NextNow Member Blog

From: —— Jeff Conklin -— CogNexus Institute <CogNexus_Institute@mail.vresp.com>

Dear Bill,

We are about to begin our next Issue Mapping Webinar Series, scheduled to begin on April 14th, 2010. There is a $100 Early Bird Discount that ends April 5th, so we want to remind you to register today!

This Series is focused on the interests of leaders, consultants, facilitators, organizational development professionals and change agents who are involved in highly complex projects and “Wicked” problems. The Series is a 6-session course that will give you experience and skills you can use immediately to change the way you work with issues and their outcomes.

REGISTER LEARN MORE

Stop the Pain of Repetition

“If a person had a memory like the average organization, we would think he was very stupid, or suffering from a neurological disorder.”- Jeff Conklin

Organizations routinely “forget” what they have done in the past and why they have done it. These organizations have an impaired capacity to learn, due to an inability to represent critical aspects of what they know. Issue and Dialogue Mapping help maintain organizational memory and stop the pain of talking about – and making – the same mistakes over and over again. Read more of Jeff Conklin’s paper on Organizational Memory and take the Issue Mapping Webinar Series to change the way your group works!

Sincerely,
Jeff Conklin

From: —— —Jeffrey Chow <Jeffrey.Chow@morganstanleysmithbarney.com>

Collaborate for Africa: UPDATES and Next Meeting, Thursday, April 8th at Santa Clara University

NEXT MEETING, April 8th
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Santa Clara University
Daly Science 201 (on the right side of campus near the church)

For your April 8th meeting, I have decided to expand the topic after talking with some of our members (including/especially foundation members).— Rather than just focusing on foundations, let’s talk about fundraising in 2010 (that is after the Credit Crisis of 2008 and the “Lost Decade”) and money, time and resource saving strategies (I always say, if you can spend less, you don’t have to raise as much).— Hopefully, this will make for a more productive discussion.— We can talk about ideas and ways that we can work together.— If members from foundations are present, I would still like to hear about your grant making process and criteria.— I think that it would be great for others to understand your operating philosophy, especially after learning a great deal by talking with Jennifer Lentfer at the Firelight Foundation.

Categories include (I am making these up to give us areas to explore, please come with additional ideas):

• Events
• Mailings and Social Networks
• Foundations
• Major Donors and Planned Giving
• Corporate Sponsorship
• Government
• Money, time and resource savings

MAY MEETING
Final date will be based on facility availability.— If a facility for May 13th (2nd Thursday) is not available, we will move to May 6th (1st Thursday).

For our May Meeting, we are going to talk about the operating philosophies for running effective programs in Africa.— Almaz Negash recently published an article on the “Knowledge Transfer for Greater Impact” which will serve as the foundation for our discussion (I have asked Almaz to lead the discussion).— Here is the link to her article:

http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/scale/knowledge-transfer/?utm_source=Social+Edge+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4c25525024-Newsletter_Knowledge_Transfer3_16_2010&utm_medium=email

Several people have made similar comments to me over the last few months about working with projects in Africa.— Let’s talk about what we are seeing, the logistical issues (like shipping costs) and what has been effective.— And, for people like me who do not have extensive experience running programs in Africa, how did you develop your operating philosophies.

Please join the Collaborate_for_Africa Yahoo group.
If you go to this link, you should be able to ask to join and I will have to approve your membership.— Please post information that would be of interest to the group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=collaborate_for_africa

And a nice reminder from Natalie Nasseri:
Greetings all,
Just a quick note to let you know that our Yahoo group has the following tools for members to share info and useful contents:

• A folder called Content sharing under files in the home page of the group: If you click on it you will see headings like Fundraising, NGO development, social enterprises and more……. The purpose is to share useful information with other group members such as reports, white papers, case studies and so on
• If you click on database on the home page of the group, you will see a data base called Members Information. Please take a moment to update your info on the database. This way group members can access everyone’s info quickly.

I hope these tools makes it easier to share info and collaborate as we grow.

MEETING FACILITIES
Note that scheduling facilities has continued to be a challenge.— Natalie Nasseri has an option in Los Altos that we will likely explore in the May or June.— Thankfully, Linda Alepin and Bonita Banducci were able to schedule a room again for us at Santa Clara University for our April meeting.

I still hope to host “public” events that you can invite potential donors and supports.— To do this, we need a large, public meeting facility.— Please let me know if you have any ideas.

From: —— —Linda Alepin <lalepin@scu.edu>

The Global Women’s— Leadership Network announces

Global Leaders for Justice Program

July 31 to August 7, 2010

In partnership with the Leavey School of Business and the Santa Clara Law School, GWLN is pleased to announce the Global Leaders for Justice Program.

Global Leaders for Justice (GLJ) is a residential leadership development program that sparks innovation, fosters global citizenship, and expands the capacity and network of social justice leaders.— GLJ promises to provide visionary leaders with training and support to implement a defined project they bring to the program.

Modeled after the Women Leaders For the World program, GLJ will bring together social justice leaders including business, government, non-profit organizations, and academia.— The Global Leaders for Justice program will be composed of leaders who have demonstrated their commitment to social justice.— For example, leaders in human rights, the environment, health care, or other areas of public interest. Participants are carefully selected for their potential to impact their communities from a pool of international nominees.

We welcome your referrals of social justice leaders who are working as lawyers or working to impact the law and public policy.

You can find more information and an application at Global Leaders for Justice

Deadline for applications is April 19, 2010.

We are launching our fundraising campaign to provide scholarships for tuition, room, and board.— Here is a link where you can select Global Women’s Leadership Network in the drop down box.— DONATE.— We appreciate all of your contributions.

For more information, contact Akilah Davis, Global Leaders for Justice Program Manager at akilah4gwln@gmail.com.