Spreading the word: Everyday Democracy’s Aicher Award

NCDD member organization Everyday Democracy is seeking nominations for this year’s Leadership in Democracy Awards! Please see their message to the NCDD network below for more information about the multiple awards this year, and how to help EvDem spread the word. Nominations and supplemental materials are due 10/31, so act now!


Each year, Everyday Democracy, recognizes outstanding leadership through our annual Leadership in Democracy Award.

In honor of our founder, Paul J. Aicher, we look for organizations, coalitions, and individuals who embody his values: voice for all, connection across difference, racial equity, and community change.

We have been inspired by the many exceptional applications from the past four years, and this year we expanded to two categories: one Aicher Award ($10,000) to an organization and two Civic Leadership Awards ($2500) to individuals.

We have valued your ongoing collaboration as partners, and we’d love to hear from you and your communities in this nomination process. Here are three ways you can help us honor and amplify powerful work through these prizes:

  1. Forward this blog post to your network.
  2. Share the word on social media:

3. Nominate a leader in your network using the Google Forms on this page

We must receive a nomination and supplemental application materials by 10/31, so we hope to spread the word quickly.

In partnership,

Everyday Democracy

Creative Strategies for Change Seeking Executive Director

Denver-based organization, Creative Strategies for Change, is currently seeking a new Executive Director! We encourage folks in our network to learn more about the position in the announcement below and find the original information on the CSC site here.


Creative Strategies for Change is expanding our team! We are currently hiring for an Executive Director to start in February of 2021, could it be you or someone you know?

Background: Creative Strategies for Change (CSC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2013, in Denver, Colorado, with a mission to mobilize arts and education for social justice, and a racial equity imperative. Our offerings include: community and youth programs, interactive performances and workshops, consultation, leadership and professional development.

Position Description: The Executive Director (ED) is a member of the team that stewards CSC mission, vision, and values. This dynamic team and community member will be responsible for the efficient administration of day to day organizational operations, budgetary and fiscal matters, organizational development and fundraising, board development and relations, as well as hiring, training, guiding, and evaluating administrative staff.

The ED is a member of CSC’s collaborative leadership team, the Executive Committee consisting of two Co-Directors of Arts and Education and the Board of Directors. The ED’s priorities are maintaining a sustainable organization with a focus on administrative, board, and financial capacity building. The ED will galvanize our internal and external commitment to equity, excellence, and wellness.

Schedule: 40 hours/week between 8am – 6pm (some evenings and weekends will be required)

Start Date: Preferred start date February 8th (Participation in CSC Workshop is Required)

Compensation: $60,000-$80,000 annually (depending on experience)

After 60 days of employment (or the equivalent hours) employee will be eligible for health care contributions and paid time off as follows:

Health Care Contributions: $400/month (FTE)
Accrual of PTO – 2 days per month: current max total of 2 weeks per year
Minimum Skills and Qualifications

-Commitment to the CSC mission, vision, values, and racial equity imperative.
-Ability to align the organizational operational scope with the goals, mission and vision of CSC, clear understanding of the CSC 3 Model and ability to integrate it in all operations.
-Experience and expertise with managing nonprofit budget and operations or equivalent.
-Strong background in racial equity, critical race theory, intersectionality and social justice frameworks.
-Knowledge regarding community organizing, arts and arts education, youth leadership development, restorative /transformative justice.
-Expertise with board relations & development, fundraising, hiring, training, supervising, and evaluating personnel.
-Confident with organizational systems, financial, and database management
-Experience and expertise with managing nonprofit budget and operations or equivalent.
-Strong background in racial equity, critical race theory, intersectionality and social justice frameworks.
-Knowledge regarding community organizing, arts and arts education, youth leadership development, restorative /transformative justice.
-Expertise with board relations & development, fundraising, hiring, training, supervising, and evaluating personnel.
-Confident with organizational systems, financial, and database management.
-Excellent, culturally responsive interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
-Proactive, self-motivated and able to work independently and interdependently.
-Experience with working with diverse teams and communities.
-Critical, strategic thinking and the capacity to manage a variety of projects, priorities, and deadlines.
-Knowledge and experience with grant writing and management.
-Experience with fundraising, and client and donor engagement and development.
-Willing to engage in conflict resolution, give and receive critical feedback.
-3 years of managerial/leadership experience.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

-3-5 years consecutive experience as an executive director or similar administrative leadership role with a nonprofit organization.
-Expertise with organizational change and growth, and experience guiding an organization through the start up to sustainable experience.
-Understanding the value of art as an expression and foundation to the work at CSC.

Duties and Responsibilities

-Collaborative stewardship of the organizational mission, vision, and values.
-Provide leadership in coordinating, executing, and evaluating CSC administrative operations.
-Work with the administrative team to design, implement, and evaluate the performance of short and long-term plans for organizational growth and development toward a thriving, sustainable, and fiscally solvent organization.
-Build organizational administrative capacity for efficient and effective management.
-Improve CSC financial capacity and fiscal solvency to increase organizational capacity.
-Organizational capacity building through Financial Development & Administration, Fundraising, -Administrative operations, board development/relations are high priorities for this position.
-Work with CSC accountant to assure compliance with all IRS, national, state and local regulations and requirements for 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, including up to date files, filing systems, necessary certificates, licenses, etc.
-Work with CSC accountant to manage all organizational bookkeeping and finances as required by law and in alignment with CSC mission, vision, and values.
-Work with the CSC board, executive committee, and administrative team to develop, review, refine, and implement annual operating budget and strategic plan.
-Work with the Program Manager to operationalize CSC fundraising plan, including grants, donors, sponsors, and special events. Increase individual and corporate donors to meet fundraising goals.
-Contributes to activating and sustaining board participation in organizational fiduciary responsibilities and fundraising plans including grant research and writing, online crowdfunding, donor relations, sponsorship, and event planning, coordination, and execution.
-Attend regular staff, board, and team meetings.
Cultivate a culture of integrity with internal and external relationships, developing and maintaining open lines of communication.
-Develop, update, and maintain organizational operations manual, and policies and procedures handbook.
-Provide administrative support staff leadership including hiring, training, orientation, schedules, contracts, evaluation, and paperwork.
-Work with the administrative support staff to develop, refine, and maintain efficient organizational systems and procedures including but not limited to: calendars, documentation, assessment, administrative work plans, handbooks, manuals, database, etc.
-Work with the Executive Committee and staff to develop and implement public relations and communications strategies to support organizational goals and community engagement.
-Support Program Manager in sustain communications: blog, newsletter, social media, website updates and maintenance, print and web based marketing and promotion, etc.
-Represent CSC for panels, community meetings, conferences, funder discussions and field-wide convenings. Nurture new and existing partnerships with cultural, artistic and social justice organizations locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
-Staying connected to developments and grant funding opportunities, significant events, and conferences.
-Fielding information requests from current and prospective donors, sponsors, foundations, and board members.
-Additional duties and responsibilities as necessary.

CSC strongly encourages applications from diverse women and leaders of color for all positions. Creative Strategies for Change is committed to a policy of equitable representation across the organization and will not discriminate on the basis of race, ability status, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, socioeconomic status, or other social identities.

Please send cover letter, resume, and 3 references (1 personal and 2 professional) to: board[at]creativestrategiesforchange[dot]com. Please include “Executive Director Position” in email subject field

Find the original announcement at www.creativestrategiesforchange.com/2020/11/23/team-csc-is-growing-we-are-hiring-an-executive-director/.

Practical Academics shares: Online Meeting Best Practices

NCDD Member Michael Freedman of Practical Academics shared the following blog post with us. In the post, Michael shares best practices for your online meetings – a timely topic for this moment! We encourage you to check out the article below, or over at the Practical Academics site here.


Online Meeting Best Practices

The advantages of online meetings are to save travel time, convenience, and flexibility while retaining or augmenting the benefits of group interactivity. For interactivity, we need engagement; for engagement, we need encouragement and trust.  A one-way webinar is not a lot better than a video or a one-to-many lecture. Here are some points to consider in developing and running an interactive online meeting.

Development

Leverage time together for interactivity and sophisticated communications. Ask your participants to prepare in advance. Be clear on what this means: what they should come equipped with, and what should they be prepared to do.

Minimize large group time, maximize small group time. Large group time is for opening comments and announcements, setting the tone and agenda, for sharing results of small group efforts, wrap-up, and follow-up. Replace lectures and one-to-many instruction and guidance with pre-work sent in advance.

Group management. Small group models suggest optimum group sizes are 5-9.  If this is a short ad hoc session, try less, perhaps 3-5. Use break-out sessions or hold multiple meetings if that’s what it takes.

Present structured activities and conversations with targeted outcomes; and be flexible if those outcomes evolve as this is the point of having people work things over: to develop the thinking.

Provide timeframes for working sessions with the Goldilocks model: not too short and not too long. Provide enough time for all to participate, along with a deadline to drive action. Most of the small group working sessions will have specific tasks that can be addressed in five – twenty minutes.  If the working session agenda is long, use multiple working sessions.

Have an end game.  What are you seeking to accomplish, and what will you do with the results?

If you have unstructured conversations, then make that distinction and ask folks to come with some thoughts on the topic to be discussed.

Have two leaders: One focuses on content delivery (short and succinct) and the other on the chat and looking at participants to get an idea of their engagement. This person then “presents” next. One can play the role of synthesizing with help from the group.

Consider a group participation agreement, formal or informal, depending on the group.

Include an opening round-robin so that everyone has a chance to say something – this will “break the ice,’ and set the tone for full participation.  Make sure opening is on topic and relevant, not a timewaster.

Plan carefully to avoid time-zone and cultural snafus.

Use easy-to-use technology and make sure you know how to use it. Offer to train participants in advance.

Operations

Be consistent with your start time protocol and start on time. Consider an “unofficial” start time where folks can get set up and say hello.  But start on time.

As the leader, show up early and kick off the conversations. Get people comfortable and participating. Try the “one-word” exercise: share a word that reflects how you are and what’s going on.

Keep a roster of participants and take notes on crucial contributions, factoids, and follow-ups.

Put on a show – prepare a solid opening, make it positive and constructive, if not joyful. Make time for people to add their ideas and modify the agenda.

Don’t overuse technology. Tools should serve their purpose without getting in the way.  A show of hands might be better than an online poll.

Seek buy-in where possible. Buy-in engenders commitment and commitment fosters participation.

Allow some personal clearing and ideation; these are trust-building and tone-setting activities.

The downside of virtual conferencing is the limited ability to read non-verbal cues. Encourage all to use video so that expressions are readable, and to counteract the narrow “bandwidth,” slightly exaggerate your expressions and tone.

Wrap up

Follow-up. Distribute the results of the meeting with any action items and clear responsibilities as soon as possible following the end of the session.

Keep the momentum going.

Thanks to the members of the Right Company for their contributions.

Convergence Names David Eisner New President & CEO

Our friends at the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution recently announced the appointment of their new President & CEO. Please join us in congratulating Convergence and David Eisner on the new position! The full announcement is below and also accessible at this link.


Convergence Center for Policy Resolution is excited to share that we have a new President & CEO, David Eisner! Convergence is a 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to convene people and groups with divergent views to build trust, identify solutions, and form alliances for action on critical issues. David is a national leader in public, private, and nonprofit sectors and will team with Convergence Founder Rob Fersh to expand Convergence’s scale and impact.

“Bridging divides of ideology, identity and partisanship to address America’s core challenges has never been more urgent,” says Eisner.

The following statement was released by Jean Molino, Chair of the Board, Convergence Center for Policy Resolution:

First, let me express to all in the Convergence community our heartfelt hopes that you are well and taking good care in this challenging time. We are eager to stay in touch with you and want to hear from you as we continue to do our work, now more important than ever, to create community and collaboration to deal effectively with issues of great concern to us all.

To further that end, Convergence Center for Policy Resolution’s Board of Directors is delighted to announce that David Eisner will become Convergence’s new President and CEO, effective April 1, 2020. David is a national leader who brings broad experience as a senior executive across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. His demonstrated excellence at scaling organizational impact and results through effective programming, partnership, fundraising, and staff development, combined with his longstanding passion for coalition-building and cross-partisan problem-solving make David the right leader for Convergence at the right time.

Highlights of David’s career include his appointment by President George W. Bush and confirmation by the U.S. Senate to serve as the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, where he grew AmeriCorps from 50,000 to 75,000 members, built bi-partisan support and oversaw the iconic AmeriCorps response to Hurricane Katrina. Additionally, David served as CEO of the National Constitution Center, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, where he facilitated leading scholars and influentials in dialogue across deep differences over pressing Constitutional issues. David chaired the nonprofit All for Good, which built the system supporting President Obama’s signature service initiative, Serve.gov, and most recently served for six years as CEO of Repair the World, the nonprofit Jewish service organization. David has also held senior leadership roles at America Online (& AOL Time Warner) and Fleishman-Hillard, and has served on many national nonprofit boards, including Independent Sector, Public Allies, National 4-H Council, Network for Good and Points of Light.

We are also especially pleased that David and Rob Fersh, Convergence’s founder and current CEO, have agreed to build an active partnership as Rob segues to the role of Founder/Senior Advisor, maintaining deep involvement in Convergence’s planning, programming and fundraising. Convergence just celebrated its first decade, during which Rob developed Convergence’s unique methodology – our “secret sauce” –which has proven remarkably effective at bringing people together across differences to address some of society’s most intractable problems. We look forward to David building on that solid legacy, bringing innovation, scale and expanded impact to Convergence’s work in its second decade.

As Chair of Convergence’s CEO Search Committee, I can share that identifying the person to lead Convergence in the large footprints of our exceptional founder was both challenging and invigorating. We were delighted to engage with a great many exceptional and influential leaders of nonprofits and policy, which underscored the strong reputation of Convergence as well as the importance of the work.

Rob noted: “I am truly delighted to welcome David as the new CEO of Convergence. He brings a wealth of talent and experience along with great passion for our mission. I look forward to working closely with him to further the success of his leadership and Convergence. I am grateful to our terrific Board of Directors for concluding this search with such a great result.”

David shared his excitement about taking on this new challenge: “I am thrilled to be joining the Convergence team at a time when bridging divides of ideology, identity and partisanship to address America’s core challenges has never been more urgent. Convergence meets this need in a way that is uniquely powerful. I am particularly delighted that Rob will continue to bring his leadership and experience so that the uniqueness and power of our work remains true even as we scale our reach and impact.”

David looks forward to connecting with the Convergence network, and we will create opportunities in the coming months for our colleagues to get to know him. While we are currently living and working in highly unusual circumstances, these will not prevent David from coming fully and wholly on board. We look forward to his leadership for many years to come.

Jean Molino, Chair
Convergence Board of Directors

Canadian School of Peacebuilding

The Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP), an institute of Canadian Mennonite University, offers a selection of five-day courses each June. Courses can be taken for professional or personal development or for academic credit.

The CSOP is designed for anyone between the ages of 20 and 90 who is interested in peace work, including not-for-profit staff and interns, activists and peace educators, community leaders, religious leaders, teachers and professors, students (undergraduate or graduate), and government officials. All participants need to be fluent in English. The school is designed to be an environment characterized by educating for peace and justice, learning through thinking and doing, generous hospitality and radical dialogue, and the modeling of invitational community. The CSOP is for peacebuilders from all faiths, countries and identity groups.

Information about registration, costs, meals, and lodging is available on their website, as well as course descriptions, instructor bios, videos, pictures and stories from past years of CSOP, and peace resources. You can follow them on Twitter, and find them on Facebook and Instagram. Inquiries about the school, especially regarding registration can be sent to their main email address: csop@cmu.ca.

Resource Link: http://csop.cmu.ca/

This resource was submitted by Megan Klassen-Wiebe, Partnership and Public Engagement Coordinator of Canadian School of Peacebuilding via the Add-a-Resource form.

Picture a Conversation™

Nearly five years ago, after seeing so many couples and families interacting with their devices instead of each other, author, advice columnist and now conversation catalyst Debra Darvick felt compelled to do something. That “something” was to create Picture a Conversation™, an engaging set of conversation prompts whose topics are inspired by her husband’s gorgeous nature photographs. Darvick has made it her mission to help people reconnect through face-to-face conversations.

What distinguishes Picture a Conversation™ cards from others in the genre is Darvick’s innovation of using nature images as the inspiration for the conversation topics. The front of each card features an image and a reflection on our life challenges, situations, blessings and more. On the reverse, three questions invite meaningful discussion on a specific theme tied to the image and the reflection. For instance, an image of a butterfly hovering above a zinnia is accompanied by the phrase, “The moment is yours. Take flight!” Flip the card over to discuss take flight moments in your life and more. A card showing a grouchy monkey invites a conversation on how we deal with crankiness — others’ and our own.

Darvick field tested Picture a Conversation™ with women’s groups and families, in faith communities and with family and couples therapists. She found that the images made for a gentle “entry” into conversations. By enjoying a beautiful scene first, participants were in a more receptive and self-reflective state of mind as they began to engage in a meaningful dialogue on ideas that matter.

Each set of Picture a Conversation™ contains 25 cards featuring 25 different images and topics and seventy-five questions. In addition to sparking valuable conversations, the cards make useful journalling prompts, public speaking topics and meditation themes. They are appropriate for family dinner table conversations (ages eight and up), icebreakers, team-building endeavors, and discussions where the goal is to build bridges across seeming divides. Mental health professionals use them as well in their work with clients as communication support.

Resource Link: http://pictureaconversation.com/

This resource was submitted by Debra Darvick, creator of Picture a Conversation™ via the Add-a-Resource form.

The Wise Democracy Project

The Wise Democracy Project was initiated by Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute with impetus and tremendous help from Martin Rausch in Switzerland, between July 2016 and March 2017.

The Wise Democracy Project has been created to inspire the formation of a community of practice around approaches and innovations that can further the development of a democratic system capable of generating wise public policy and collective activities. “Wise” in this context means taking into account what needs to be taken into account for long-term broad benefit. D&D – and conversation and generative interaction generally – are central to this worldview and are contextualized for their gifts among many other dimensions of a wise democracy.

The project includes both broad theory and, in particular, an initial “pattern language” of 70 design guidelines, each of which can be applied through many different modes and approaches, using different tools and resources. The pattern language site (and its accompanying set of freely downloadable modular cards) provides a space for the gathering of additional examples and resources in each design category – and the analysis of any given case of democratic practice or vision, clarifying its specific gifts and improvable shortcomings.

The Wise Democracy Pattern Language was inspired by – and is a large-system companion to – the GroupWorksDeck.org pattern language for group process, which is familiar to many NCDD members. In fact, there is a parallel project underway linking the two pattern languages into a more coherent whole.

The relevance of the Wise Democracy Project to NCDD is that it adds a larger dimension to the work of D&D professionals, a vision of a civilization capable of generating actual collective wisdom. D&D practitioners can, if they choose, view their work as part of that larger civilizational mission and, using the models, patterns and networks associated with the Wise Democracy Project, focus their efforts in ways that empower that larger undertaking.

About The Co-Intelligence Institute
The nonprofit Co-Intelligence Institute (CII) promotes awareness of co-intelligence and of the many existing tools and ideas that can be used to increase it. The CII embraces all such ideas and methods, and explores and catalyzes their integrated application to democratic renewal, community problems, organizational transformation, national and global crises and the creation of just, vibrant, sustainable cultures. The goal of the CII is the conscious evolution of culture in harmony with nature and with the highest human potentials.We research, network, advocate, and help organize leading-edge experiments and conversations in order to weave what is possible into new, wiser forms of civilization.

Resource Link: www.wd-pl.com/

This resource was submitted by Tom Atlee, co-founder of The Co-Intelligence Institute via the Add-a-Resource form.