Community Renewal Report

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our recent community driven renewal process, whether by voting in the online poll, attending one of our consultations, or meeting with
me or others from the transition council. We've engaged at least 150 members, many who have expressed passionate, heart-felt opinions about our future. A success in anyone's books.

Today we share some of the results. First off, the great news: Web of Change 2012 is on. This year we're back at Hollyhock on Cortes Island: September 5-9, 2012. Mark your calendars now!

The event is back because so many of you told us how important it is. And because with some new staff we're going to make it an easier lift for our anchor volunteers this year. And finally, due to the generosity of our long-term sponsors. An amazing 19 firms have stepped up to join our "founder's circle", going above the call of duty by pre-paying a down payment on their 2012 support, which has given us the confidence to make our plans for the year.

THANK YOU to the Founder's Circle: Advomatic, Agentic, Biro Creative, Capulet, Care2, Citizen Engagement Labs, Communicopia, Englin Consulting, Engaging Networks, EchoDitto, Fission Strategy, Free Range, Gott Advertising, Groundwire, Hollyhock, Predictive Response, Renewal, Salsa Labs, and Sea Change.

Our next steps are hiring an Event Manager to back-end this year's Web of Change, and recruiting a 2012 volunteer anchor team to make it happen. Both roles are now taking nominations so please don't be shy! 

Some of the other outcomes from the community driven process are:

Location: we heard you loud and clear that while many passionately love Hollyhock, we need to try a more accessible, US based wilderness location, at least once. So in 2013 we are doing just that, with details TBD after we do our research. Please email any suggestions to [email protected].

Staffing Model: detailed above, a new contract role of Event Manager will lighten the load on our volunteer anchors while maintaining a light structure and enable us to continually up
the quality of the event experience.

Financial Model: the event needs to remain nimble and self-sustaining, so we'll afford the new Event Manager via a combination of more sponsor fundraising and a modest tuition increase (our first in 5 years). Scholarships will be as plentiful as ever. 

Organizational Structure: we are exploring the path to becoming a non-profit, creating a proper board, with a potential home as an incubated project of Citizen Engagement Labs who will bring expertise and funding to expand our programs, leading to...

Future Programs: the most likely expansions of our model are:
investing in content thought leadership; supporting local events (WOCx), and deepening our leadership development offering. Each of these needs a) a leader who wants to see them happen, b) a business and viability plan and c) funding to pay for the extra effort, and we're exploring the viability of each.

So thanks again to all of you for contributing to re-imagining Web of Change. Thanks specifically to Leda Dederich, Juan Rodriguez, Steve Anderson, Monica Novoa, Michael Silberman, Cara Pike, Tim Walker, Dave Averill, Gibran Rivera, as well as Gideon Rosenblatt, Marianne Manilov, Julia Watson, Neal Bastek, and Jessy Tolkan for all the great advice and leadership you've provided to support this institution and make these decisions.

Lots more to come as we heat up for 2012. But mark your calendars for Sep 5-9 2012, the game is on.