SoMBu 2023 – Week 5

—

by

Andrew Grant
in ,

Language: Español

Broadcast on February 2, 2023

logo Sofa with name long scaled - - Sociocracy For All

In this broadcast:

  • Opening
  • Announcements
  • New members
  • Circle reports
  • Forums spotlight
  • Member events
  • Training opportunities
  • SoMBu feedback

Hey, fellow sociocrats,

I hope you are well!

All across the organization, including General Circle today, circles have been working on improving SoFA in many different ways. Specifically, a helping circle brought a proposal for how we can make life easier for people in paid roles, and we discussed how to turn around SoFA’s financial situation.

I’d like you all to understand SoFA’s financial situation, so here we go:

In the early years, SoFA was based on a ton of volunteer work and a lot of unpaid work from Jerry and me as founders. Then the basic model grew to be that training and consulting money carries the organization. Yet, most training and consulting that was carrying the organization financially was done by Ted and Jerry.

As SoFA grew and more and more circles needed to be supported, the ratio between income production and internal systems got out of balance more and more, and we’ve reached a point where it’s impossible to carry SoFA based on that. If we want to grow, we need a more sustainable model. The good news is that we have both the financial cushion (for a short while) and, above all, the inner resources to make that happen. Many circles are now in a position where they can generate income. The greatest thing about that is that as we generate income with clients and students, we also bring sociocracy into the world. It’s a double win!

We’ve tried out a few things over the years, and we’ve learned a bunch! It’s time to focus on the things that we know work and make the changes to set SoFA onto a path into the future that works.

This will mean a lot of things. I am guessing — but there is no concrete decision yet — that we will have to cut expenses. It will have to go along with conversations that help us make those cuts where we protect the areas that help us grow and flourish. The most important thing, I think, is that we decide on them together.

I will reduce my work time in SoFA to 80% and focus on income production but also on succession. You might be aware that my term as leader of the General Circle ends in March 2023, and I’ve decided it’s time to give someone else a chance to guide us. While this might be news for some members, it’s not news for Mission Circle, General Circle, and Financial Wellbeing Circle. That said, I’ve come to that decision because I deeply believe that the pattern of relying on the income production of two people can only be broken if I step back more actively.

I am not leaving — most of my hours are in Training Circle, not in General Circle — and I’ll actively support whoever we select as leader and the shift towards a more sustainable organization.

I’m genuinely excited about this development because it’s a huge opportunity to take collective ownership of the future we want to see for SoFA and the world.

Ted handsign

 

Final call

Present at SoFA’s global conference!

save the date may 4 & 5
 

Education Conference — Feb 18

The Sociocracy with Youth and in Education Conference needs volunteers!! Please fill out this form to volunteer to host a Zoom room during the conference on February 18th, 2023.  
 

Help wanted

SoFA website technician (paid, remote)

Role Description: Website Technicians work with the website administrator to perform updates, fix bugs, and otherwise improve the technical performance of the website.

Activities:

  • Support the Website Administrator with website maintenance, development and administration (by assignment)
  • Participate in Website Circle policy meetings
  • Continue to learn and develop own skills with website and online marketing to support SoFA Membership
  • Perform forum updates and assist with multi-lingual issues and other structural changes.
 

New members

  • Heinz Feldmann (Austria) Intentional Communities Circle
  • Jack Hart (Costa Rica) Continuing Education Circle
  • Luis Miranda (US) supporting member
  • Mario Hernandez (Sweden) Swedish Circle
  • María Luisa Salvador (España) SoPra
  • Rebecca MacKenzie (US) supporting member
  • Renee Owen (US) supporting member

willkommen • welcome • välkommen • bienvenidos
 

Circle reports

General Circle

Ted, in his introduction to this issue, captured a big piece of what General Circle discussed at their most recent meeting: we are going to need some radical changes to how we manage our financial situation, which will need to include a vulnerable assessment of what is working and what is not working. The members of this circle also talked about the developing pay for work policy, which also impacts the discussion about our financial situation. The policy generated a lot of conversation, and the members of this circle encourage all SoFA members to review and think carefully about it.

notes::general circle

Membership Circle

A few steps into this department, the members of the Log Keeping Team are planning to host a general technical orientation event in March to help all SoFA members (who think they might benefit) to learn more about how to use our various communication tools. Look for more details on that coming soon.

notes::support services circle

International Circle

The circle members have continued to work on reorganizing the department, as mentioned previously. This includes reviewing work on developing a fiscal circle and possibly a helping role. Members of this department are also working on an empowered learning circle (ELC) in many languages for climate activists!

notes::international circle

Forums spotlight

Some folks, including me, are thinking about how we can connect more effectively, and we are exploring our forum as a strategy for doing that. I’ve been excited to see more operational discussions happening (such as using the work-out-loud pattern). One of those discussions was about using the forum itself, and David Cebrián Tarrasón raised several interesting questions about how we can build a compassionate, equitable, and useful space on the forum. I wonder if you might want to help us keep that conversation going!

—John Clark, forums curator

 

Activists and advocates

New community of practice

The community of practice for activists and advocates offers a platform for collaboration, dialogue, and the exchange of ideas, and is a great way to explore how sociocracy can help us advance our work and create systems that are in alignment with our humanitarian values. Meets monthly on the first Wednesday starting Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

A gathering of activists
 

Member events
 

Training opportunities

Spread the word! Many sessions are free; all are sliding scale.

FEBRUARY

  • 01 — Free introduction: What is sociocracy?
  • 02 — Free class: Building horizontal organizations
  • 13 — Free event: Horizontal accountability
  • 16 — ProPS 9 (SoLT en español)
  • 16 — Full class: Decentralizing decision-making with circles and roles
  • 22 — Free intro: Deciding together
  • 27 — Full class: Performance, leadership, and accountability in horizontal orgs
  • 28 — Facilitation practice – everything at once! (5 weekly sessions)

Many sessions are free; all are sliding scale.

SoMBu logo

SoMBu feedback

We’d love to hear how SoMBu works for you and suggestions for improvement!

Notices from role-holders or circles are welcome. Submissions are due on the day General Circle meets: 2/14, 2/28, 3/14, 3/28…

Contact: [email protected].

Andrew Grant, SoMBu broadcaster
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