Board Agenda & Minutes 08/13/2008

CNVC Board Minutes DRAFT 08/13/2008 Meeting

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In attendance:

Board Members:

Gail Taylor – Board Member

Jori Manske – Board Member

Margo Pair – Board Secretary

Marshall Rosenberg – Board Member

Robert Gonzales – Board President

Stefan Wisbauer – Board Vice-President (second half of meeting)

Valentina Rosenberg – Board Treasurer

Board Members Absent:

Stefan Wisbauer was absent for the first half of the meeting

Observers: Glenda Mattinson (Canada), Jan Carel van Dorp (Netherlands), Joakim Svahn (Sweden), John Abbe (US - Oregon), Mitch Henrion (US - Vermont), Randy Eoff (US - New Mexico), Susan Livingston (US - Virginia)

Facilitator: John Buck

Recorder: Elin Skappel (from recording)

Summary of decisions:

1. Gail is confirmed for her membership on the board through May 2011.

2. Feedback information is to be made available to everybody on a view-only basis as long as the person supplying the feedback has the ability to choose whether their feedback will be seen by everyone or by a limited group of people. There will be a feedback form link in the minutes of this meeting, and when the whole system is more complete there will be a general announcement to the network using the following egroups: cnvc-trainers@yahoogroups.com, nvccertificationcandidates@yahoogroups.com, FriendsofNVC@yahoogroups.com, CNVCGCC@googlegroups.com.

3. The Draft of the Board Minutes will be prepared and distributed to the Board Members within 1 week of the meeting, and approved and made available to the network within 2 weeks of the meeting.

4. Stefan accepts the role of Vice President to the Board, the term going through December 2008.

Summary of action items:

1. Margo will provide the 2009 in-person Board Meeting dates and information when available.

2. Margo will provide to the board members a report of how expenditures are tracking to budget before next meeting, for discussion (extended from last month).

3. Margo with the help of Elin will investigate past board decisions in regards to the $10,000 budget for face-to-face meetings and its purposes.

4. Stefan will send a list of potential candidates for the role of point person to Margo.

Future Agenda Items

• September 2008: Revisit the parameters around the $10,000 budget for face-to-face meetings.

Announcements and Administrative matters:

• Our second LT Extended Forum meeting will be held this Monday August 18th. The dial-in information is listed on our website, observers are welcome.
• Correction to June minutes: Stefan’s term was extended for a year
• Minutes for the July 23, 2008 Board meeting were accepted with one correction: Action Item #5: Gail offered to be a resource to the Admin Team, not send email.
• The agenda for today was accepted.

Confirmation of Gail Taylor's membership on the Board - term through May 2011

• Decision: Gail is confirmed for her membership on the board through May 2011.
• Action Item: Margo with the help of Elin will put the 2009 in-person meeting dates and information on the calendars

Financial Report (Randy Eoff, CNVC Bookkeeper, on behalf the Treasurer)

Randy has been working to bring the Financial Reports into conformance with general accepted accounting principles, and changing the format to conform with the reporting model for nonprofit entities.

Status on key action items (Margo)

• Contacting people regarding serving on the Board: Margo will be coordinating with Gail Taylor over the following weeks. Pan (our IT Coordinator) is assisting in working out the technical issues that are preventing Eduardo Montoga-Arriens from introducing himself at our teleconference board meetings.
• Action Item extended from last month: Margo will provide to the board members a report of how expenditures are tracking to budget before next meeting, for discussion.
• Future Agenda Item (September): We will revisit the parameters around the $10,000 budget for face-to-face meetings.
• Action Item: Margo with the help of Elin will investigate past board decisions in regards to the $10,000 budget for face-to-face meetings and its purposes. (Jori says it was made before 2005)

Communications Coordinator Report (Glenda Mattinson)

A written report has been drafted and will be sent to the board members, describing the setup and monitoring of the new implementations. There has been a variety of activity within the teams, the LT is experimenting with tools for sharing current and historic information in a way that is readily available to current and future team members. The first stages have been rolled over to the Educational Services Team and the Office staff. A pilot is being run for the Board, tested by Margo and Elin. The format of the Board Minutes have been changed to highlight the Action Items, Decisions and Future Agenda Items at the beginning.

Glenda demonstrated new feedback mechanisms, where pre-decision input and post-decision feedback from the network can be made available in a structured way, so it is sortable and reportable. GoogleDocs are currently being used, but the final goal is to have this information on our website when time and resources are available. There is also a goal of having the form translated, with recognition that in order for this system to be truly inclusive, we also need to address the question of translation of feedback received.

Links for Post-Decision Feedback: The input form is at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6HBFi7KGIumoPEP5UgVAVw&email=true And the feedback is at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p6HBFi7KGIumoPEP5UgVAVw&hl=en

Links for Communication Feedback: Input form at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6HBFi7KGIunxxRplWvjNeg&email=true Feedback at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p6HBFi7KGIunxxRplWvjNeg&hl=en

• Decision: Feedback information is to be made available to everybody on a view-only basis as long as the person supplying the feedback has the ability to choose whether their feedback will be seen by everyone or by a limited group of people. There will be a feedback form link in the minutes of this meeting, and when the whole system is more complete there will be a general announcement to the network using the following egroups: cnvc-trainers@yahoogroups.com, nvccertificationcandidates@yahoogroups.com, FriendsofNVC@yahoogroups.com, CNVCGCC@googlegroups.com.

• Decision: The Draft of the Board Minutes will be prepared and distributed to the Board Members within 1 week of the meeting, and approved and made available to the network within 2 weeks of the meeting.

Confirmation of Stefan's acceptance of election to interim Vice President - term through December 2008. (Stefan)

• Decision: Stefan accepts the role of Vice President to the Board, the term going through December 2008

Continuation of preparation for strategic planning to be addressed in November in-person meeting. (All)

Development of a list of topics (categories) the Board would like to address in the strategic plan and some of the key issues in each category

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

John: Last time we brainstormed around the issues pertaining to groups of people forming and the relationships in the broader NVC community. A decision was made that we would try to find a point person who would be doing the preliminary thinking for a draft strategic plan in November. I would like to get recorded some brainstorming thoughts around what kind of topics the board would like to address in the strategic plan. What kind of issues this person might go out and collect thoughts on, or do research on or start preparing preliminary thoughts on. At this point we ware just looking for issues and categories.

Stefan: So far our strategies have been focused on our needs for survival. In the last year we’ve managed to create a lot more clarity around structure, who does what and so on. The next stage is working towards meeting our needs towards contribution and connection, and being more proactive. The suggestion I have at this time is to have one person go through the gathering of thoughts, information and plans from varied materials, some of which Stefan has created, printouts of previous discussions on defined priorities, in a systematic fashion and working it out assisting us in that process, as most of the board members do not have the time to do this by themselves. Collect and collate and structure, help us prepare and process the material. I would see this as the first assignment for the point person.

• Action Item: Stefan will send a list of potential candidates for the role of point person to Margo.

Margo: Besides the topics that have been identified as main priority areas, which we are currently working on, I would like to add:

- Who is involved in what topics,

- How do we share information and who responds,

- What avenues are we going to use that will provide ease and clarity for everyone in the global network,

- What is the Board’s basic guideline principles that we are operating under,

- There is a lot of material on our relationships with different groups and individuals in the global NVC network, especially from the GCC. I would like the point person to collect this information and develop into a digestible format for our review.

- Long term – I would like to update and and bring the educational materials current. Connecting with circles, social change and spirituality is not covered in the current materials.

- Fulfilling our leadership team circle, filling the teams that do not currently exist: Media, Synergy and Fundraising.

- Organize this information and provide it ahead of time, so some beginning work can be thought of, planned on, with research to be done before we actually meet.

Gail: There is a whole body of information that I would enjoy seeing before I would enjoy trying to distill out a table of contents, and that would involve getting feedback from key persons.

- What are the intentions for the organization at large?

- Get feedback from the key circles, what are some of the concerns that are arising within your circles that you would like to have addressed in the strategic planning meeting?

- To each key circle, what are your main desires that are arising within your particular circles, maybe there are dreams that this particular circle would like to see the organization move towards, particular goals or developments that they would like to see happening. What dreams/desires would you like strategized around.

I don’t feel confident trying to move into the stage of trying to distill out the content without that body of information at hand.

Stefan: I enjoyed the concrete and helpful comments from Margo and Gail. In regards to the circles that Gail mentioned, I would like to add the main stakeholders like Marshall and Valentina, the office, the trainers, I would enjoy updated and meaningful input from them as well. A question I would like to ask at the strategic level is our overall strategy for impact. There are some bits that are clear, between people, between trainers, we’ve produced materials, we’ve dabbled with projects and funding initiatives. Do we want to go back to that, or do we want to focus on other strategies. I would like to see some specific strategies that would help us define the impact, and go about this in a structured fashion. I would like to see feedback from Marshall, key trainers, international groups, that would be a huge leverage for impact. We are just now in a position where we are organized enough and have enough resources to start something like that, to be able to knock on other peoples’ doors instead of reacting to them knocking on our door. I’d like to get clarity on how to translate the value of the message we believe in into large scale impact.

Robert: I appreciate hearing all the input. I’m in agreement with Margo in terms of filling the positions in the circles, Media, Synergy, Fundraising, I think is really critical to completing our organization. I would like to touch on some concrete areas that I think are foundational. There is a sense of unifications of all the groups in the network, in different geographical areas of people speaking similar languages, like the French speaking group, that is not limited to one specific country. There is a sense of a need to unify that group and other various groups to be in unison with the overall mission of CNVC and NVC. The broad sense of unification of groups.

There is also something about the position of the group of certified trainers and their relationship with the CNVC organization that I think is important as a topic, the needs that I see for inclusion and full participation within the organization is not been fully met, I’d like to see a revisiting of that topic of the inclusion and more full participation and acknowledgement of that group in the organization.

The most important piece to me is the underlying consciousness of everything that we’re doing. I want to be grounded in that. I feel much more supported when I’m in a group where everything that comes from what we will be doing - our discussions, our rational and intellectual planning and strategic planning - I don’t want to see come from merely an intellectual and rational place. What comes alive for me is if I come from this underlying vision that is alive and vibrating and from the heart that includes the intellect . Unless I sense that energy it is hard for me to connect to the strategic planning as what I would relegate as intellectual and rational planning only. It is what gives my participation and my life meaning. Unless I’m grounded in this consciousness then it is not as alive and connected. I wanted to identify this, but am not sure how to address it as a topic.

John: I think this is extremely important. I think there is a way to acknowledge this piece consciously.

Robert:I like it being alive and at the forefront of what we are calling strategic planning. Even the label “strategic planning” does not fit the energy or the consciousness or intention of what we’re doing. Not that I want to change the wording of that, but as Gail said – what are our intentions – I’m talking about this as the underlying consciousness and vision for everything that we do in our planning.

Gail: It sounds like what you are saying is; from within the context and embodiment of this consciousness, what is most wanting to emerge in manifesting this consciousness on the planet?

Robert: Yes, and how do actions come. Unless actions emerge from the living energy I am not trusting that it is going to emerge in a way that is consistent with this vibrant consciousness that we are talking about. Whenever we have discussions I want to be grounded in my own heart where the vision lives, and connecting with people where this vision lives, out of which I trust that intelligence and clarity will come, and will follow.

Valentina: Robert, I am really appreciating what you are saying. Without this consciousness, what is the purpose? I really want to bring it back to the preciousness of being conscious of the intentions. If we don’t move forward with this depth of coming from our hearts, we will just continue doing the same thing over and over and get the same results. If we can come from this energy from our hearts, intentions, motives, then I really feel it will manifest for the highest good of all, and we can move forward, and we can go in the direction that we have been wanting for so long, we just didn’t have this depth of consciousness so clear as I’m hearing it right now. This helps me get more integrated with what Marshall and I would enjoy contributing when we do meet together. I appreciate this depth of sharing.

Jori: I appreciated this also and it stimulated something that I would like to add. One of the things I see that the CNVC as an organization could contribute is to manifest as an organization that works from this place, and models to the world the possibility of being centered on the needs and the consciousness that we are trying to share in the world . I would like us to consider how we can move towards a greater modeling of that.

Marshall: Robert really spoke for what I see as the most important thing.

Jori: I am aware that we are moving towards a check-out, and see this as an opportunity for the observers to add to this so we as the board are informed from those who are here, if there is anything they would like to add.

John: If the board does not have anything further to say on the topic, let us receive comments from the observers, in the mode of check-out.

Check-out round, including observer comments to the strategic planning

John Abbe: I’m really touched by the emphasis in the last bit on the spirit. What comes up for me in regards to how it relates to strategic planning is - As we think of CNVC's role, I would like us to see two concentric rings of a larger movement. The largest ring is the movement that ultimately all humans are engaged in, to survive and thrive, that goes far beyond NVC. There's also the smaller concentric circle of all of NVC. CNVC has done a lot of work to reach out to the different networks that are working with NVC, but we will probably never get everyone who sees themselves as being engaged in NVC hooked into CNVC. I believe it is important to continue to be aware of these circles, to continue to reach out to them and recognize that our role is one part in these larger movements.

Joakim: I really don’t have anything to add, I really liked to hear about the spiritual piece that Robert brought up. I also liked to hear what Gail said about getting input from GCC and other key circles first before going forward.

Jan Carel: I would like to add the topic of certification and future developments surrounding certification procedures to be addressed during the strategic planning meeting in November, that is very important to me and I think it will add to the feeling of creation of the global family that I truly hope we will be able to achieve.

Mitch: I’m just enjoying having been here for parts of the call and really relaxing and reveling in the focus on the spirit and the desire to stay in connection with the spirit of what we’re doing. Just want to celebrate that, and I also appreciate John Abby’s reminder of how every person in every organization has a role to play in the world and add specific expertise, and that this supports all of us humans and creatures on the earth. I am feeling gratitude for the moment to reflect on these things.

Susan: I missed the meeting last month and I come back after two months and am just so thrilled on how everything’s coming together and delighted not only on the quality but the timing of the new communication system with the pre-decision and post–decision feed back just in time for the face-to-face meeting in November. That really makes me feel connected to something bigger than myself.

Randy: I am feeling grateful for the opportunity to be here and present the financial report and also to be able to be a fly on the wall and see the inner workings of the CNVC, and am just being appreciative of being part of this process.

Glenda: I was very moved and inspired by the piece that Robert brought in. I would also like to share that I believe that both within the CNVC teams and more broadly in the network we have a lot of very skilled people that can help realize our vision and goals. What I would love from the strategic planning meeting is to contribute clarity about that and inspiration to our NVC community. It’s becoming more and more clear to me what motivates both individuals and teams are concrete and specific things that we can collaborate towards. I have been very grateful to be here on the call.

Stefan: I appreciate Robert emphasizing our consciousness in what we are doing, including planning. Our intention for this exercise needs to be to create clarity and alignment around the actions we want to take to see that consciousness manifest globally, and this should be part of every moment of the process to gain clarity of the steps we want to take. I am full of hope and confidence that we can achieve a lot with the combination of actions that we are planning.

Jori: I am feeling hopeful for the organization, that we are focusing on the depth of meaning of what we’re doing and at the same time looking at how we can take next steps to actualize and appreciating all the input that has been here, I feel inspired and touched and am glad I was here.

Robert: I am grateful for your contribution in this John, coordinating and facilitating the meeting. Really pleased with the work you are doing Glenda in implementing the communication policy and very hopeful and excited about how it will fit in with the value that I think the NVC is espousing, one more step towards walking the talk, inclusion and transparency and everyone’s needs mattering, I am really touched by that. I am inspired by the feeling sense that I am experiencing in hearing everyone’s voice and the level of cooperation and co-creation, I feel very inspired by that and am really looking forward to the face-to face board meeting, I just really want to see you all again and be part of this energy and am very happy grateful for everything, and everyone’s input.

Gail: A big woo-hoo to Glenda and the tools emerging for communication. I am really appreciating Robert’s call to the emergent living consciousness, holding for the strategizing to come up with topics that emerge from within the context of holding and living that consciousness, not just the rational headspace, I really appreciated that. What I would really enjoy at the next meeting is a second opportunity to let this simmer and being divinely inspired, and what would be really meaningful to me would be to be informed by each of you and also the Admin Team, specifically on the two questions; what are your dreams, what are your concerns. To get a grasp of them and then crystallize that input into what the measurables could look like and what we would like to strategize around specifically, immediately, that would feel very full and complete for me. I am just very grateful for this meeting and what emerged out of everyone’s collaboration.

John: Gail, I have noted your request, that next time we do some variant of what we did today and encourage everyone to do some thinking around that. I was delighted by how the meeting went and let it go longer because it seemed to be flowing so well. I am really happy about what happened today around this thinking.

Marshall: I’m very satisfied with what we did.

Margo: My heart is overflowing with deep appreciation for a very clear sense that I have, and the only way my spirit can define it is a sense of “we”, and it’s a “we” that is not exclusive to anyone. It is very much alive for me and I feel that live supporting energy of co-creating taking place. As a group of ideas, suggestions, comments and concerns that many have been holding and working on for years, with the great additional help of Glenda, helping us to put it together as clarity was being reached, it is like starting to see fruit develop on the tree. I see it as the way that things are going to continue to develop unfold. I am really excited about our near future and our long-term future, for our global community. I really appreciate the perspective and all-encompassing spiritual connection that Robert’s few words brought so much alive in each one of us and want to acknowledge that when decisions are made out of that energy the actions will unfold and be very life serving, which is what I feel that we are all trying to create. Thank you John for your facilitation skills, and the observers who are sharing their precious time to be available today, I so appreciate your interest and the action you have taken to express it.

Valentina: It’s been a pleasant, wonderful couple of hours, it felt timeless, because when Robert brought up the spiritual piece it was empathy for my soul, my heart, my consciousness, and I am just feeling the gracefulness of why we’re here, and the depth of connection that I am feeling right now is inspirational. I wish that we can continue to share and spread this that is our motive and intention, and the clarity that now seems to be emerging in beautiful ways beyond measurement feels bigger than us. I also feel gratitude to you John for continuing to facilitate and support us and guide our vision and mission so that we can work and co-create together and get everyone on the same page. Want to continue the celebration of that Glenda is bringing, all that I saw today was what I was visualizing. Thank you Stefan for accepting to be VP until December, I always appreciate your warmth and willingness to support us. I would like for us to sing happy birthday to Gail!

Original Agenda for August 13, 2008 Board Meeting

Wednesday, August 13, 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

- Observer policy

- Announcements

- Acceptance of minutes of July 23, 2008 Board meeting

- Acceptance of agenda for today

(1:25) Content

• (1:25) Confirmation of Gail Taylor's membership on the Board - term through May 2011
• (1:35) Updates (Margo)

-Financial report

-Status of key action items

-Possible technology solutions that would allow Eduardo Montoga-Arriens to participate in teleconferenced Board meetings

• (1:55) Confirmation of Stefan's acceptance of election to interim Vice President - term through December 2008. (Stefan)
• (2:00) Communications Coordinator report. (Report will include some "show & tell" & so access to a computer would be helpful.) (Glenda)

(*2:15) Continuation of preparation for strategic planning to be addressed in November in-person meeting.

-Development of a list of topics (categories) the Board would like to address in the strategic plan and some of the key issues in each category (All)

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