moved and my heart is split open at what I am seeing as individual commitment to really having CNVC serve, and serve not only us but serve the world at large, and that just brings me gratitude and joy.

Robert Gonzales – I am very pleased with the meeting and everything, I am sensing some kind of movement and wave building, and I am rally looking forward to the November meeting because I have a sense that it will be really exciting. I am feeling very inspired and heartened by the meeting and what we have done, and what everyone has contributed to in this meeting has added to my inspiration. I am very happy with what we’ve done and the movement that we are co-creating right now.

Jori Manske – I am feeling warm appreciation for everybody on the call, and also all those who have contributed with the thousand acts of contribution that are bringing us to this point, and feel hopeful that we are moving along in directions that will actually manifest the dreams that many of us have been holding. I have also been gifted to be in the same room with Elin and with Margo, and I am glad that there will be a face-to-face meeting, because I see how important it is to actually be in the same room. Within this meeting, other things happened as well, and when there is only a telephone line between us we only get part of the picture. I am very glad that the face-to-face meeting is happening, and that we are getting clearer and clearer on how to use that time effectively.

John Buck – Elin and Glenda if we could work on it I would love to see the notes that Elin is typing during the meeting on a googledoc, I think somehow looking at the web page together gave me that idea. When we are in a room together live, we often project it against a screen, and I think we can do that. I enjoyed the meeting , thank you very much everyone.

Gail Taylor – Susan Livingston, having heard you volunteer potentially as a point person for the harvesting and administrative support, if I could support you by helping you attend to your concerns, I would like to coordinate with you and with Margo to see if you might be the woman for the job! Would you get my contact information from someone you know, and email me?

Gail and Susan remained after the meeting was adjourned to exchange contact information.

Original Agenda for September 10, 2008 Board Meeting

Wednesday, September 10, starting at 19:00 GMT/UTC (1:00pm Albuquerque), teleconference
1.712-432-1600; code 825078#

Reminder: in accordance with the Board's communications policies, we should strive to be sure observations and needs are clear in decisions and, in context, identify any matters that might warrant special announcements to the NVC community.

Note: it would be helpful if you have your computer available to be able to follow the Communications Coordinator report more easily.

(1:15) Administrative matters

- Announcements

- Next meeting date(s) - Oct 22??, Nov 13-17, Dec 17

- Acceptance of minutes of August 13, 2008 Board meeting

- Acceptance of agenda for today

(1:20) Content

-1:20 PM 1 Revisit the parameters around the $10,000 budget for face-to-face meetings (Margo)

-1:30 PM 2 Financial report - including comparison of last Feb budget and status now (Margo)

-1:40 PM 3 Ongoing - A report from the Communication Coordinator (Glenda)

-1:50 PM 4 New potential board members (Margo, Gail)

-2:00 PM 5 Admin team report - Valentina, Margo, Marshal: Office, IT, Ed Svcs

-2:15 PM 6 What NVC means to me followed by report on status of preparations for strategic planning to be done in November

(3:00) End meeting

Board Communication Policy: 1 - What will we communicate - information (ask / tell), decisions (observations & needs met?), feedback requests 2 - Who do we communicate it to? 3 - Who / how will communication be drafted, agreed to and sent?

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