Advice needed for third day

[BJ Peters]

Craig-- Several things struck me as I read. I will insert my responses in the
body of your message.

CLF2 at aol.com wrote:

> I am hoping the OS Listserve can help me with the "third day" process.  I
> have been asked to propose to a regional human service nonprofit
> organization, a process that will give them a vision and issues and actions
> for serving the community for the next 10 years.  The client wants to involve
> 200-250 stakeholders'''' within the county it serves, and would like the
> participants to offer to the client organization, what they see as the needs
> of the community and how should the organization help the community meet the
> needs, in a ten year period.  The convening issue will be something like:  "Wh
> at should the XXX Regional Human Service Organization do now and in the
> future to serve the needs of families and individuals in Contra Costa County
> 10 years from now?"
>
> I think this is a perfect opportunity for an OS meeting and will propose
> that.  However, I am a bit stumped on the third day.  While I do see the
> value in printing books on the evening of the second day, and giving them to
> the participants on the third day to vote on the top ten issues the
> organization should be addressing, does it make sense to have the
> participants develop a list of actions for each of those top 10, given the
> fact that they are not employees of the organization?  The reason, by the
> way, the president wants input of the community (and not of the
> organization's staff) is because the organization is in the business of
> serving the committee, thus, he figures it's best to start with the
> communities sense of their needs, instead of what the staff thinks the
> community needs are.

My reaction is it might be helpful to shift the president's paradigm to think of
both/and rather than either/or. It seems to me it would be good to have the
community members AND the staff participate equally, side by side, at the event.
This provides the opportunity for them to get to know each other better and see
where both groups are coming from.

And I STRONGLY recommend that the community members and staff have an opportunity
to work together on action planning on Day 3. Unless this agency is resource
heavy (unlike most I've worked with), community resources could be a real aid to
meeting needs.

You might also heed the suggestions from Peg and others recently on the notion of
convergence. I have found that natural convergence happens when folks are asked
to champion topics for which they have passion. Those topics that are chosen are
the priorities; some that are not chosen are often folded into those that are;
those that are left without a champion are left... because what happens is the
only thing that could have.

> Any help with this I will surely appreciate, and if you have additional
> thoughts on the design besides my day three question, I would be grateful.
> If you wish, I will keep you up to date.  One final thing, if anyone would
> like a copy of my proposal that can be used as a template, let me know and I
> will send it along (or post somewhere??)

And I would love to have a copy of your proposal. Thanks in advance.

High regard --BJ

BJ Peters
bjpeters at amug.org
602 279 4806  Fax


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