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Michael's Review of the Final Planning Fellows Session
Below you will find a correspondence that Michael Dimock, Executive Director, sent to the ROC Stewardship Council immediately following the third and final Planning Fellows Session held July 10-12, 2007.

July 13, 2007
Dear Council:
I wanted to give you brief update on the final Planning Fellows Session. I am happy to report that we have succeeded in achieving our primary objectives. My assessment is based on both what the Fellows said and what I witnessed in the final three days.


To begin, I must say that the Fellows proved themselves to be an extraordinary group of people. They were the right people with which to begin.  They kept their end of the bargain.
 
Metaphorically speaking, in May's session we planted seeds of connection and understanding by exchanging information about organizations and sharing personal beliefs. In June, we cultivated the emerging understanding of what defines a sustainable food system and began to train the new growth using a systemic approach and the New Mainstream Report as the trellis. In July, we began to harvest new fruit. The phrase, "from their fruits we shall know them" comes to mind, and to my taste the fruit is very good. There is clear character, structure and balance. It is ripe enough meaning there is sufficient sugar to unleash the fermentation process. Now, in the months ahead, we will begin to make wine. The power and value of the wine is still unclear, but the basis for a good to great vintage is evident.
 
There were a many high points for me in this last session. One was the polling process to prioritize the nearly 50 objectives identified both in the original New Mainstream and by the Fellows over the summer. When we first began the exercise, I was concerned that the Fellows might fall back into their silos out of a fear that ranking certain objectives higher than others would spoil their own chances for receiving funding. Fortunately, the data, defined using five lenses, revealed that the Fellows in fact had prioritized a set of activities that served the whole system very well.  They were collectively able to bridge the gap between serving their own self-interest and serving the wholes system's shared interest.
 
Another highpoint was the funder's fish bowl in which Larry Yee, Sylvia Drew Ivie, Susan Clark and Bruce Hirsh spoke about their perspectives on the role of funders and the approach that ROC would be taking as a grantmaker. You could have heard a pin drop anywhere in that room for the entire 90 minutes they spoke. They did a fantastic job of articulating the heart of our organizational culture. Many Fellows later spoke of their relief and belief based on ROC's transparency on these issues.  I think ROC has a potent opportunity to innovate new models for grant giving and fundraising as we move forward.
 
The final morning, when the Fellows broke into small spontaneously organized groups to discuss how they might work together in the future, a beautiful synergy emerged. They focused on two main topics (how to build the Leadership Network and creating a new metrics tool for measuring sustainability) and had four related groups that were small, but added fundamental elements to the two primary topics. In that moment they proved they could perform as a team with minimal friction and maximum synergy.
 
Finally, I was very pleased in the closing circle when criticism and compliments flowed freely, and with good spirit.  Real evidence that they had each committed to something larger surfaced. I wish you could have been there for the closing commentary because it would have convinced you, as it did me, that we have proved the concept that by convening, as a central role and competency, ROC can help build a very potent force for change. It is simple, we foster, nurture, and tend to a network into which we inject information and tools, opportunities and some funding. If we do this well, something unprecedented and powerful will occur.
 
In detail, here are the results I perceive.  We:
1. connected many leaders  previously unconnected that needed to be linked;
2. broadened the base of leaders who actually comprehend what we intend to do and what we mean by the New Mainstream;
3. created 27 ambassadors for ROC in the field;
4. clarified the Fellows' assessment of priorities;
5. identified important levers of change;
6. clarified how to make the NMS Report more comprehensible;
7. clarified ROC's motives and intentions in convening the Planning Fellows;
8. clarified some misconceptions about ROC's original motives and efforts in creating the New Mainstream;
9. eliminated the notion that ROC is not listening;
10. eliminated the notion that ROC is the primary funding source for the sustainable food movement in California, and that ROC is hording up all the money from the foundations who work in food systems;
11. overcame the skepticism of some key agricultural industry stakeholders; and
12. helped to move 27 leaders into thinking from a food systems perspective.

In closing, ROC's Planning Fellows program got off to a great beginning. This effort helps ROC to make fully manifest what was previously hidden by our arms length connection to the grass roots in the form of the California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment (CRAE) and the Ag Futures Alliances (AFAs). We now have a direct link to a larger set of actors who could be great allies as we seek more coordinated action and resources from the public and private sectors. We also have 27 more sets of hands, hearts, and heads, plus their institutions, to help us build a Leadership Network of 40,000 committed Californians. AND we know, from the myriad possibilities before us, what specifically these individuals and their institutions will sign up to do with us in the period ahead.
 
I must say one last time, the Coordinating Team (Ali Edwards, Daniel Kramer,  Nicole Mason, Joseph McIntyre, Jon Ramer, and Lindsey Roark) performed with true excellence. I have never, ever in my life worked with a better team.
 
Thank you to all of the members of the Council for helping select the right Fellows and, to those who could, for participating in the sessions.  More next week on this topic, when the three Fellows join us in Los Angeles.

Learn more about the planning fellows...
 
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