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Michael's Review of the First Planning Fellows Session |
Below you will find a correspondence that Michael Dimock, Executive Director, sent to the ROC Stewardship Council immediately following the first Planning Fellows Session.
May 18, 2007
Council Members,
I wanted to give you a very brief, but fresh update on the results of
the first retreat session of the Planning Fellows, which ended
yesterday the 17th of May and began on Tuesday the 15th. We spent 21/2
days at the Center for Land Based Learning, which is 19 minutes west of
Davis on the boundary between Yolo and Solano counties.
It was warm and beautiful the whole time, making for a perfect environment to warm up the minds and bodies of all involved. Council Member, Bruce Hirsch joined us for the first half of the first day's work. He welcomed the Fellows and helped me to properly orient the Fellows and frame their mission as they set out on this journey to build clarity on direction and bonds that will support a deep collaboration across the state. Our goal for the first of these 3 sessions was to begin to build trust, to inform one another of the respective roles and capacities within the food system, and to clarify the relationship with ROC and our role within the system. All three were accomplished.
Every Fellow was given ample time to talk about themselves and their organizations so that we all understand from where each perspective arises. This was the primary activity in terms of total time used in these first three days. It was a very successful grounding and clarified that we have a solid and healthy diversity of views. It also revealed that we must compensate for a slight lack of input from large-scale production. Luckily, the voice is there in at least three people and Joseph and I are working to make sure it keeps arising at important moments. Fellow Chris Hientz, from the Almond Board, is a great asset in this effort as is Holly King of the Great Valley Center. At the end, the Fellows recognized that they actually need additional time to further understand each other’s strategies and perspectives if they seek to build a broad coalition that will lift all boats within the food system.
We did to begin build trust. The meeting got down to some very honest exchanges of views regarding land ownership; race and class relations (and their impact on the food system); ROC's capacities; and our shared lack of understanding of how to actually work together in an effective way. These exchanges grew out of structured “fish bowl” sessions where an inner circle of stake holders have a facilitated conversation while the rest listen sitting in a circle around the fish bowl. Following the fish bowl conversation, the inner and outer circles dialog. Moments of truth also occurred during open discussions in the evening and spontaneous moments during brainstorming sessions. All in all, the level of honesty and rawness revealed that they, as a group, are beginning to get to a meaningful level of trust. Trust building can take several months in an Ag Futures Alliance (AFA) process, where participants only meet for 3 hours per month, so our hope for accelerated honest engagement is being fulfilled.
Finally, we had ample time to dialog around the fact that ROC is not a honey pot, but rather a vehicle for change and that ROC’s success, in large measure, rests on our collective ability to build bonds and collaborate in the effort to both raise money for the fund and attract money to the cause. I could promise nothing, but to be true and strong allies in an effort. These Fellows get that this issue of bringing more resources to the cause is a shared responsibility.
You would have been impressed, inspired and energized by the possibilities that arose in the room. You would have felt gratitude for Joseph McIntyre and Lindsay Roark of Ag Innovations, Jon Ramer of Interra, and, of course, Nicole Mason from ROC, who all did great work. They fully displayed their skills, dedication, and obvious willingness to serve and support learning and growing.
Thus, I am certain we are on the charted course and feel great faith that we will meet our objectives in this effort: 1) clarity on their recommendations for actions that will be most effective in changing the system and 2) what this group will deeply support and actively engage as a strategy for change. Finally, the Fellows are aware of the need and want members of the ROC Stewardship Council to join us in the June and July sessions.
Thanks,
Michael Dimock
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