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RELAUNCHING THE NATIONAL MEMBER COUNCIL!
From Iimay Ho, Executive Director:
Since April 2020 the National Member Phoenix has been hard at work hearing from members and working with staff and board to develop a proposed new member leadership structure. You can learn more about their journey in this blog post. After much discussion, reflection, and gathering feedback, they’re excited to announce the new structure and process for joining the National Member Council (NMC) 2.0!
But first, some background! Since February of 2020 the RG staff team have been implementing Collab. Developed by Round Sky Solutions, Collab is a cooperative meeting, decision-making, and collaborative project management process that cultivates shared power and decentralized leadership. Collab is being implemented as a whole by various organizations in the cooperative and solidarity economy movement, but many of the parts that make up Collab have been around for quite some time and are used widely, such as Sociocracy/Holacracy, consensus decision-making, and the Business Model Canvas
We decided as a full staff to implement Collab after many years of grappling with questions about structure and decision-making aligning with purpose and values. As a cross-class, multi-racial staff, we are dedicated to aligning our internal staff practices with our anti-oppression and social justice values, and found it increasingly difficult to do so within a more traditional nonprofit hierarchy. After many experiments in more decentralized leadership, like collaborative budgeting, rotating facilitation for staff and team retreats, forming short-term cross-team committees (including committees that members from the NMC 1.0 joined), and more, we decided that we needed more transformative change.
As staff have been moving towards more collaborative leadership, so have our chapters, several of which have implemented Sociocracy. We see a clear desire from staff and members to balance role clarity with shared decision-making.
And so we have embarked on our Collab journey as a staff and board. Some things haven’t changed very much - our love for very long and quirky check-ins, emphasis on accountability and self-reflection, and our culture of teamwork and celebration are very much intact. Some things have changed a lot, namely our staff structure. Teams/scopes and roles are one of the key mechanisms in Collab that allow us to distribute power. Clearly defining a team or a role’s responsibility gives people a clear boundary within which they can make decisions on their own, as long as they are carrying out the purpose for which they were created.
So now we have large teams/scopes like Exec, Operations, Organizing, and Communications, Database, & Digital Engagement. Subscopes of those teams include Basebuilding and Leadership Development, Resource Mobilization, and College Organizing. Members of these scopes and subscopes set their own goals and move forward their work with autonomy, while sending representatives to larger scopes to share information and weigh in on decisions that may impact their scope.
I know not everyone is as nerdy about organizational development as I am, so thank you for reading through this important background information. We’re excited to include member leaders in our new structure! The NMC Implementation Team will share more on the specifics below.
From the NMC Implementation Team:
We did it! By working collaboratively with representatives from the staff and board--and by conducting a massive survey last spring to ensure we were being accountable to what you, our fellow members, want and need to do your best organizing--the National Member Phoenix has gotten approval from the staff and board to create a new National Member Council, which will be integrated into the staff and board’s organizational structure.
This is a big deal! For the first time in RG’s history, members will be sharing power with the staff and board by sending representatives from chapters to work within the national org structure. We chose this path forward because we felt it would best address the areas of growth that were highlighted in the Listening Project Survey (see previous post). Among the opportunities were: (1) Better connecting member-leaders across chapters so we can learn, support, and build together; (2) Continuing the work to take our organizing beyond moving money; (3) Building deeper relationships between members, staff, and board to grow our power as an organization and foster better communication, transparency, accountability, and trust; and (4) To further develop the leadership of our members to take our work to the next level as a whole org, moving together. Importantly, the NMC will also participate in strategic decision-making, starting with the multi-year strategic planning process beginning this summer.
In order to truly have power-with relationships with the staff and board, the NMC will be a full “subscope” or sub-team of the Organizing Team (TOTs) and have reciprocal representation on TOTs (the organizing team made of staff responsible for our regional organizing, campaign work, resource mobilization, and national retreats) the Chapter Organizing / Base Building, Leadership Development team (aka BBLD; collaboration of staff organizers to focus on basebuilding and leadership development throughout all chapters); and the Board--i.e. there will be an NMC rep on each of those bodies and a rep from each on the NMC. This means that member reps will participate in decision-making impacting members on key teams up and down the organization and that the NMC will be working together with reps from the staff and board on member-led areas of our work.
So how do you get your chapter involved? A great first step is to send your chapter leaders to the webinar that the NMC Implementation Team will be running to go over details covered in this blog post, answer any questions, explain how to choose a rep, and share the overall roll-out timeline. The webinar is scheduled for Sunday, February 28th from 4-6pm EST/1-3pm PST. Follow the link here to register. We look forward to seeing you there!
More details and the rest of this blog post available here.
CHECK OUT M4BL'S POWERFUL VIDEO
CELEBRATING BLACK FUTURES MONTH
SAVE THE DATE FOR TRANSFORMING PHILANTHROPY
JUNE 25TH AND 26TH
We’ll be offering a 2-day virtual version of the Transforming Philanthropy conference for young people who are high net wealth and/or who are part of their family foundations.
Registration will open next month!
Learn more about Transforming Philanthropy here.
UPCOMING RG WEBINARS & ONLINE EVENTS!
Relaunching the National Member Council
Sunday, February 28th 4-6pm ET/1-3pm PT
Register here
Join us for a webinar where RG member leaders will share more about the launch of our National Member Council 2.0. The newly re-forming National Member Council aims to help better connect member-leaders across chapters; increase collaboration and shared strategy between RG members and staff; and help clarify avenues for organizational decision-making.
Check out the blog post above for more background. Come hear about the nomination process, criteria, and how you and your chapter can plugin!
This 2 hour call will happen Sunday, February 28th 4-6 pm ET/1-3 pm PT.
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Land Returns and Land Relations Call
Monday February 1st 8pm ET/5pm PT
Register here
Join us for an hour-long call on land returns and land relations. We'll have time to share about ways to support different BIPOC led land projects happening across the US and spend some time in race and class caucuses to discuss our own current and ancestral land connections.
This call is open to all who are interested.
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National Virtual Praxis - starts March 17, 2021!
Apply by March 8th here.
As we face all the crises brought on by COVID-19 we also witness the ways its impact is deeply shaped by our system of racist and classist oppression. Those of us who have stable incomes that provide us with more than we need to live on, or who have inherited welthy from family may be reckoning with our own privilege in new ways or for the first time.
Join us for a 4-week long dive into our personal and collective stories and to escalating our committments to solidarity across class. We call this kind of work at the intersection of theory and action Praxis. The tradition of "praxis" comes from the Global South and has been used throughout turtle island including strongly by Black feminist organizers. Learn more about virtual praxis here.
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RG 101 Orientation
Tuesday, March 23rd 6pm ET/3pm PT - 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT
Register here
Did you recently hear about RG through a friend, a media story or another social justice organization? Do you know people in your network who have class privilege and/or access to wealth? Join us and invite other prospective RGers to our monthly RG 101 orientation!
You will learn about RG's vision and organizing model, share about why you're excited about being part of the community, and start building relationships with RG members and staff. The RG 101 orientation is open for all, both for people in chapter areas and those that are not. This space is geared towards young people (18-35) with access to wealth and/or class privilege, but anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to connecting with you!
RG CHAPTER UPDATES
CHICAGO
Crossroads Fund, a longtime RG Chicago partner, is having their annual celebration from March 17-19 and this year it is virtual and FREE to attend (!) so we wanted to invite RGers from across the country to learn about what’s happening on the ground in Chicago and support this critical work! Crossroads is a public foundation that funds and uplifts radical, grassroots, system-changing organizing in the Chicago area. Their annual event is always full of connection, inspiration, and joy. This year they are honoring 3 amazing groups -- Brave Space Alliance, GoodKids MadCity, and the Chi-Nations Youth Council -- with special guest Amy Goodman of Demcracy Now! and a musical performance by Jamila Woods. Learn more at: crossroadsfund.org/seedsofchange
NYC
RG NYC is up to a lot this Winter! Our Abolition Circle is hosting a movie night with our partner Release Aging People in Prison and we're re-launching our mini-praxis series. Earlier this month we had our third book club event that discussed City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771–1965. On the fundraising front, our Transformative Fundraising Circle is gearing up for another Redistribution Pledge effort.
Many of our circles are going through leadership role elections this month and we continue to be grateful for all the leaders who make our chapter what it is!
OHIO
RG Ohio is up and running! We've been having monthly chapter meetings since October, bringing together a great crew from across the state. We're base-building with the help of a survey (LINK). We're prepping a workshop to get everyone in our chapter set up with a 2021 giving plan. As the year goes on, we're going to be building campaign partnerships and building up our collective resource mobilization work. If you or others in your chapter have family or friends in Ohio, put us in touch or share our survey!
***RG has several local chapters (established and emerging!) across the U.S. and growing! If you are interested in connecting with your local RG chapter or community to support local organizing movements (and the long-term fight for social justice!), please check out the RG intake form.
RG IS HIRING!
 Resource Generation seeks a strategic, bold, and collaborative executive director or co-director team with strong anti-oppression values to lead its multiracial membership community.
Our next Executive Director or Co-Directors will be called upon to guide Resource Generation’s strategic planning process, sustain its financial health, represent the organization on a national level, and support a diverse and talented staff team.
Job description and application instructions here.
If you missed our recent panel on Exploring Zionism and Philanthropy, you can check out the recording here.
Huge thanks again to our panelists and moderator:
- Lara Kiswani from Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC)
- Charles Long from Movement for Black Lives (M4BL)
- Aidan Orly and Tarso Luis Ramos from Political Research Associates (PRA)
- Chung-Wha Hong and Ayman Nijim from Grassroots International
Learn more about RG membership here
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