I hope you’re all doing well. SoFA General Circle is deeply engaged in budget discussions. I find that healthy, and I appreciate all the conversations throughout SoFA. Excited to see what we’ll figure out together!

Do you want to join the upcoming 5-week Facilitation Practice class? It’s the class where we play facilitation scenarios and give each other feedback. SoFA members can use this coupon code — YaySoFA2023! — to join the class for free. If you’ve already done the class and want to repeat it, please let me know, then I’ll modify the scenarios.

Also, do you want a free ticket to the Teal Around the World Conference on March 2–3? I am speaking so I got five free tickets. Let me know if you want one — first come, first serve!

Have a good week!

Join the fun!

Circle reports

General Circle

Ted led the circle in an exercise where the focus is on generating a lot of ideas quickly: in this case, around how we can adjust our spending as an organization. (The theory for this process is that it can lead to better results than trying to restrict participants to their best ideas.)  Check out the notes for the full list: maybe it will prompt you to offer some of your own.

And that’s not all!  The circle also discussed an idea for splitting Ted’s current operational leader role into an inward-focused Chief Operations Officer role and an outward-focused SoFA Spokesperson role. Further, Lea Shani, the leader of International Circle, was selected as GC facilitator for the next six months.

notes::general circle

Content Circle

This department is doing work to evaluate restructuring the Website sub-department.  The circle members also reviewed the Conference recording paywall proposal and the Marketing Domains proposal. There is a lot of work happening throughout the department, including full Academy and SoLT courses, work on several upcoming conferences, and active social media engagement.

notes::content circle

Ecosystem Circle

This circle welcomed Molly Grover as the new delegate from Activists Circle.  The members also discussed, edited, and approved their budget, selected John Clark as their new delegate to General Circle, and started to review their “So you want to be a sector circle” policy.

notes::ecosystem circle

SoFA Support Services Circle

This circle reviewed its approach to the SoMBu broadcaster role.  Andrew Grant is currently the SoMBu broadcaster but is actively seeking to hand off that work to another member. The circle members are also considering how they might participate in a project with Stephanie Nestlerode that would bring more connectivity to our members. They discussed how they can use the existing membership framework to acknowledge people who act as contributing members.

notes::support services circle

International Circle

The members of this circle engaged in a deep review of their department budget and the newly finalized restructuring proposal, including examining all the costs of localization.  Next steps for that process include meeting with other parts of SoFA to clarify how the restructuring and budget will relate to existing SoFA strategies.

Many language communities are continuing to make progress with their work.  An exciting development is that Lea and Thomas met with the organization GEN Ukraine; they already practice sociocracy and they want to move quickly to bring sociocracy to other members of their language community and to provide support to refugees of war.

notes::international circle

Member events

Training opportunities

Spread the word!

• 22 — Free intro: Deciding together
• 27 — Full class: Performance, leadership and accountability in horizontal orgs
• 28 — Facilitation practice – everything at once! (5 weekly sessions)

• 02 — Free introduction: What is sociocracy?
• 08 — Full class: Facilitating Group Decision Making
• 15 — Free intro: Inclusive meetings
• 16 — Free class: Building horizontal organizations
• 29 — Full Class: Patterns and processes for inclusive meetings
• 30 — Full class: Decentralizing decision-making with circles and roles

Many sessions are free; all are sliding scale.

New SoMBu broadcaster

Help wanted

We are looking for a person to take the role of SoMBu broadcaster. The SoFA Member Bulletin (SoMBu) is our bi-weekly internal newsletter with important information for members.

Responsibilities:

• Collect information to draft the newsletter
• Think of creative approaches to the newsletter
• Send this broadcast to all SoFA members and publish it on the SoFA website
• Connect with international circle leaders to localize the bulletin

This is a volunteer role that requires around 4 hours per month and knowledge of HTML. Training will be provided as needed.

You would be part of SoFA’s support services circle that meets once a month, but as SoMBu broadcaster, you will only need to attend the report section of the meeting. (You could also become a full member if you prefer!)

If you are interested, please send an email  [email protected].

About SoMBu

SoMBu is the bi-weekly SoFA member bulletin. Circle leaders and secretaries, let us hear from you! Submissions are due on the day General Circle meets: 2/28, 3/14, 3/28…

How is SoMBu working for you?

Contact: [email protected].

Andrew Grant, SoMBu broadcaster