Hey friend,

I hope you’re doing ok!

The new year has started, and General Circle reflected on what’s important for SoFA this year. Here are some of the topics:

• Infrastructure 
  • making sure the systems to support that are solid
  • empowering circles to take up action and get the results that they want
  • figure out how to collectively prioritize and understand the operational priorities of the system
• Connection
  • building relationships and partnership
  • more collaboration overall also among SoFA members
• Impact and resources
  • support SoFA trainings & implementations
  • providing more opportunities for people to have paid client work
  • More sector-specific content. 
• Evaluation of content, what works well, what is needed, what could be kick-started? 

What would you like to see in focus? Add your topic here!

Budgeting
The next round of quarterly budgeting is coming around, please send all budget requests and updates (including new hires and hour updates) to [email protected] by January 29, 2022.

Language Equity
General Circle created Language Equity Helping circle. Andy Grant and Lea Shani were selected to start the circle. They are seeking up to 4 additional circle members for 8 working meetings to develop a language equity recommendation for General Circle. Who should be on the Helping Circle? Please fill out the nomination form.

New Meeting Minutes for 2022

Action requested

As we start 2022, someone in each of your circles will need to set up a fresh Google Doc to hold the minutes for your circle for the upcoming year.  If that is you for a particular circle, the Logkeeper team requests that you use the following process for setting up your new minutes document.

Four steps:

1. From within the Google Drive folder for your circle, create a new Google Docs file using the “From a template” option.
2. Choose the “Minutes template” as the template for this file.
3. Change the name of this file to “Circle Name Circle minutes [2022]”.  For example, if you are doing this for Mission Circle, you would change the name of the new file to “Mission Circle minutes [2022]”.
4. Then fill in the details about your circle in the header of your new minutes document.

Please send us an email at [email protected] if you have any questions or feedback on this process.

Circle reports

General Circle

• Talked about prioritization and alignment of plans for 2022.

notes::general circle

Content Circle

• Working on the sociocracyforall.org/content page.
• The annual conference will be on April 27!
• Social Media circle is saying bye-bye and thank you to Brian Tohana. Alma Garcia Gil will be taking over Social Media. 

notes::content circle

Ecosystem Circle

• Schools conference Jan 15! See registration below and the social media package and share with your friends!
• Sector Circles starting to get used to new sector circle model. 
• New role selection coming up!

notes::ecosystem circle

Membership Circle

• Reworking & improving clarity of membership agreements.

notes::membership circle

International Circle

• IntC-CoP meeting — focused on supporting SoFHe and SoFA Scandinavia with strategies for circle development.

notes::international circle

Sociocracy in Schools conference

January 15 via Zoom — registration still open!

We’re excited to announce registration is open for the first Sociocracy in Schools Conference: Empowering Youth in Education! Join us on January 15, 2022, to hear from alumni, school leaders, consultants, and advocates sharing real-life examples of sociocracy in schools and with youth of all ages. Visit the conference page to see the line-up and register.

If you would like to volunteer at the conference, please take a moment to complete the volunteer application form.

Latest blog posts

Policy and Operations by Ted Rau — 12/21

Summary: Collaborative decision-making can be fast and efficient if we have clear guidelines what decisions are made by groups, and what decisions can simply made by a designated person in a role.

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Gerard Endenburg: founder of Sociocratic Circle Method and pioneer of self-management by Hope Wilder — 12/13

Where did sociocracy begin? The term was first coined in 1851 by French philosopher Auguste Comte to mean “the rule of the associates.” Kees Boeke, a Quaker school founder in the Netherlands, wrote about sociocracy, “Democracy as it might be,” in a booklet in 1945 after applying the principles of sociocracy in his school. However, one of Boeke’s students, Gerard Endenburg (1933-) is the founder of the Sociocratic Circle Method, what is largely referred to as sociocracy today. He formalized principles of sociocracy to be widely applicable to all kinds of organizations…

Additional notices from role holders or circles are welcome. Submissions are due on the day when General Circle meets: 
Jan 18 | Feb 1 | Feb 15 — all Tuesdays. 

Your feedback about SoMBu is welcome, too!

Email: [email protected]