Mission Statement Workshop 2010

Transcription

1 Mission Statement Workshop 2010 Goals: 1. Create a group mission statement to guide the work and allocations of the Teen Foundation for the year. 2. Explore funding topics and areas of interest through a Jewish lens. 3. Practice being open to new ideas and differing perspectives and coming to consensus based on group voice. Supplies: (10) Posters with boxes for each step in the workshop (blank templates) (1) Poster with columns for the Jewish communities discussion Mission Statement Notes Sheets (in binders) Jewish Values Sheet (in binders) Workshop description in binder (25) Pens Markers (75) Lens post-it notes Masking tape Long string or rope Timer Bell Laptop to take notes Introduction 9:45-9:50 - What has led to this moment? Very exciting to be creating a mission statement for the year! - Before we start, I ask you all to think about the word trust. We are embarking on a process that celebrates both differing voices and decisions made by consensus. This is going to require that we trust each other, trust the process that we will use, and trust that no matter what we choose we will be making a big impact in the world and engaging in the work of Tikkun Olam.

2 What is a Mission Statement (LC)? 9:50-10:00 Be sure they cover the three parts of the mission- What-Who-How WHAT do we want to Fund? 10-11:40 Bring the stories (funding opportunities) into the room: (10:00-10:05) 1. Have board members turn to the Workshop Descriptions page in their binders. Let them know that this page contains all of the workshops from Saturday morning of the Retreat. Each workshop covered one or multiple stories that answer the question of what we could fund. Ask the board members to review the sheet and see if there are any what stories that were covered during the weekend that compel you. Remind the board that we will be dealing with the "who and how at a later point in the workshop (feel free to point to the blank mission statement poster in explaining this). Examples of what from the weekend: hunger, education, climate change/environment, long term disaster relief, teen health issue, health/clean water, food justice. Examples of who from the weekend (that we will cover later): Ethiopian Israelis, local teens, genocide survivors, etc. Get the stories (funding opportunities) with some board interest onto the walls: (10:05-10:10) 1. Ask the board members: what are the most compelling stories on your sheet or that you know about that you would like to spend this year exploring and potentially funding as a Jewish Community Teen Foundation? Have board members call these stories (potential what ) out and have someone fill in one of the large poster templates for each story and put it up on the wall. It is OK if there are stories or what topics on the sheet that are not called out and put up. We only want to explore stories that have some board interest. 2. See if any posters can be combined. It is OK to move on without combining any posters. Educate board about the stories (funding opportunities) through writing hot facts and gallery walk: (10:10-10:30) 1. Instruct board members to: Choose a story that moves them the most and that they would like to educate the board about. Please go stand next to that story s poster. If a poster is not attended to, ask the board: if we are ok moving on without this story? (take it down). (5) 2. Have poster groups work together (at the poster) to write hot facts on their poster. Ask them to: As a group, share and write on the poster some hot facts that summarize the story and will educate the board. Hot facts can include things you learned that shocked you, compelled you, or something others should know that would compel them to focus on this story. (5)

3 3. Ask board members to come back to the table and turn to the Mission Statement Notes Sheet in their binders. Using this sheet they should go to each poster, review the hot facts, and write on your sheet one hot fact from each poster that most surprises you, moves you, or you find most compelling. (5) 4. Quickly have board members share the most compelling fact you learned and wrote down with the rest of the group. After a board member shares, ask the rest of the group to raise your hand if you also found this to be the most compelling fact you saw today. Go through a couple of these quick shares and move on. (5) Use Jewish values as a lens to look at the stories (funding opportunities) on the walls: (10:25-10:45) 1. Tell board members that: We just went over some hot facts to learn about the different stories on the wall AND the lens we want to look at all of these important stories through is a lens we all have in common, the heritage we all share, our Judaism. Look back at the Values sheet from Friday Night. These values guide our choices and behavior and our philanthropic work for the year. We are lucky that we have these values in common to guide our work; otherwise we would be all over the board. 2. Have the board members turn to the Jewish Values Sheet in their binders. Give them a moment to review the Jewish values on the sheet and select the two Jewish values that we want to use to inform, guide, and instruct our philanthropic work for the year. Feel free to talk with the people around you. Write down your top two guiding Jewish values on the lens post it note. After writing their top two guiding Jewish values on the lens post-it note, they should now copy the same two Jewish values onto another lens post-it note. (If you have 5 or more posters on the wall, have them copy the values onto 2 post-its, leaving each board member with 3 lens post-its.) (5 minutes) 3. Instruct the board members to look at the two guiding Jewish values you wrote on your lens post-its and the hot facts you wrote on your note sheet. Keeping your Jewish values in mind, consider how these values apply to the stories up on the walls. Select the two (*3 if you have 5 or more posters on the walls) stories you think we should focus on as a Jewish Community Teen Foundation for the year to come. After giving the board members some time to decide on the stories they would like the group to focus on, have them take your lens post-it notes and place them on the posters of the stories you selected for the Jewish Community Teen Foundation to focus on this year. Each of your post-its should be on a different poster. (5 minutes) 4. Discuss what the concentration of post-its on the posters says about the group voice. Eliminate posters that seem to have little board interest. Remind board members of consensus based decision-making and ask them to hear the group voice. (10 minutes) Have board members make a case to the entire group using Jewish values and hot facts : (10:45-11:20) 1. Board members should look around the room at the posters left up and the lens post-its with Jewish values on them and go to the poster that you find most compelling and has interest from the group for us to focus on this year.(2 minutes) 2. Have each group look at the guiding Jewish values on that poster and find the two that are most prominent. Once you find the two that came up the most, write them both down on the bottom of the poster in the Guiding Values section. (5 minutes)

4 3. Tell the groups that in a moment, you will have the opportunity to make a case for the poster you are standing at to the rest of the board. As a group, think about what you will share with us about why the story on your poster should be the story we focus on for the year. Be sure to include the hot facts, the two guiding Jewish values you wrote at the bottom of the poster, and any modern application of those values that apply to your poster s story.(10 minutes) Groups will have 2-3 minutes to present their case. 4. Poster groups should share their poster and make a case to the rest of the group. All groups not speaking should be sitting back at the board table. (20 minutes; 2-3 minutes/group, depending on number of groups) Discuss the stories (funding opportunities) and select a what for the mission statement: (11:20-11:40) 1. After hearing all of the cases, have an open discussion about what was heard in the make a case and decide as a group and by consensus which story should be the focus of the Jewish Community Teen Foundation in If there is much agreement on two stories, feel free to combine them to create the what of the mission statement. 2. Fill in the mission statement poster with your new what! Back Pocket Tool If the discussion is going in circles or needs to be refocused, you can have the board members stand at the poster representing the story they believe should be the focus for the year so that the group can see visually where everyone is. Take a Break! 11:40-11:55 WHO do we want to Fund? 11:55-12:20 Discuss our responsibility for communities around the world: 1. Let the board members know that now that we have picked our what that we will fund and focus on for the year, we need to pick our who or community we will partner with and include in the mission statement as well. We will start this process by first talking about communities around the world and discussing our responsibility for Jewish communities. 2. Put the template poster up for this activity and fill in the what component before beginning. The poster contains columns for (if the what is poverty): Local Poverty, Poverty in Jewish Communities around the World, Poverty in Developing Nations, and Poverty in Israel. 3. Ask the board members to consider who around the world is likely to help each one of these communities? Be as specific as possible. Fill in each of the columns as a group with board members shouting out answers to list. Possible answers can include: family, friends, local towns, national governments, etc. Be specific when listing who might help these different people in need. (5) 4. Discuss what the different lists say about who is standing in line to help each group? Based on this, as a Jewish Community Teen Foundation who is our top obligation to help? How does our what connect with this responsibility? (10)

5 Discuss the who stories from the weekend and select a who for the mission statement: (10) 1. Discuss possible who stories and decide as a group which who story or stories to include the mission statement. You can focus on one or more multiple types of stories including: location (locally and Israel), situation (at-risk or victims of genocide), and generation (teens or seniors). Let group take this where it makes sense for them. Reminder to the group: at least one full grant must be made to support a Jewish community locally or around the world. 2. Fill in the mission statement poster with your new who! Back Pocket Tool If you feel the group needs a way to see visually where everyone stands on different who priorities like location, situation, or generation, use the attached rope exercise HOW are we going to make a Difference? 12:20-12:40 Use Jewish values as a framework for making an impact: 1. Review the two Jewish values written on the bottom of the group s selected what poster (you may have more than two values if you combined posters) and ask the group how can these two values be used to dictate how we make an impact and the types of programs we are going to fund that address the what and who we now have in our mission statement? Remind them of the program we did on Friday night where they came up with modern interpretation of the Jewish values. Guiding Jewish Value According to the Maimonides 8 Degrees of Tzedakah, the highest level of tzedakah is helping someone to help themselves. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if you saved the entire world. Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a Do not let him slip down until he falls completely, for then it will be difficult to raise him; rather strengthen him as he begins to fall. Midrash Possible Funding Strategy - Programs that help people help themselves through teaching job, agriculture, or other skills or providing resources they can reuse. - Providing loans, credit, or savings matching. - Programs that make a deep impact on a few individuals, but will ripple out to the community. - Early intervention programs. 2. Decide as a group which modern interpretation of the value or values to use and fill in your mission statement poster with your new how! Wordsmith the Mission Statement and Celebrate! 1. Ask the group to wordsmith the mission statement into its final form as a group or in small groups and write the final mission statement on a poster.

6 2. Celebrate all of the hard work and the new mission statement! Do group cheer, high five around room,throw kisses, everyone sign mission. If time, have ambassadors go into parent meeting and announce it with signed poster. Closing Circle and then Evaluations 12:40-1:00 Rope Exercise if needed Okay, so we ve got our big issue and our specific focus. Let s see if there is anything else that can be helpful to us in getting even more specific in terms of our grant strategies. Introduce that each foundation will help a Jewish community in need (one or more). Facilitator to use round of rope activity as will be helpful to the group. (If the group has already decide to focus locally, for example, then that round can be skipped). This section is intended to have the teen board members begin to think about grant making strategies and whether they want to give locally, nationally or internationally. Round 1- (5 minutes) Lay the rope down and on one end place a sign that reads, Caring for immediate needs (food, clothes, shelter, safety) and on the other end place a sign that reads, Working toward long-term solutions (Raising minimum wage, improving education, job training.) Teens are asked to think about this idea from a Jewish Teen Foundation perspective and take a Stand on the continuum that shows where they think the group should focus their grant making. Have teens that are standing on the ends and middle of the continuum share about their stance. As people explain their stand, others are free to change their position in the line. Once representatives from the ends and the middle have spoken and those that wish have changed places, ask, What does this round say about the group s desired grant strategy? Answers are recorded on the Group Findings poster. Round 2- (5 minutes) Helping Jewish people in-need, helping secular/non-jewish people in need. (5 minutes) Round 3-(5 minutes) There is a continuum created with a string on the floor. On one end of the string is a sign that reads- Helping locally and on the other of the string is a sign that reads, Helping internationally. Repeat steps above and record findings.

7 Mission Statement Workshop Poster Template Story Title: Hot Facts: Jewish Lens: Guiding Jewish Values 1. 2.

8 Mission Statement Note Sheet Front The mission statement is a couple of sentences that includes: what you want to help, who you want to help and how you want to help. This statement will guide and direct the work of the Teen Foundation over the year. A clear mission statement focuses the board on one issue or set of issues, allowing the board to make a deep philanthropic impact. Story: Story: Story: Hot fact: Hot fact: Hot fact: Story: Story: Story: Hot fact: Hot fact: Hot fact: The Jewish Community Teen Foundation will fund programs that provide for WHAT through WHO. HOW

9 Mission Statement Note Sheet Back Story: Story: Story: Hot fact: Hot fact: Hot fact: Story: Story: Story: Hot fact: Hot fact: Hot fact: