more funding community work?

[kerry napuk]

Peggy & Doug

Helpful redefinition of the question "how can we find funding sources 
to do the difficult and innovative work of bringing communities 
together?"

Maybe we should do some lateral thinking.  Traditionally, we respond to 
a sponsor with a specific problem where the application of a large 
group process, especially OS, is an effective way to bring people 
together to create a way forward or a shared future.   Perhaps we 
should turn this approach on its head by  presenting the process as a 
means for a concerned funding source to promote community building and 
participatory democracy distinct from and alternative to specific 
organisational initiatives and sponsorship.

In other words, can OS be made attractive as a generic process that a 
civil institution would support as an offering to the Community?  Is 
there something in your country like the UK's Roundtree Foundation that 
funds projects to reform or expand the political process?  Is there a 
credible and progressive think tank that shares OS values and would put 
together a programme and find funding?  If so, would it be worth making 
a proposal by a group of practitioners or even an OS institute to fund 
the generic application of OS to Communities and present it to a 
foundation or think tank?  Once the process is piloted, it can be 
rolled out to more people and places.

Public decision making and politics clearly are failing and desparately 
need to find new ways to involve more people.  Conventional approaches 
no longer work.  Rather, public decision making continues to fall into 
fewer and fewer hands and, more often than not, is hidden from "public" 
view until it is too late to change except to protest.  OS has the 
fantastic ability  to be organised quickly and involve large numbers 
who have the passion (care about an issue)  and do something about it 
(take responsibility.)

Does this make any sense?

Kind regards

Kerry
Edinburgh
www.openfutures.com

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