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ICAI online regional gatherings facilitate peer to peer support and collaboration

This article was reprinted in ICA:UK Network News, issue 49 and ICAI Winds and Waves, issue 3.

fuller world mapICA International is the international body for the global network of the Institute of Cultural Affairs, with member organisations and related organisations and groups in over 40 countries worldwide.  Increasingly online gatherings are playing a key role in facilitating peer to peer support and collaboration among ICAs and ICA colleagues, within and across regions.  ICAI convenes online regional gatherings three times per year, for three regional time zone groups – Asia/Pacific, the Americas, and Europe/MENA/Africa.

These regional gatherings are open to all ICA members, staff and volunteers worldwide, and people are welcome to attend another region’s gathering if they cannot attend their own.  The first gatherings of 2013 were held March 25 & 26, and attracted 25 people from 17 countries.

The aims of the gatherings are to connect ICAs and ICA colleagues with each other, and help to build & strengthen relationships between them; to share information and facilitate peer-to-peer support and collaboration among ICAs and ICA colleagues; and to hold ICAI accountable to its members, and seek input & support to strengthen our global network and advance our global mission.

The agenda this time included introductions, activity reports with questions and discussion, a brief review of the new 2013-14 ICAI business plan and a preview of draft plans for a global ICA network survey, and a closing reflection.

Topics of discussion emerging from the reports shared this time included:

  • New groups emerging in France and Colombia, and ICAs re-emerging in Guatemala, Croatia and Brazil
  • Peer to peer support & collaboration between UK & Spain, Taiwan & France, Japan & India, Tanzania & Canada, Cote D’Ivoire & Japan, Taiwan & China, Chile & Colombia, Guatemala & Chile, UK & Togo, Brazil & Colombia…
  • New projects and achievements in Ukraine, Spain, Kenya, Zimbabwe, USA, Nepal, Peru, Guatemala…
  • The face-to-face annual ICA European interchange held in Paris earlier in March
  • Translation of curriculum and materials into French and Russian
  • The impact of financial constraints on programmes and operating structures , and the challenge of sustaining core funding & sales of services
  • Challenges of defining and communicating identity, mission & strategy, sustaining focus on both local and global priorities and managing skills development & transition of people
  • Developing relations between ICA and IAF
  • Global co-ordination on ToP facilitation and training, as more and more markets overlap
  • A proposed new ICA Americas network for sustainable development
  • Proposals for international ToP facilitation training of training initiatives in Europe and in Latin America
  • Confirmation that  ICAI’s UN consultative status remains valid with ECOSOC, FAO and UNESCO
  • Draft plans and questions for a thorough survey of the global ICA network, to gather & share basic information as a platform for expanding peer to peer support & collaboration

Reflections from those participating in the gatherings included:

  • Very good facilitation
  • Great conversations before and during the call
  • Ran smoothly – a good survey of what others are doing at their ICAs
  • Appreciated quick introductions with what people are currently doing/thinking about
  • Great to connect with you all
  • The ICAI business plan is broad enough ,and yet specific enough to measure what you plan to be doing
  • Great UN status report and actions already moved forward
  • Adobe Connect is excellent
  • Great to hear what is going on, and to think about potential partnerships
  • Great to talk, listen and exchange ideas
  • The technology is great and ever easier to use.  VERY well organized meeting!
  • It would be nice to have more present, especially from other countries – please all invite others to join next time!
  • Maybe a little more next time on brainstorming regional activities- what are clear regional next steps?
  • Need to look at topics across the regions as well as within regions – host meetings on ToP expansion, IToPToT etc.
  • Please all continue to connect with each other between meetings
  • THANK YOU all, good night, hasta luego!

A full transcript of the gatherings has been circulated – please ask if you’d like a copy.

The gatherings also provide a valuable opportunity for us all to develop our expertise in virtual meetings and virtual facilitation, to the benefit of our work with clients and partners as well as with each other.  They are held using Adobe Connect online meeting software, which has been adopted as the platform of choice for many virtual ToP facilitators.  Each meeting is preceded by some time for orientation to the technology for newcomers, and for additional technical support for those that need it.

ICAI is grateful for the technical support volunteered by the US-based Sisters of Virtual Facilitation in developing and hosting these gatherings over recent years.  The online training in virtual ToP facilitation offered by ICA USA (the ‘bootcamp’) is highly recommended for anyone interested in a more thorough grounding in the tools and skills – details are at www.ica-usa.org.

If you weren’t able to join the March gatherings, please do look out for the next in July and try to join us then.  Please also let me or another ICAI Board member know if there is anything that we can do to make these online regional gatherings more valuable and accessible to you.

Café, croissant and facilitation – and balancing the social process in Paris

This article was reprinted in ICA:UK Network News, issue 49 and ICAI Winds and Waves, issue 3.ParisThe annual ICA European Interchange is an informal face-to-face gathering for networking and mutual support, open to everyone with an interest in the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Europe. A total of 14 people from six countries participated in this year’s event, held from March 15-17 2013 in Paris.

The gathering was kindly hosted and led this year by Lan Levy, Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitator of www.coactiv.fr, in her office in central Paris. Lan also kept us well fuelled with café, croissant and pain au chocolat! Also from Paris were Lorraine Margherita, Pascal Dubois and Marc Enguix, recent graduates of Lan’s ToP training courses and members of her local facilitation community of practice. From Luxembourg was Elisabeth Wille, long-time Associate of ICA Belgium. From ICA Spain were Catalina Quiroz and Iman Moutaouakil. From ICA:UK were Alan, Shelley and Oliver Heckman, plus Derek McAuley and me (mostly this time from ICA International). Joining us briefly by Skype were John Miesen of ICA Australia and Linda Starodub in Austria.

We shared introductions, and reports on our last interchange in Vienna, and on the ICAI global conference and meetings in Nepal last October. In sharing reports on our ICAs and our own activities we noted many instances of beneficial past collaboration and mutual support, arising from previous interchanges and otherwise.  Among these were two joint EU-funded 5-day courses of ICA:UK and ICA Spain in the past year. After attending last year’s interchange and one of these courses, former ICA Croatia director Zlata Pavic has now begun work to re-activate ICA Croatia. Michael Pannwitz & Mia Konstantinidou of ICA Germany had facilitated strategic planning with ICA Netherlands, who have ToP courses now coming up in April.  Larry Philbrook of ICA Taiwan had led ToP courses in Paris with Lan, and will lead an Imaginal Learning course in Paris in June. I reported on my own collaboration with ICA Ukraine and ICA Tajikistan, in preparation for my ToP training at the IAF Russia conference in Moscow in April.

We looked in some depth at ToP training materials used in France and the UK, and how ToP had been applied to religious diversity training by ICA Spain in its EU-funded Belieforama project. We were excited to learn of Elisabeth’s work with EU institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg, and the opportunities she sees emerging there. We looked at the ICA International 2013-14 business plan that I had circulated globally a few days before, and reflected on the state and direction of our global ICA network and the role of Europe in it. We shared our own involvement and experience with IAF, the International Association of Facilitators, and our aspirations for that. We also enjoyed snails, tripe and other classic French dishes at dinner at a delightful local restaurant next to Lan’s apartment! Most of all, we drew from all of these discussions to identify numerous opportunities for further practical collaboration and mutual support.

A key thrust of our plans for future collaboration are to revisit previous plans for a European international ToP training of trainers programme, informed by our now greater experience of successful fundraising from the EU for such work.  We agreed to share and publicise our own and each other’s training schedules and training of trainer opportunities. We agreed to explore ways to engage further with ICA International, and with IAF, and to collaborate to deepen our understanding of ICA and ICA methods beyond ToP – for example by means of an online Courage To Lead study group.  We agreed to use the longstanding ICA Europe yahoogroup as a means of communication and a forum for exchange, so as engage as well with other ICA colleagues in Europe and beyond who were not present in Paris.

Although fewer ICAs were directly represented at this year’s interchange than in recent years, I myself was very excited by how the gathering seems to draw in new and returning people each year – and how each year we hear of more collaboration and support going on, and even greater appetite for more in the future.

A key insight for me in my role as ICAI President came in a side discussion with one of our new Paris colleagues, who seemed quite intrigued by what they learned of ICA.  I had briefly explained our historic global mission, and our name the Institute of Cultural Affairs, in relation to ICA’s Social Process Triangles model – as seeking to bring balance to the social process by strengthening the cultural, meaning-giving dynamic in society.  We had earlier been reflecting that perhaps too much of our attention, together in Paris and more broadly, was at the level of the business of facilitation and facilitation training rather than at the deeper level of mission, values and spirit. It occurred to me that in our own global network we might well conclude that we have allowed our economic dynamic to become dominant, the political to be allied to the economic, and the cultural to be collapsed. In contrast I suspect that in the 1970s and 80s, at the height of ICA’s global reach, we might conclude that the cultural dynamic was dominant and the economic collapsed in relation to it.  In recent years at the global level we have necessarily devoted much of our collective attention to the economic and political dynamics of our international network, and there remains much still to be done to put these on a strong and sustainable footing.  If we are to collaborate and support each other effectively to have impact at the global level, however, it will be the cultural dynamic that mobilises and sustains us in doing so. Details of ICA’s Social Process triangles can be found in ICA Canada’s ‘The Courage To Lead’.

We were all asked to write a few lines of text for Winds & Waves before we closed the meeting.  Reflections included:

  • Good time together, Stronger connection with ICA Europe. Practical actions to take forward. Thank you for coming! – Lan, Paris
  • Saturday I went to Paris and participated in part of the European Interchange. It was really a very inspiring day, lots of interesting project and nice to meet people from UK, Spain and France. Quite a lot is actually happening in France, very interesting! – Elisabeth, Luxembourg
  • First of all, I’m very glad and pleased to be in my first ICA European Interchange. It was really exciting and very interesting, gathering where we could know about each other in a personal and professional level. The most exciting point is that we created a great network in order to collaborate and participate all together.  There were a lot of new ideas and projects that were born in this gathering! I’m looking forward to start co-operation with all ICA members – Iman, ICA Spain
  • As a recent ToP student/trainee, I was invited to join the participants of the ICA European Interchange meeting for the 3rd and last day. I was happy to hear what other chapters of ICA in Europe are up to, and to learn more about the story of the organisation, its mission and values. It was great being part of the conversation about the ways ICAs could co-operate. We came up with practical ideas. I’m looking forward to sharing more ideas and insights with other ICA members throughout Europe – Lorraine, Paris
  • We had fun hanging out, building and sustaining relationships. We learned from and were inspired by each other. We made practical and realistic plans to keep doing things together and supporting each other – Alan, ICA:UK
  • It has been a very inspiring Paris gathering. Key information shared and reviewed for well-informed future decisions on a European and international level. Key questions raised about our mission and values beside the added value of ToP in our network. Great step in having ICAI’s ‘Plan de Trabajo’ in different languages! Very nice having French colleagues joining on Sunday and letting all of us refresh and learn more about ICA and our history – Catalina, ICA Spain
  • It was very interesting to see so much enthusiasm for learning and exchange in Europe for ICA values and ToP methods. Nice to see concrete actions coming out of three days of talking! – Shelley, ICA:UK
  • A very positive and action-oriented ICA Europe gathering in Paris.  Good to meet new people and look to the future – Derek, ICA:UK
  • A great day with wide open minds and ideas to contribute to an enthusiastic human-oriented project! With enthusiastic people and a lot of energy. Big action plan and quite exciting possibilities
  • Meeting nice people. Impressed by the process to handle the implementation part of the meeting. Long way to go…

Many thanks indeed to Lan and everyone for a great event!

Anyone wishing to connect with the ICA European network is invited to email ICAEurope-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

ICA International Board update, March 2013

ICAI Global BuzzThis post was first published in ICAI’s monthly bulletin, the Global Buzz.

The ICAI Board has met three times in January & February. Much of our time has been spent developing our new 2013-14 business plan, in consultation with numerous members and volunteers.  This is now about to be circulated in English, French & Spanish – please ask if you would like a copy, and please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.  In the process of these meetings we we have been establishing our meeting practices, including use of technology and formats of agendas, reports and minutes.

We have been able to use the @ica-international.org domain to establish new ICAI email addresses for all Board members and an email list for the Board.  We have now also established an ICAI email list for the global network of ICAs, with over 100 ICA represenatives in over 40 countries, to facilitate dialogue among and between ICAs.  Having overcome some technical hurdles, we are now in a position to establish lists also for the conference teams wishing to continue their dialogue by email after the Nepal conference.

We have submitted overdue reports in order to maintain and update ICAI’s UN consultative status with ECOSOC, and we have confirmed that ICAI’s consultative status remains valid with FAO and UNESCO as well.

We have agreed with ICA Nepal to make it’s new book Changing Lives Changing Societes available globally on a print-on-demand basis via Amazon and other channels, and will be arranging that soon.  In the meantime copies are available from the USA via Ebay.

We are now making preparations to survey the network over the coming months in order to update basic data on the current status and activities of ICAs worldwide, as a baseline for further supporting peer-to-peer activities within the network.  As we do that we will also be inviting ICAs to pay annual dues for 2013 to renew their membership with ICAI, and to participate in the first online regional gatherings of the year, on March 25-26.

Martin will be attending the ICA European Interchange in Paris, March 15-17, and hosting online sessions for those who would like to connect virtually – if you are interested to do that please contact Martin.

We are also beginning to work with ICA Canada to prepare the annual audit report for 2012.

ICAI Revisited and ‘Growing a New Sense of Leadership’ in Nepal

This post was first published in ICA:UK Network News #48 and it was reprinted in ICAI’s Winds & Waves #3.

Nargarkot viewOver 350 people gathered from Nepal and around 30 countries around the world for the 8th Global Conference on Human Development, and the preceding Youth Conference and pre-conference training courses.  The programme was convened by ICA Nepal on behalf of ICA International, following the pattern of ICAI global conferences every four years since 1984.  Having missed Japan in 2008 it was eight years since my last in Guatemala in 2004, so it was great to be back.

A keynote presentation from long-time ICA colleague Robertson Work set the tone of the conference, with depth spirit and a comprehensiveness that was world wide and history long!  I attended the ‘Growing A New Sense of Leadership’ stream of the conference, along with ICA:UK Associate Kate Organ, and also a pre-conference ICAI Board meeting and a post-conference ICA global gathering – but more on those later.

The other five concurrent conference streams focused on Education, Environment, Peace-Building, Community Development and Resource Mobilisation.  Each stream developed its own learning community for the best part of three days, including site visits, between the opening & closing plenary sessions. There was also an element of virtual participation before and during the conference, but not as great as hoped I think. In our Leadership stream  of about 40 we shared perspectives on leadership and a series of presentations of our practical experience from which discerned signs and signals of ‘a new sense’ of leadership; we used this data as the basis for a workshop to articulate eight dimensions of this new sense of leadership; we tested our new model at our site visits to a forest meditation retreat centre and a rural women’s savings & loans co-operative outside the city in the Kathmandu valley; and we presented our model to the closing plenary along with recommendations and personal commitments to action.

In spite of and perhaps because of the inevitable challenges of working in such a diverse group, we had some great depth conversations and I thought a powerful product – our eight dimensions of New Leadership (beyond attributes, qualities competencies to a ‘way of being’), were:
1.    An outlook of possibility
2.    A capacity for boldness and innovation
3.    Awakening people to their significance
4.    Inciting an inclusive vision for sustainable life
5.    Building uplifting relationships of shared power
6.    Mobilising for deep collaboration
7.    Action aligned with internalised values
8.    Celebrating diverse and widespread leadership

dancing was everywhereMusic, song and dance were ever-present throughout the conference – on stage as cultural performance but also among  the group as an every-day means of expression, when language was not available or just not enough! Every meal seemed to be a gala buffet, coffee breaks were served outdoors in the sunshine, and we had some tantalising glimpses of distant snow-capped peaks from the conference hotel.

I was impressed by the very energetic and professional team of ICA Nepal, by the range and quality of their programme activities as well as their conference organisation, and by how very well embedded they seem to be into national civil society and even national life.  Another keynote presenter was a former President of Nepal, and every hotel and street lamp post in the city seemed to be flying a banner to welcome distinguished guests to the conference.  Several people I spoke with were profoundly moved by their experience of the conference, one describing it as the most important thing they had ever done!

You can find a wealth of material on the conference online, including programme and participants at http://www.conference.ica-nepal.org/, video and audio at http://www.virtual.ica-nepal.org/, hundreds of photos at http://www.facebook.com/ICAConference/ and a record of conference tweets at http://topsy.com/s?order=date&q=%23ICAINepal&window=a.  At least some of the conference streams intend to continue as learning communities of practice, so I’d be glad to put you in touch if you are interested in connecting and getting involved.

The ICAI Board took advantage of the very rare opportunity to meet face-to-face by meeting for a whole day prior to the conference, including both outgoing and new-coming Board members.  Retiring in December are Larry Philbrook of ICA Taiwan (President), Dick Alton of ICA USA, Kevin Balm of ICA Australia and Sabah Khalifa of ICA MENA in Egypt. Continuing are Shankar Jadhav of ICA India, Isabel de la Maza of ICA Chile and Gerald Gomani of ICA Zimbabwe.  Serving from January are Saci Kentish of ICA Canada, Seva Ghandi of ICA USA, Krishna Shretha of ICA Australia, and me.  It was enormously valuable to meet face-to-face, and get up to speed together on the current state of the member ICAs, the wider network, and of ICA International itself, and on some key issues facing us all.  It was also great to spend an evening together as the new Board, to get to know each other, our experience in ICA and ICAI, and our working styles and interests.  I am excited by the depth and range of experience and perspectives that we bring to the team.  We didn’t yet get to the end of who will play what roles exactly on the new Board, but I readily accept my invitation to succeed Larry as President, so I am looking forward to serving in that capacity.

welcome to NagarkotFollowing the conference around 45 people from around 15 countries gathered at Nagarkot, a village resort on the edge of the Kathmandu valley famed for its stupendous mountain views, for a two-day deliberative gathering on ICA and its mission worldwide. We reflected on the conference, shared country reports and met as regions, and raised and addressed around 25 topics in Open Space.  These included ToP global expansion, community development, IAF, ‘meet the new Board’, how to support each other and struggling ICAs, ICAI communications, and many others.

In the last week, since Nepal, four regional gatherings have convened online to hear & share reports on the Nepal conference and gathering, to connect with ICAs and colleagues who were not there, and to begin to prepare for the formal ICAI General Assembly, online on December 17.  Around 20 ICAs have been involved and shared country reports, and full reports of the Nagarkot gathering are also available.  Please let me know if you are interested to receive any of this or find out more.

ICA International and our global network have been through a very difficult few years since my last global conference in 2004 – involving setting up and then winding down a new international Secretariat team in Montreal, and involving ICA:UK and several other ICAs regretfully choosing not to renew their ICAI membership.  It could not be clearer now that all that is behind us, that the dust has settled, and that ICAI and the wider global network are reconnecting and actively re-imagining and recreating what it means to work together globally in advancing human development and enabling people to bring about positive change.  I hope that ICA:UK will seek to renew its statutory membership at the ICAI General Assembly in December, and that other non-member ICAs will do likewise.  It seems to me that the timing could not be better for ICA:UK to reconnect and get involved again at that global level, as it too reconsiders its strategy and structure for the future.  We can all be a great deal stronger and more effective together, so now there is clearly a real appetite for global peer-to-peer support and collaboration within the ICA network I hope that all ICAs and ICA colleagues will support each other and ICAI to make that a global reality.