Shape the Future of Web of Change

We have an exciting opportunity for you to participate in shaping the future of Web of Change.  We have started a community-driven renewal process that we'd love your involvement in.

Now is the time to open up future possibilities for Web of Change and explore new models for how we deliver our program. And as we have always been a network that is community driven, we're going to do this in an open consultative way.

Why are we changing?

After 11 increasingly successful years, Web of Change has grown to the point that the expectations for everything we do have outstripped the capacity of the mostly all-volunteer model we've employed to date. Read our full case for change here.

What next?

We're kicking off a conversation about how we can best serve (and expand) our purpose. What's on the table is the future of how WOC will be structured, what programs it will offer, where it will deliver its core program (ie the annual event), the model it will operate within, who will fund and support it, and what will the roles be of volunteer and paid leaders will be. The goal is to craft WOC 2.0: with a new structure, programs, resources / partners, and leaders so it can best serve the needs of this community and the movements we care about for years to come.

There are multiple ways were working to engage our community in determining our future, including:

• The first step in the process happened in September at WOC 2011, where 32 people attended an open session on this topic.
• The next step is for any interested WOC alumni to attend a Conference Call dialogue to explore this topic.  Please email Julia for an invitation.
• In December we'll launch an online crowd engagement tool to collect your ideas.

To facilitate this process and make decisions on the future of the institution, we have set up a "transition council" (a temporary board) made up of: Michael Silberman, Gibran Rivera, Monica Novoa, Cara Pike, David Averill, Favianna Rodriguez, Steve Andersen, Tim Walker, Leda Dederich, and Juan Rodriguez. Our paid staff Julia Watson and Neal Bastek will also be contributing their time. I am the chair of the process. Gideon Rosenblatt, Susanna Haas-Lyons, Jodie Tonita, and Marianne Manilov have stepped forward to help coach me.

We hope to receive input from as many of you as possible as we chart this new path into the unknown, together, as a community. Thank you.