Report on First 2008 Action Fellows Retreat

October 17, 2008

I want to give you a brief report on the first 2008 Fellows retreat, which began on Tuesday at noon and ended Thursday at noon. In a word, it was fantastic. I believe the good result reflects three things:

1)   The group of Fellows is stellar. They are high quality human beings that have good hearts, heads and hands. They are open, skilled, passionate and compassionate. I knew they were a good group on paper, but some how did not expect such a fantastic level of dialog from the start.
2)   The convening process is showing the fruit of ROC’s increasing experience as a convener. Joseph McIntyre and his colleague Erica Peng of Ag Innovations designed and executed an excellent process. Haney and Lameise provided a perfect set of supporting services from food to technology. Craig McNamara modeled deep integrity and wisdom during an interview session the first night that set the perfect tone. Of course, Craig’s Center for Land Based Learning, combined with absolutely stunning weather, provided the perfect surrounding environment for success.
3)   The current economic, political and environmental context confirms the need for the work we are asking the Fellows to undertake. The entire group knows it is a serious moment demanding the most from us as individuals and organizations.

Here are the initial results as I see them:

1)   The group established the required level of trust to begin honestly speaking and therefore, effectively working together. This became evident at the end of the session during the warp up when an honest statement about a sense of disrespect was called out by a Fellow and real emotion emerged. The group handled it well and confirmed we are into serious issues, with limited fear of honesty inhibiting communication. We have created a powerful container for igniting effective work.
2)   Based on some excellent curriculum provided by Joseph, the Fellows are becoming more aware of the difference between stakeholder and organizational collaborations. They openly talked of the need to improve the ability of their organizations to collaborate.
3)   ROC’s role is clear. The Fellows understand what we are doing and seem eager to work with us to generate intelligent, strategic and scalable projects and to hunt for the funds to empower those projects.
4)   Four workgroups have formed with sufficient clarity on direction to get underway. They seem enthused with the tasks they have been offered and have taken hold of them. The workgroups are: Labor; Health and Good Food Access; Regional Food Systems; and Outreach to Conventional Agriculture. The workgroups are currently engaged in defining what is most needed in each of their respective arenas.
5)   The workgroups have organized meetings via conference call to keep them moving in the period before the next retreat. They have access to online tools via the WiserEarth platform, set up by Haney.

All in all, the first session was a great success and I cannot wait for the second, November 19 and 20, again at the Center for Land Based Learning outside Davis.

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