Hey colleagues!

I hope you are well.

As I am writing this, I am preparing to go on a trip. The first half of the trip is attending an unconference that connects people from interdisciplinary regenerative spaces. I’m primarily going there to network around the climate project we’re doing. SoFA received a $25,000 grant to provide free sociocracy training and coaching for climate activists. If you are connected to organizations that act as multipliers in the climate activism space, please let me know — e.g. regional or national chapters of XR, FFF, Sunrise, 350.org — we hope to make the program work for all of them.

The second part of my trip is vacation! Yay! When I had my recent performance review (notes and recording), one piece of my previous improvement plan was saying: counter the narrative that people have to be always “on.” So, yes, I’ll be off. See you soon!

Upcoming member events

• MON, May 23 @ 18:00 – 19:00 UTC 
  Co-working & IT Support (Spanish & English)
  This is a time to work together on our SoFA work! Just come do your thing and let’s find focus together! Also, there will be an IT Circle support person […]

• TUE, May 24 @ 11:00 – 12:30 EDT 
  Community of Practice: facilitators of sociocratic circles
  A community of practice for people holding the role of facilitator in their organizations. Meets monthly.

• THU, May 26 @ 11:00 – 12:30 EDT 
  Sociocracy Implementation Peer Support (SIPS) Community of Practice
  A community of practice for mutual support for people implementing socicoracy in their organizations. Meets monthly on the fourth Thursday.

• FRI, May 27 @ 11:00 – 12:30 EDT 
  Breaking Cycles Community of Practice
  A community of practice for members of sociocratic organizations that are interested in discussing harm reduction and unlearning & breaking cycles of the dominant oppressive culture within […]

• WED, June 1 @ 11:00 – 12:30 EDT 
  Community of Practice: Schools and Education
  A community of practice for mutual support for school sociocratic practitioners.

• MON, June 13 @ 13:00 – 14:30 EDT 
  @Work Community of Practice
  A mutual support group for people practicing sociocracy at work. This community of practice is a space for people to share experiences or potential situations […]

Circle reports

General Circle

• General Circle welcomes Sanket as the new delegate from International Circle!
• The circle explored the various suggestions from the membership survey findings, and now department circle leaders and delegates will be bringing ideas back to their circles for additional development.
• General Circle had several guests who wanted to learn more about how this circle functions and they got to see objections in operation in a valuable way!  Membership Circle holds the domain for moving forward with a SoFA policy manual, but they need to ensure that they are properly supporting SoFA volunteers in helping to put this policy manual together. Membership Circle will be taking this feedback and moving forward with it!

notes::general circle

Content Circle

• Content Circle has finished their restructuring work!
• This circle is continuing to discuss how to operate as a fiscal circle, and they have selected Ted as their fiscal administrator.

notes::content circle

Ecosystem Circle

• With the restructuring in Content Circle, OMCoP is no longer a part of Ecosystem Circle.
• The restructuring motivated the members to discuss the Theory of Change, and they had a conversation where they worked to understand how the Theory of Change will affect various relationships across departments within SoFA.
• The circle consented to becoming a fiscal circle, and to School Development Circle also being a fiscal circle.

notes::ecosystem circle

Membership Circle

• Membership Circle hasn’t met since SoMBu last went out, but IT Circle set up some infrastructure for better responding to support requests and managing access to our accounts.

notes::membership circle

International Circle

• This circle is looking closely at what it means for them to be a fiscal circle.
• Some volunteers are working with International Circle to translate the glossary into Estonian and Polish.

• As it was Jerry’s 70th birthday, the members of the International Circle celebrated him with the birthday song in various languages!

notes::international circle

We are very excited to announce SoFA’s second annual Sociocracy in Cooperatives international conference. Please join us for an accessible introduction to, and interactive exploration of, the current and future theory and practice of sociocratic governance in cooperatives.

SoFA members receive discounted access to the conference. 

Free and Open Source Circle

What does FOSC do? Find out here!

Did you fill out the survey?

How was the Global Sociocracy Conference?

How’s SoMBu? 

Your feedback is welcome: [email protected].

Additional notices from role holders or circles are welcome. Submissions are due on the day when General Circle meets: May 31 | June 7 | June 21 — all Tuesdays.