GCC Draft Proposal

Click here to return to the main CNVC Board page.

GCC Draft Proposal

Notice to visitors: The version of this document posted here contains amendments contributed by members in the Governing Circle that has developed since the original version was accepted by the Board as 'a working document for the structure of CNVC' during a teleconference that took place during May 2006.

To obtain a clearer understanding of what has and has not been ratified as 'current policy', please find the original version at www.cnvc.org. and view CGG/Board minutes to see updates.

This was Initially drafted at the Albuquerque Strategy Session, 19 – 20 March 2006 for proposal to the Network and the Board. Group Present: Marshall Rosenberg, Valentina Rosenberg, Jori Manske, Jim Manske, John Buck, Stefan Wisbauer, Barbara Larson.

In May 2006, follow a period of comment by the NVC Network, the following was approved by the Board of CNVC by consent:

The Board is establishing procedures to insure representation by inviting present large geographic groups of one or more countries involved in NVC to nominate representatives by consent of their group to a newly constituted Global Coordinating Circle (GCC), which will serve as the guiding body for the international NVC community including CNVC. At the point where the Board accepts the first person nominated by an NVC region to the Board, the Board will rename itself the GCC.

The following is offered as background, support and definition for this proposal:

1. Observations

The NVC movement has seen impressive growth in recent years and is conducting an impressive breadth of activities in a large number of geographies.

Strong potential exists for further growth and meaningful contribution by the overall movement to the vision (a world where all people have access to getting their needs met, resolving their conflicts peacefully and creating and participating in networks of worldwide life-serving systems in economics, education, justice, healthcare, and peace-keeping) and mission of CNVC (to contribute to this vision by facilitating the creation of life-serving systems within ourselves, interpersonally, and within organizations).

Stronger connections are possible within the movement to coordinate activities, support each other, share ideas and information etc.

The organizational structure could meet more needs of stake-holders for clarity, connection, identity, contribution, and meaning.

2. Intention

Any models or strategies for organizing such connections be in harmony with the mission and principles of the NVC process and consciousness.

This proposal aims to address some of the needs mentioned but additional strategies may be adopted over time to address the wider network's and its members' needs in full.

The next section is intended to outline initial change suggestions to begin an organizational transformation process that leads to a dynamically adapting life-serving system and that serves the network’s needs while living the process of NVC in the overall community.

3. Proposed Strategy

Create a 'Global Coordinating Circle' (GCC) to serve as the guiding body for the international NVC community and CNVC with the following key roles:

• Visioning / developing strategies for the NVC movement: what contribution to the world will the international NVC organization make?
• Fueling of connection for the overall NVC community
• Fueling of organizational adaptation and evolution, initially focused on promoting the establishment of global circles (including the promotion of sociocracy and/or other methods of ˜non-violent" organizing).
• Promoting the establishment and sharing of "leaderful" strategies for running NVC practice groups that could be replicated with or without trainers.
• Creating greater clarity around initiatives and projects and fundraising to support them.
• Directing, with a service attitude, the overall movement including CNVC.
• Hiring and reviewing the performance of the CEO of CNVC.
• Being responsible for the financial health, sustainability, but not the lawful responsibilities and actions of CNVC, its staff, and charter so long as CNVC exists as a legal 501-C(3) entity.

Specific short-term tasks

• Search for and recommend to the CNVC Board the hiring of a permanent CEO for CNVC.
• Determine the kinds of decisions the GCC will make; how the GCC will stay connected to the global NVC movement; and the relationship between the GCC and CNVC Board and Staff, creating clearly differentiated areas of responsibility that can be measured and evaluated.
• Affirm or modify the current CNVC budget by recommendation to the Board.
• Work to create clarity about the legal requirements and responsibilities of the CNVC board and the GCC (for example, how income and expenses are handled; how agreements between CNVC and others are handled, eg copyrights, royalties; and clarifying ownership of assets and liabilities currently held by CNVC).

Long-term perpetuation and representation strategy to determine GCC membership

Establishment of the GCC:

• All current board members will automatically be members of the GCC.
• An election process amongst the network is proposed to nominate further members to ensure regional representation.
• Regions will be self-organizing and will be made of large geographic areas that span the totality of one or more countries based on the current number of certified trainers in the area.
• Those nominated from the network will be added to the GCC by its existing members if those members deem that the nominee can contribute together to the vision and mission of GCC with ease.

Functioning:
The GCC would meet by phone on a monthly basis initially, and self determine when and how often they will meet in order to fulfill their functions.

John Buck says on June 10th 2006: Right now I am underwriting the cost of implementing sociocracy for NVC through training to local organizations. I soon will be adding teleclasses. I have been donating support for the CNVC board. One teleclass we are developing will focus on facilitating circle meetings. From these classes should come people who can support NVC-related circle meetings. While centralized (CNVC) funding support would be helpful in accelerating this process, the current strategy of funding and building from the bottom up means that the project will succeed only if it is supported fundamentally by the whole network. Thus, there is no "budget" per se as one would have in a centrally managed project.

4. Ideas for consideration by the GCC

The group has the following suggestions for the GCC to consider:

• Creating a ‘live platform’ for connecting the network and the sharing of celebration, mourning, requests (general, to GCC, to others ...), sharing evidence of NVC impact and ideas within the network (i.e. some form of blog / wiki / ...).
• Encouraging and supporting new strategies for sharing NVC materials more widely, e.g. podcasting.
• Facilitating connections between training participants with each other and the wider NVC community, e.g. by encouraging giraffe conventions at local, national and international levels and / or creating e-platforms that support such connections.
• Offering easy access to concrete opportunities for the network or anyone to contribute to NVC initiatives, funding or any other forms of support.

5. Invitation to the network

The network is encouraged to:

• Submit comments on the creation / role and membership of the envisaged GCC.
• Propose members for election in their region to the GCC.
• Suggest organizational strategies for the initial GCC to consider.
• Pose other specific proposals or requests to the GCC.

6. Suggested requests to groups in the network:

To nominate a candidate for the GCC:

• Join with other centers in a country and/or language groups to nominate someone to the GCC by consent within the extended community who has the trust of community.
• State how many were directly involved in this choice and geographic regions represented.
• To provide the GCC with information about the state of the network, gather information and provide it to the GCC about the scope of your community. This report could include:
  • Number of participants, certified trainers.
  • Geography of those included.
  • What projects and work are happening in your community.
  • Intentions for your community.
  • Mission for your community.
  • Structure or organization of your community.
  • Synergistic partners, individuals and organizations involved with your community.
  • Fundraising in or for your community.
  • How many people are in your community's database, how many practice groups, number of trainings, who offered training.

-end of GCC Draft Proposal-

Click here to return to the main CNVC Board page.