 This is something to write on, that being the full service organization that has provided the stack of milk pads and pens over here. Please, take care of your own needs and keep what you want. Oh, it's the—oh, it's the— What if I just did that? Alright, so this song comes to you from the genius of E-Swift. Amazing, amazing, amazing person who does global, local and homemade songs. It's useful for this, because we're still waiting for just a couple of folks to arrive and we'll make sure— Bamping. Bamping, this is what Claudia calls vamping. It's around, and we're going to be splitting up into groups anyway, so this will be useful for that. This is the ability, it's where some people talk a lot and don't say a thing, so it's better yet to let them sing. Some people talk a lot and don't say a thing, so it's better yet to let them sing. Some people talk a lot and don't say a thing, so it's better yet to let them sing. Some people talk a lot and don't say a thing, so it's better yet to let them sing. Some people talk a lot and don't say a thing, so it's better yet to let them sing. It's the afternoon of day three of which I am well aware. Thank you for that. So I know that this is probably the most challenging time in the schedule, and it's also sort of our big last push of work together. So I'm going to ask you to stay with me and all of us, and let's see if we can sort of get a good two, two and a half hours of really solid thinking and work about something we all care a lot about. So after this, it's all part. Because then we're good. Thank you. All right, so we are here this afternoon to talk about this co-creating net 2.0, by which we are mostly just acknowledging that in a lot of ways, we're moving into a new phase of an organization, not the least of which certainly is, but it is one piece of the transition that we have been talking about and looking at as Gus talked about on Saturday morning. And so, you know, a big part of that transition, really at the heart of it, that evolution of what net looks like going forward is you all. And Nick's live. You know, and really as we look at this too, how we think about the membership going forward and how we look to all of you to be and what your role is in building and helping to imagine this community, how you're involved in making it even stronger and more alive and more valuable. So that's really sort of at the core of what this is about. You know, when we look at really kind of what brings us all into this room together and to net, you know, we all have this belief in ensemble practice, right? You know, collaborative creation, co-creation, whatever you call it, but that is what binds us. And so as we look forward, we have been asking, how do we take that shared value of ensemble practice that we all believe in and apply that more fully as an organizing principle for net? So that it isn't just about how we make our work, but is central to how we make this community together. And part of that is how you all can be more activated and more fully participating and have more leadership in how that all works. You know, and some of this, I sort of, I looked over at Terry and I said part of that because I feel like in a lot of ways, you know, I think for folks who have been in the room for longer, when I think about that, it feels in some ways like a return to net's roots in some ways. You know, that I mean, when net started out, as many of you know, even better than I do, you know, it was all about volunteer effort and membership and folks stepping forward and up and taking leadership and steering committees and making the work happen out of nothing. And because of all of that work, we got to a point that net was able eight years ago to start building the staff. And I think what has happened over the last eight years, which has been tremendous and wonderful and part of the necessary evolution of the organization is that we've gotten then to build a solid infrastructure and core and support system for this community in a paid staff and in a strong and active work. And so now that we're at that place, I think we're starting to kind of look again at so what does it mean not to circle back to where we started from but really more of a sort of spiral. And you know, I sort of think of, you know, those coils that they don't just kind of do this but they do that and they kind of get bigger as they go out. You know, that it feels like that's the place for that. That it's sort of how are we now in this next phase able to be more than we have been in either of those two by combining them in a way that uses the strong coil of membership but wrapped around a really strong solid steel core that is supporting it, right? And how do those two things function together? You know, I've been thinking a lot about, I mean this transition is a big thing obviously for the organization and for me personally and I've been thinking a lot about what it means for me to try to sort of shift shift my role with the organization. I've been thinking about Bill Rausch, artistic director, founding artistic director of Cornerstone and now artistic director of Portland Shakespeare Festival sort of famously says and has said that he thinks of his role as a leader and as a director that it's his job to be an editor of other people's good ideas. And that really resonates with me and it feels like a lot of what this process should and needs to be about. You know, and I think the piece, as all of you know, the piece of doing work that is about multiple voices is whose voices those are and making sure that you're being really intentional about who's in the room and prioritizing how to get people in the room and that you're listening really well to all of those voices that are there. And so I feel like that is the work that is, I think has begun and has always been part of that but for me very much feels like the work I had. One minute. All right. I've jumped too. Thank you. So, you know, I think that's sort of what we're starting in this room here is starting that conversation with all of you. Starting to talk about some of the core values and impulses that are behind why we're all part of that, why we choose to work this way, why we work with the people we work with so that particularly as the staff and board leadership it needs to keep making choices for the organization to help steering us forward that we make sure that as that evolution is happening that we're doing that with these core pieces in mind. Those three questions, which we'll talk a little more about are what we're going to spend the first part of this afternoon talking about. There's also going to be a piece that Cherine will lead us through where we're going to test out some experiments that we have put in place for ways that we are hoping to be able to start in a sort of action-based research way starting to try this test of engaging you all more as we go forward. So we'll talk more about that as well in the first part. Awesome lease amount, amazing facility trips and you're in front of 20 plus years. I asked if she would help lead us through this session partly so that staff can really be listening and also because she's amazing. So the sections with which we're working, this is a lot of content to squish into now until 5.45 when I run down the hill and dive into the lake. Possibly with these clothes on, we'll see. No, the watch is waterproof. That's how I get out of the lake on time. Okay, our first stick right now. There's more. The indulgence in that I'm going to drive the time fairly hard by the stage manager self who has only ever once been paid to stage manage but it was on Broadway for Carpet Bag Theater so I guess that counts is going to be driving this and giving you time and saying we're going to do this next another time. It will not be enough time. Let's just acknowledge that. I'm going to walk you very, very quickly through the agenda. We're doing the introduction and context. Alicia alluded to the three big questions and we'll roll those out in mere moments and we will break up into six smaller groups in order to have slightly more substantive conversations with that. I will need one volunteer note taker because I think I'm missing what you're already, you already volunteered. We'll catch that up in a second and Cherine will indeed do a presentation on three programmatic experiments that are happening. We're going to break up into small groups. That means the chairs are going to rearrange. When we come back from the small groups, the chairs will rearrange and they will face the front. And then Danielle's going to lead us in a dance break. You can't dance and you need to pee. That will be your moment. If you don't dance and you need to pee, we'll come back after the dance break and we'll get reset in this big old group because the rest of the time we'll stand talking as a large group. We will look at this pathway. Gus, there you are. Gus will set us into a conversation about how we move between this space of being a network and being a community. We'll present it, we'll clarify it a little bit, we'll do a tiny bit of value analysis and we're going to do a reality check and that too will involve some movement and some mapping. We'll look at where your commitment meets Ned's commitment and where we can live in the beautiful purple in between and we'll close it up with a very few reflections at the end and then... For consideration, I'm going to put them on the floor. Awesome, I'll tell them. Great questions. Why collective creation, co-creation, whatever you call it, but why do you choose to work this way? Second question, where do you choose to work with and why? Why the collaborators you choose? Why them and not others? Cross disciplines and cross sectors. Question mark? Third question, why Ned? Why are you here? What do you value about being here? What do you come here looking for? What do you need from this community? What keeps you here? What makes you love it? What would make you love it even more? Need it even more? What would make you leave? What would make you leave? This is some fairly neat and crunchy stuff. She's content queen, I'm process queen. Together we have a whole queen domain. 14, or two or three. So, we assigned two facilitators to work on the why collective creation, collaborative creation, ensemble practice, ensemble process. One of them is Jerry Scott-Monkey. I mean, Scott-Monkey. Working with Shruti right here. Wait, thank you. I hope I didn't spell your name as his note taker. So that's Team Star, Team Spiraling Upwards appropriately. Yes, Cynthia. Part of the, and we're really interested in the across disciplines and across sectors and outside of your ensemble, right? This is the ensemble practice piece. Claudia is going to be one of the facilitators for Team Pyramid and her beloved and dedicated note taker will be the amazing Gus Schulemberg. And under the waves we have M.K. Wegman of Facilitatorics. And notes by Shireen Pazza. Don't get all hung up on this. These will come to you and we're going to number off one to six and you're going to get assigned to approve because we know you're all interested in all of these questions. We just have to be efficient. So sorry. Why are you part of that? Team talk to the hand, led by Christine over here. There's the hand. And with notes to be taken by Marty Pound, do you believe she's not here when we look out in the sky, my home country bitchin' is a good thing. My own country of California. Team Spiral Galaxy on this question will be led by Ashley Sparks sitting next to her brilliant. We'll be playing one of her ancestor's songs later this evening. Alright, so we're going to give you, I'm going to put 15 minutes on the clock but it's probably going to take 20 because we have to rearrange chairs and all that sort of stuff. If you remember a note taken, don't count off. You're a one. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. One. Two. Three. Four. There you go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Three. Four. Five. Six. One. Two. Three. Four. I'm going to put it back there. Five. Six. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. One. Yes, you are. Two. Oh, and you are too. There we go. Okay, Jerry, your group one. Group one is Gavin and Jerry. Cynthia, group two. Group two is Gavin and Cynthia. Group two. Claudia is group three. Please go to Claudia. Bring tears as you need to. And there's four. She's got three here. You're skating. You're on the stage. How are you going to do that? We're going to take two minutes of quiet reflection. And I do mean quiet, even idle, to really capture your thoughts so that we can be very efficient as you share within your groups. No takers will capture things that are said. Facilitators have been charged. Yeah, now you're hearing this. We're lifting up three highlights of the conversation that will be reported back. Please make sure that everyone has a chance to speak. You don't necessarily have to read what you quote. It might be a prompt for an improvised script that comes after that. But the two minutes of individual writing will help firmly to those who don't think with their mouth open. I would be one of those, but not everyone is, right? So we want to give you a chance to think on it. Yes, they're introverts. You're nice. You got it? Alone at home. Here's your two minutes. Write your answers. 30 seconds more. Two, one. Facilitators, it's on you. Have some discussion. Do it? No, no. You want to read all of my whole thing? What do you feel like you're reading? What do you feel like you're reading? Okay, so well, recently joined as just a few months ago, this is what I'm looking at. Networking opportunities, connect with colleagues, opportunities for new collaborators, to be involved in a lot of young people and have disabilities. These are our people. We'll see you. We have a chance to do it. To share practical senses, we're going to have this program for a group of journalists and for collective political action. They all have turned up. They all go with the flow of the world. So much help, and trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me. I appreciate that. Our states get to know your relevant conditions as their best value works. So, to be more of a dot-on I appreciate the generational of your work. Obviously, feel that there's a lot of work to be done. It's isolated. And I think that's a change that we all have in the community. That's right. And so, you can purchase a set of different products and different sources of information. So, that's your focus on how to distribute your documents. As long as it's available to the public, that's what you need to know. So, We're going to participate in a lot of my role as a cashier on the bill. And we're going to change the rules so that we're curious to hear from all of you. And they're all going to want to make that work for them. And also I'm going to say that if we're not just here, we're all going to make that work for them. And I'm going to call on your questions. And I'm just going to cross-storage just to give you just a bit of everything. And I think that I've tried and created two years ago. After you've gone and taken a lot of such questions. And now I've heard a good night's. I'm going to do a short film. And I'm going to do a lot of work. And I'm going to do a lot more. So I just want to say that we're going to be able to communicate with all of the states and all of the countries. And we're going to be able to make that work for people in a better way. So that's going to be my main thing. And also I'm going to help Joy and the people in the community. And I've got to learn from the community. We have professionals here, and I'm here to present you with one of the two main awards, and I've learned a lot from the students that are here today. And she, to give you a presentation, she's here. Jack, I'm here. I'm a member of the member of the deputy which is Hawaiian conference, which I had a great time, so let's go back here. I got a lot of inspiration from that from here and here, but that's enough. I should be exposed to new ideas on collaboration, but I'm sure we also do. What are others doing in ensemble culture in America today? Please say a few words about collaboration. And then audience, would you like to give me a touch? Sure. Let's see, do I bring that back? Okay, if we could say a few words. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Old white people dedicated to the unmetting practice of the after-coach art, where relics die in shores. Time to just go, I guess. I spent an hour dealing with that one, I guess, which was really fun. It was fun to see myself. No, but just, I wouldn't ditto everybody. And just to say to what Joan said, I've been in a sort of, in fact, it's a net group for the last time. A couple of years. To remind myself that none of these questions, these conversations about art and social justice, they're going to exist in a binary. That's not how they live in the world. And that has been doing a really nice job of doing the micro-fest. It's impressive to watch how we go bringing these questions of what is our place here. Is it because I bring a spirit of community, a spirit of the actor's poetic scenario. And I like that about men. I think that ensembles, spoken in a straight way, have a lot to offer, not only out on creative processes, but in ways that keep the world organizing itself. And talking about that feels really exciting. I don't really think you're going to see that in the first place. I'm sure you're going to see it. It's just going to be great. It's going to get better. But I want all of you to trust me. Yeah. I don't think you're going to see that in the first place. I recommend it for the record, because it's not a part of the net, whereas it's not in my world. It's a different situation. I think we actually got here at the same time. But I know that net is a part of the art. I wonder what you think was the first place. Again, I realize it's not only a great reference to the first few years that we were talking about, but a lot of those two years are better represented. And if we add the natural content to be better in the net, so we get to see a different variety of behavior as we work in. And art is an opportunity to play with the world. And that is also about that. So having that story, but is there a connection that's going to be in the future? I'm just going to stay with him here. Hi. I'm going to start with a question. I think that you guys are starting to realize that art is a very important part of the community. So there's a lot of space for communication. And art is a very important part of the community. Yeah. I don't know if you guys are excited. Yeah. Well, I've also got a lot of friends that I would like to talk to. That might not be on the show. I mean, yeah, we have a bunch of other things to do. Yeah. I mean, you're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. You're open. All right, so I guess we'll stay on the same page for a little bit more time. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. Great, you've got us three highlights. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. She's got a little bit of a light. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. I think we're going to have to do a little bit more of that. All right, let's get this show to your group, raise your hands. We'll see you. Got three? All right. Got three? Got three? I know. You got three? Okay. You got three? All right. All right. Good. There you go. Got three? There you go. You got three? Got three? Yeah. Okay. You got three? Yeah. Got three? Got three? Got three? Got three? Yeah. Okay. Got three? Got three? Okay. You got three. Thank you. Very successful. And the department of the audience wants to, um, uh... How did you come up with this? Have you found the answer in the chatroom? Yeah. I think there's just words that I feel like they can see. Yeah, I'm scared. I don't know what it is. Oh, it's great to know. I thought I'd have to tell you everything. Oh, dang. Are you out there? I'm going to grab this box and put it on the stand. Pardon me Alicia, I need to put this box right here. Is this what's going to give us a flip turn stand or something like that? Boondah. Actually, Nick, close to the edge is the best. Okay. Okay. I hear sounds of overachievement. No, he's trying to hear. Okay. Stay where you are! Why are we here and why would we leave? And the three things that we came up with in terms of why we are here Advocacy, that NET is able to go out and do the work for us that we are not able sometimes to do at home because of time and capacity NET is also able to be at the table in places where we may not necessarily be invited or have access to The second thing was we believe that this is where systemic change can happen and we are practicing that as ensembles And then the third piece was we come here for inspiration that kind of makes us jiggly inside and it's that piece of building community that gives us joy and energizes us to go back to our ensembles Three reasons why we would leave is if NET became exclusionary and clickish like only catering to dance ensembles or something else entirely but if there was exclusion If the room becomes more white and diversity becomes not as much a present conversation in NET then people may decide this is not the place for them And those are the two that you know If you feel silenced, if you feel like you've come to this space and been silenced then you may leave You're done I'm done Christine, you have to be a part of NET if you're here or come down as it serves your needs You all don't have to move up to the front I just made Ashley do that because she was back lit and you couldn't see her I'll see you here So why are you part of NET as our group? And once NET is a place of collective local action and engagement NET is a place where people are finding their creative kindred spirits and their building relationships and sharing resources And also NET is a place where artists are not thought of as stupid children but are supported in that way Thank you So our question was why do you work across disciplines and or across sectors and if the premise of art is about communication and about the work getting across ideas and that disciplines are an artificial construct that has been imposed on us that working across disciplinary allows breadth as well as depth in the way the work is approached Second of all that it makes the work more inclusive because the ability to reach, to speak to different perspectives and ideas comes through that not being boxed in by discipline lines or silos of the sector or what the sector And then third is about the relationship of art to community and the problems in the world that artists are tackling The toolkit needs to be bulked up and being available to ideas and tools from other sectors as well as those of different quote-unquote disciplines is important There are two other things I want to say that we did make a distinction I guess I made the distinction between form and discipline that the form that the work takes is a different idea than saying that this is theater, this is music, this is dance this is performance, etc. And then one issue that was brought up is the challenge to working this way is a challenge of identity because the world expects you to be in these boxes and so it's a marketing problem if you will when you are working this way because communicating what you are doing because people respond to what they know and so getting across why you do it is important It brings us to this room Alright, let's go there Alright, well we discovered that arts working across sectors and disciplines actually improves the art and the artists themselves it's professional development it makes us better at what we do and it makes what we do better We also talked about how healthy communities need art and ensemble theater making is actually uniquely designed to help communities solve their problems because of the way it works across disciplines and arts are seen as something that's special that only artists do which is why it's so vital for us to work across sectors because we recognize that the arts are vital in everyone's life and the last thing is that you cannot capture the divine through a single medium humans are divine and therefore a holistic approach to creating this art is necessary An ensemble process it gives you a way to work in community rather than isolation shared ownership it's fun and you get to play Can I take this? Yeah Okay, so reality over hierarchy and sort of the way of working challenges that system of hierarchy in certain ways Effective art and there was a little maybe mini debate that was starting around effective art that is inherently towards social change when everyone resonated with that so that was an ongoing conversation Finding so emphasis on process which can mean finding instead of having to think it up so finding through ensemble process and then also enjoyment and fun We are the brand trust we are the ones for whom we have been waiting The reason that we started here rather than diving into a presentation about programs and then asking you to evaluate them was because the work we do as ensembles and as collaborative creators comes from a place that is deeper than language and when you ask someone the question of why and when you as a practitioner articulate your why you are actually working from your limbic system so you are working deep within your brain and it connects emotionally with one another so our transparency and design for this session was that we want to connect emotionally with the deep reasons why we do this and then move into the practicalities of how that is working to embody this work going forward so we are going to shift to practicalities and here is your process we are going to arrange the chairs so that we can all see the screen and see Shireen My presentation is entitled Animating Collective Action in 3 Places 10 Places at all We have worked with ensemble theaters for the last year has been a part of a cohort of EMC's arts and development agencies and so for the last year we have had a we've been in conversation with other arts development agencies and we have a little bit of funding to do some experiments what's great is that we this is not the why we are doing it this is the way we get to do it and so I've got three experiments and one the first of which has already started and we are going and I'm going to talk to you about that one then I'm going to talk to you about two more the first experiment is I already said three experiments it's on us us heard about it heard about it raise your hand if you've gone on it you match up in three steps you meet up, you pass it on like with this experiment a couple hundred of ensemble cross sector cross discipline conversations happening across the country and this is our way to do it so match up first thing you do is you find somebody you want to talk to or a couple of somebody you want to talk to one of the great things we've made for this program newly on our website is a way for you to do that on the membership so if you just want to reach out to somebody within our membership on our site and send them a message they'll go right to their inbox so we've made that for you to start talking more to each other but also you don't have to stay there if you want to talk to somebody outside of the membership you're free to do that too if you want to talk to the police officer in your neighborhood you are free to do that too so it's also starting with our membership but the whole point is to get to the next circle like what's the next circle how we're expanding the next community so number one we've covered match up then what do you think you do you beat up and when you have a drink and guess what it's on rent so if you go and pursue up to ten dollars for that drink to go and have a conversation yes mr. Belda I think I can drink a coffee or tea it can be cookies and milk it can be all sorts of things it doesn't have to be a beer it's ten dollars each people ten dollars each you just have to fill out a form that you did it with what I'm about to talk about as proof of your social media presence so ask you to do is fill in this blank together create blank together now on to our first example before I get to pass it on with Denise when you say her last name thank you sure Denise was in Los Angeles and we never met face to face but we talked on the phone several times and she said let's meet up for coffee and I said hey I've got a good idea let's go on a net date together and we met for a tea at a coffee shop near my house and it was strangely a rainy day in Los Angeles and we talked about conferences we had attended what our rehearsal rooms looked like we talked about a show she was seeing that night and a show I was seeing that night and she told me somebody that I should meet in the lobby during intermission and we talked about funding and we talked about this defining ensemble practice and what co-creation meant we filled in the blank by saying unplugged moments with little resources the unplugged was a little bit of a pun because her phone ran out of juice and we talked about how important it was to have that face to face connection with one another and the little resources was in regards to funding and issues that we both were dealing with in our own artistic practice as artists who are creating work so I'm going to ask to hold your questions until the end because we only have about 10 more minutes and then we'll throw 5 minutes for the questions in here hang on to your questions one other thing before we go on then Denise went on this is what I'm about to say number 3 is pass it on after your date you get to invite your date to then go on their own that date so they get to get whoever you asked now gets to ask somebody else so then Denise went on a date and there they came up with the create performance installations with paper kimono exploded jewelry together so when you're on your date you're just asked to come up with that and put it on social media Facebook and then we actually have a feed here's another one there's yours right? creating storytelling experiences together here was because they came to do a little showing with us so we actually had a little we all did it together was like 6 we had a lot of people we did it at home which kept it cheap and then our juicer feed actually combines all these things that you can find this on our website on sellotheaters.net backslash it's on us and you can actually scroll over all those things I can't do it for you so we don't have internet in here and it will show you what everybody came up with with their create x together so it's all being compiled there so now we're going to do something really fun we're going to pretend that we just went on a neck date together so we're going to come up I'm going to take three suggestions of what we should fill in the blank with and then with the show of hands we're going to vote on the one that it's going to be and then we're going to take a picture of you all pretending like you're drinking a coffee or something cool? alright raise your hand if you have a suggestion for the fill in the blank yeah create the future together give me another one so Cherine you're halfway through okay we're going to move on to all organizers so please excuse me for having to read my notes we're going to hire three people on the ground these applicants are going to be from our membership in three distinct regions of the country and we are going to try to empower these organizers to leave movement and community building around collaborative practice and co-creation in their communities we will provide a professional development training in Los Angeles in the second half of October and as part of their regional organizing they will have to organize two at least two activities or events in their region and that will supply the budget for that so we'll start with professional development training and then they will go back in their communities and organize their regions with membership and then beyond this is about expanding our circle is it clarification? we're talking about community not region like you don't have to worry about all of the southwest focusing on and I think that that's something that will be in conversation with whoever we hire is what their community is and defining that for them and this is a temporary contract position that will go between November and January 31st and we'll also have those organizers also develop the documentation around what they found out and then we'll synthesize it and report back to the can we hold questions to the end? thank you this is happening now like I am putting the application here's my proof this is a little screenshot of the application that's ready to go public on September 1st the deadline is September 15th to apply and we're telling people on the 25th because this is an experiment we're going to hit the ground running and see what we can just get it going Cherine the activity that they do have to start November 1st but they start October 1st gotcha, thank you oh and I also want to show you this because you should just apply it's three questions basically that's so easy okay this experiment is the 10 city listening tour so Alicia is about to embark on guess what a 10 city listening tour once or twice in every region around the country where our members are clustered in 10 locations this is to this is really the core of it these listening tours are actually like mini gatherings to extend each of the work that's happening here out there in the world so a lot of this presentation parts presentation, what you guys are actually discussing right now here today will be made into this listening tour that Alicia is going to go out and do and get information about what's happening in these communities and also we'll do documentation that will then synthesize in figuring out how these communities are the same how are they different and how can we better serve different region, community whatever wherever we decide to go we have about five picked up we know for sure we are starting in the Bay Area San Francisco region in September, oh my gosh September is like days away so we're still in talks about at least five more that are still fuzzy maybe more than that this is where you guys can really reach out to us and say, you know, reach out to me I will be organizing this tour for Alicia reach out to me and say hey, I'm interested in that we can start a conversation and see if we can make it possible the one of the things we're really trying to do is you have to be confident you can get at least 20 to 30 people in a room because it's really as a host in one of these places you've got to do the work on the ground you've got the people there and so we want to really make these rich deep conversations that really get a very diverse feel of what's happening in these communities and so it'll really be put on you to make sure the invitation is getting to all the places that I should have gotten to does that make sense? let me check my notes to see if I missed anything okay, great so we're going to see you around lots of things it's really to extend the reach and to be in more conversation and the first thing I just cannot wait to see all of that social media blast I'll upload a lot of your questions that day questions so here's how we're going to do the questions we're going to take all the questions and we're not going to answer them and then we're going to answer them are you down with that? so question, question, question, question get them up here I bet there'll be some similarities so Emily you find community or regions yes, here, Nick I got that one, let's go for the next one two questions about net data if we've done it once, can we do it again? how frequently can we do it? and two, if they're not in that organization, can we still pass it on? and how would they get it left? Jerry Stravninger a question about taking into consideration the rural and inviting groups into the gatherings and the ten cities ten cities, great ten cities or places yeah let's go to Cynthia for the regional organizers are you specifically interested in particular regions maybe one's underrepresented or one's for many members or clustered how much does this gig pay? for the regional organizers? so here are two questions so read org mula, question mark get in there and Nick's got the other ones I'm reading again Heather what if we really hate all forms of social media and are trying to leave social media our lives hmm I thought you were gonna do that the room do they need to be net members or do you just want what theater people, who do you want in the room? we're the 2013 great got it do what? the regional organizers? yeah I think we can answer that, no no can you explain some of the details when you said providing development training in grassroots organizing? just elaborate on that a little bit perhaps I got some questions we've got on all three of these fabulous things date there you are we're trying to reach into more diverse communities and we don't have oh, diverse connection help okay bonus, last call yes ma'am if we don't know who we want to have a date with but have an idea of what we want to learn can we ask you for suggestions date referral I got a few ideas right here closing down question time and I was really working it we are so good any of these yes or no, Alicia or yes please thank you yes, $1200 how many hours or 10 hours a month I think that's part of the thinking we're doing right now about where we can go with the next five and why we want input from you so I'm just going to refer to talk to us about it your concern and what your dream about it is and we'll get to that Skype drink dating referrals, absolutely me and Park are spearheading inside us and we'd love to talk to you and put you in contact with people 2030 who doesn't have to be net members definitely about expanding the circle whoever you feel passionate about or even challenged by getting into the room let's bring anybody let's get them in the room they don't have to be theaters either anyone you feel like an ensemble conversation would be interesting collaborative process what if you hate social media take somebody on a date who likes social media so you can keep it out of your life so partner or delegate if you're not a net organization how can you pass it on if you're the person you're passing on to how do they pass it on you can still pass it on they don't need to there's nothing that stops them from doing it or getting reimbursed for it on the website we've got some language on there too that'll help you that you can put in an email that has a link there's much more than those three steps when you do the pass it on thing there's a big thing that says get reimbursed and it takes you to a place where you can do a paint pal or send it to you by chat diversity connections absolutely as much as we can and if we don't know we'll ask somebody else we got people our people got people I would like to respectfully defer explaining the details of the development training grassroots organizing to later because that's a really deep conversation that we can't have in the remaining 75 seconds do you want to try to do a quick definition on how we define a community or region you know what I'm going to say that I think there's still work that I need to do and I'm just going to say that cool and for regional organizers are interested in particular areas demographics etc Nick we're with that question so I didn't listen to it could I get that one? that was my question are there particular regions that you are wanting to hit because different organizations there's a big I think that will be kind of the pool of applicants if it seems like however we can best serve is will be part of how we'll pick how many is there a limit to number of net dates like at least 6 months or limit that I mean we don't officially have a limit no Emily's got a question we're going to take it to Alicia and then we're going to have a little dance break and reset and then come into the second half of the scramble Emily yes I think it also is much like the listing is an extension of how we can get more people into the room of the conversation around co-creation and our values of that and how can we extend those values into the community and how do we extend our communities lastly I just want to say these things are meant to work as a suite of things together and so it's all intentionally put into like this right so that'll be beautiful can I just also just add on to that and it's also the how we think about distributed leadership about readying more people in how do we ourselves as an organization actually model or replicate or follow the thing that we espouse and then we try to support so it's trying to take it in that direction so we're going to give it to Alicia to have it's all part of the same thing well Mark said and Emily's question and Cynthia's question and Schell's question and what Shreem was saying I love that and these experiments are about experimenting with ways to give you guys ways to get more engaged in being active leaders in doing stuff and helping with this building of the community and the intention with all of these all three of them is as much about engaging current members who may be less involved as it is also about reaching outside who we have already in the room so here's the deal on our dance break we're going to use it to reset the room please leave me a gap in front of the fireplace because that's going to become our sort of focus place that we're not going to use the projector anymore put the chairs back into the circle and yeah Shreem we're going to go for the same sort of thing we're saving this just for clarity we're not going to get too too deep and then we're going to do some reality checking on it you're looking where you're going to five minutes and I'm timing myself because I fear the whip of that facility but I do think I want to wait some of my five minutes just getting a round of applause to Shreem for that because we witnessed some of her artistry today and then we got to see her as the leader in this field talking about this change that we're going to make and that is really all I'm doing in this five minutes just talking about something that you just saw so maybe I'll be able to do it in less than five minutes but there are a few things that I want to say as a representative of the board this direction that we just learned three programmatic elements three experiments that we're going to try came out of a long planning process but that planning process sees there were more than one we're informed by what happened with us together during the microfests a lot of that work was what prompted this discovery that ensemble practice had value beyond the act of creation within the ensembles that had communal value beyond theater that it needed to be cross discipline and it needed to be cross sector and that's why you've begun to hear this language about collaborative creation it's not that we don't value ensemble practice or still use that language but we're also talking about collaborative creation because we see it happening in all these other places and part of the faith of that I just have to say personally has been born out for me and I hope it's okay that I shout them out I wanted to find them but I didn't I was lucky enough to bring two community partners here Sarah and Ravi and I think they had their favorite and if you had an interaction with them and saw how awesome they are and how quickly they got it and like maybe a little ahead of us too in some ways speaks to the power of bringing folks who don't necessarily identify as theater artists into the room to talk about collaborative creation though I will say that Sarah did turn to me moments ago and say I'm really really worried I think I'm falling in love with theater beware that's real that's happening you're going to be worried but the second piece that I want to say is that in a lot of senses this has been going on a lot longer than the microfests this idea of is net something that provides services or is it a community of people who are all leaders it is yes and and it has been for a long time I have learned so much from people who have been doing this work for a long time I have learned that net existed a lot longer than 20 years we just didn't call it net until until that moment right I have learned how much work from how many people went in to make the microfests the transformative experience that they were for me so I think that what we are saying right here in this move from yes and yes an organization that provides services and yes a community of leaders where everyone has agency to step up and lead net is we are just acknowledging a truth that has existed a long time and by acknowledging it and by living up to that intentionally strengthening all of our work that is the proposition that we are making here today it is a long path that we have got taken to get here and part of the listening that we have been doing of those three questions is helping us to see is that affirmed right is that something that people feel but the next part of it that we are going to move into is that it is wonderful to say that we are all leaders of this community of net but then we all go back to where we do work and we get really really busy right so how can this leadership that we all want to take in net also serve the work that we are doing locally and not be operating in competition with it because if it is in competition with it we are all going to get burnt out and angry and then there will need to be another session next year about cynicism, burnt out so these are the conversations that we are going to have right now and I actually finished almost a minute earlier genius we are going to work through we call for questions for clarity not questions that are statements where you are trying to work out your understanding of this notion of shared leadership distributed ownership that sense of we are creating that together but just your questions are like well what about X will you pay for two dates can I start so just looking into if there are some practical questions that this notion of collective organizing brings up for you let's just grab those real quickly and see if there are some short answers to them then then we are really going to look at the value proposition and that is going to involve a little more of that individual writing to think about what of this has value for you and being able to test that and then we are going to reality check it and see if you think you can and if you have so question for clarity and we are going to do it the same way where I am just snatching the questions out of there and we are slapping them up on the board and once we aggregate them we will be able to answer if we are not regional organizer, board staff, whatever what are some practical ways that we can contribute to success with that excellent how to control practical she says my favorite excellent Mr. Cooper is there a way to if we have an idea for an experiment in the spirit of what Cherine shared is there a way to propose this is there any funding for funding that might be much smaller than a regional organizer but that kind of idea so how to propose ideas that are related but might be alternative excellent I love the how to's Cherie in this distributive structure what is the new role of the board as an executive director oh one two Robbie fabulous partner from in light of Jerry's question what is your responsibility what is your responsibility accept responsibility accept responsibility for that as your board chair is there someone drowning or waiting wow okay we can answer these questions okay Laura I don't know if it's too big what is the process of shooting another year is there a way to print the organization is going to enjoy that sort of whole year great yep that was actually what we can answer quickly cool and then somebody was pointing over here and making the drone are we trying to regroup new members members yes yes um as a access to seeing financials at any point okay beautiful how can we create a central place to communicate and share what each other is doing as resources to help us I believe that is called ensembletheaters.net am I wrong? it's there and the Facebook page central resource is the website and I'm capturing that question because we love all the questions fabulous how are they going to be more micro fist that's a quick one you can answer I don't know as quick as you might we take partials last call last call thank you are we trying to recruit international companies to join us the question came up over here in one of the sessions as well we have focused our efforts within North America up to this point only because we were starting from somewhere I think that's an open question I don't think we'll turn them away and we have had a smattering over the years I think there has not been enough of them that they felt well served or connected enough okay so anything on here that's real easy to answer boss yeah how are we choosing I don't know what to turn to boss we want to acknowledge our co-chair or our McCants yeah you're going to be able to rate him the role of the board and the executive director continues to be the role of governance as the board and the overall fiduciary responsibility for the non-profit organization as some of you may know and I may have been made explicit before I arrived here Alicia is the incoming executive director for net if you don't have his bank how do you contribute we will start are we looking to recruit new net members yes I think there are always ways in your community that you can reach out to folks either as new members or to share if there are other folks in your community who are also ensembles that you have relationships with if there's any sort of public programming that you want to do that highlights that shared interest and way of working I think sometimes when companies have done that we've found that it actually helped them with their audiences or if another ensemble is coming to town being able to sort of do something together to show here's something about the way we work that isn't just us it's a shared practice can I ask a question about that I've heard some interesting talk today about including non-theatrical community partners who are interested in ensemble practice and working as an ensemble would they be eligible for net membership so as of now we have a pretty broad description of ensemble on our website we have always sort of felt it's a self identification process if you feel like this community is one that resonates with you we want you here aren't there other categories of membership fellowship? why yes Sabrina who served as a membership associate for net for wonderful while there's ensemble there's also affiliate organization memberships which if someone doesn't quite know if they're an ensemble but they really believe in this and they want to be part of this community that's a place organizations can join there's also the individual student memberships if they're not affiliated what about the people who don't know yet that they love theater individual memberships why do them don't but I would say that part of the hope I think of the regional organizing and the listening tours that there will be people in the room that don't necessarily know how aligned they might be with ensemble practice and that in an equitable way there can be an exchange of enough value that they would think about becoming a part of great yeah okay good so who accepts responsibility and where does the buck stop hey look I got a board chair sitting right here and I got a board chair right there I got some more staff right over here and you got a board member here actually get all the net board members that you want to find themselves current current net board members so we're part of your accountability structure in the organization pardon it's a great question I mean one of the things that we're going to be doing at the board meeting that immediately follows this is to talk about how the board can better model ensemble practice and we're thinking that way too about the organization as well but there is implicit in a lot of community organizing models this very question where does accountability lie where does responsibility lie and there are some approaches in community organizing that really think about how important it is for the folks who are organizing to be able to step up and have full leadership which includes accountability and responsibility but we are at the beginning of that journey so I don't think we know the answers yet good so we connect with that prioritization a pile of ideas show up on the table who makes the decisions but what goes forward well well I think it would be it depends on which part you're talking about are you talking about more broadly like the fields relationship to this renewed commitment to a community I'm talking about projects, ideas, things that people want to champion and move forward with from the members you know I really mentioned when I said earlier about you know bless Bill Rauch and editor of other people's good ideas you know I think it's our job to get a lot of everything from all of you and it's the job of the staff and the board were appropriate to turn those into decisions and programming and choices that serve the membership I just think it's important for the membership to understand that yes isn't the only possible answer waiting a year could be an answer that might not be a good idea might be an answer and so it just because we're all adults we have to know that and to lift up that I think too that part of the reason that we shared these programs before we talked about this bigger picture was that these are the ways in which we're hoping we can have this conversation right now yes you know that it doesn't stop here the work is going to continue and there are going to be hard conversations and choices that need to be made after that but the beauty about these three is that they're all yes projects they're all projects that initially just say yes don't do this come to these gatherings come eat the executive director go on a date they're yes's and they're short term yes's which are designed yes to be what they are but more importantly to teach us things so that at the end of that short period we've learned a whole bunch of stuff that we can then figure out what may be the bigger or more long term things want to look like so I think that makes directly to Eric's question about how do you propose ideas for projects and new ideas you know I mean at this point give us a call send us an email respond to some of these opportunities that have been out there you know but I think really be in touch with a board member a staff member will there be more MicroFest so the short answer is not on the immediate horizon we are looking at a program that would continue the spirit of that work in ways that would involve some public gathering as well as some smaller sort of professional development work for people at various stages of doing work with communities which is pending funding so you all know what that means so we are hopeful and if it is an initiative that we can roll out we're hoping to do so in as big a way and as soon a way as possible but at this point is on pause and can I see next financials you know I love the question and I am a big numbers girl we have never done that other than the non-profit on you know that everybody can look at but I think it would be great and I would love to do that so yeah let's do it cool we've actually answered all the questions that were here I am sure there are more questions I'm sorry leadership transparency of the process of the incoming leadership yeah yes what's the process for the incoming leadership yes and how do we know about it how does the greater membership are in here in California so are you asking about an additional co-leadership position as a part of this transition we are in the process of talking about the transition and it is a deep conversation in part because it is more than just replacing Mark because obviously Mark is replacing but it is also happening at this time where we are thinking very differently about the structure of it about wanting it to model even more deliberately and intentionally and ensemble structure so what does that mean for Park and Cherie what does that mean for the board what does that mean for this new person who is becoming in to an organization in more than just one way so we are moving through that process with a lot of conversation the board meeting is going to be talking a lot about that and in terms of transparency that's a really good question I guess I would ask what would you look for I think what I'm interested in is that just as Cherie's presentation is modeling new ways of shared leadership and more voices in the room and like this facilitation process is informing me and I can take that back to my company it's like how is this new leadership role of legacy 2.0 affecting the model of ensemble practice and how can I use that on my company level in my region so I'm really looking for that's what's useful to me is the model and how how that can affect my personal company going forward I know that you are in the middle of it maybe there's some way that that can be of use to us that's a beautiful that's a beautiful that's a beautiful wasn't there a post on how around the market shared around to the board of their co-adership experience at our center at our center so they talk about this sort of complexity and that we need different leaders and it's been a post and now I'm just floating what if we did something like that well I think that we've been talking about how if we're doing it right that the model of that internal staffing structure can be an example for not just the field but for broader cultures however we also know there's a lot of wisdom in this room about how ensemble structure works so it's not we got it and we're going to show you but I think it will hopefully be collaborative thank you last comment might I encourage us to while we're working things out for ourselves also respect and honor the fallow periods where we need to be internal and be very aware that the things we communicate to the field right now this is really essential to the future of this organization because the question ripples so deeply and so I think when I heard your question first of all is that I'm very confused internally right as to what's going on and I'm glad to hear that it's okay working it out but we also have to play and be very strategic about what we're saying to the world and so I hope we're thinking about that because there's a lot of people chattering you know and this organization is in good hands obviously here so I just think we should strategize how we play that out I'm going to piggyback on what you were saying which is there's the question which is how do we as ensemble members understand the process of what's going on and what I thought was asked initially which is how do we as ensemble members understand where we are in this particular process i.e. are there are we defined a role are we looking for people with a timeline those questions then there's next question which says we're all talking about it in various ways how do we roll that out to the next layer of people or how do we not roll that out to the next layer so it's sort of we hear the questions around the same issues well I think and other folks feel free to jump in I think that part of what we were hoping would happen in this space is this conversation that you're exactly right from a transparency perspective and a strategic perspective it made sense to talk about this new direction that is going which includes staff transition but it's not limited to with y'all to get this feedback to have this conversation and make sure that the ground that we thought we were standing on is actually the ground that we're all standing and not just the folks who have been a part of this conversation so I think that's really key in terms of a specific answer I think that oh gosh there's a number of pieces that are in play that would affect the nature of the position that we would be bringing along I feel like that's in the spirit of what Nick is suggesting that is probably how comfortable I feel talking about it without having talked with the whole board in this space but all I can say is that the transition process is moving forward in the internal conversations we need to have about what the role is going to look like and until we get that right it makes much sense to be really absolutely searching about it and just to be clear I have a great faith that this process is going forward in a way that's going to absolutely serve the community and serve me that's not really the question it was more about just like the whole transparency but also the balance of the internal workings it makes perfect sense I really appreciate both of these questions and I also feel like from where we all are internally and where it's clear outside of that small group that has been talking about stuff so far I think we are still in the place they've been talking about where we're starting to figure things out and so I think we're living still somewhere in between these two places and closer to that one I think the board retreat that we're having at the end of this meeting is the first time that the board will be together for other than two hour phone calls from around the country since Mark and Asti was leaving so there's, as you can imagine some work that's going to happen in that room together that I think is going to move us probably not all the way to you but closer in that direction but I think some of that confusion and ambivalence just to say sort of is everywhere and that I think is why it's not getting better because it's still not clear or anything again so Matthew and then Mark and then Luke and John, no sorry are the programmatic questions connected to MicroFest and other ones are they also sort of connected to are waiting on this internal sense making or should we expect over the next couple of years some of those programmatic things are just right as you said dependent on funding versus sort of design and intention just because these internal sense making is really important and I appreciate there being a capacity to metabolize that from all of us some of that programmatic those programmatic initiatives such as the MicroFest were so significant and meaningful into this evolution of that so I'm just looking for understanding how those things are evolving connected to this sense making and other things over the next couple of years I feel like there's a lot deeper answer to that question that I could probably give in a lot more time but I feel like the really short version answer that I'll give and you might have some addition or subtraction or something is that there there is nothing on hold programmatically we are moving forward in exactly the direction that we want to move forward in there's a lot of stuff happening there's a symposium happening in Chicago in May that we haven't even talked about here but maybe I'll mention in closing tomorrow so that you guys are here about so there's stuff happening and there's stuff that will continue to happen anything that is on pause right now has nothing to do with internal transition structure anything it's all funding so Mark and then we're going to try to close this up test the value proposition a little bit and look at the reality check on this distributed leadership I would say that's a great transparency of just good conversations now the board and staff and Alicia have been so insanely thoughtful and have been giving this whole thing there's been a process and I feel like one thing but we haven't done just kind of named what that process is there was we got some support from the Doris Duke Foundation to just look at our organization and do some assessment about how do we sustain the organization into the future the reality you all run your own organizations you don't need that space to just look inwardly and look at what's working and it's not working and they gave us a little space of time to do that and then the initiatives that Sherry was talking about so we've been invited to the CMC process that gave us some more space about how we net models that take ourselves to task for how we better reflect the community that we serve and so the information that's gathering is definitely a process I think not a little bit for a variety of reasons sometimes we try to communicate it and it doesn't land sometimes we just don't communicate it and it's all of those things but as we're in a room together just to stress that it's really thoughtful and I think there's a lot of care that's being put into how we move forward so that we do so in reflecting the values reflecting kind of building on the work and seeing how to make sure and certainly about where it goes what's next and nothing excites me more than just net 2.0 which is something that we're just you all are going to imagine and create and may God please make it look completely different than what we have right now because it's broken it's all good so Terry was there again 0.0 I think I've already referred to this question but going forward with the Mark Leading are we in financially decent enough shape to move forward into a co-director or do we have a little leeway aside from what Mark's just talked about are we okay and firmly ready to move into the future we're not going to do that there's nobody better with budgets than you no matter I will love your comments on this this is obviously one of the places that the board is very involved you know we are in a really strong and healthy place financially it's a place that we have fought our way back to frankly over the last couple of years and are on solid ground and have made some really good progress that said the budget that the board so transparent moment the budget that the board passed FY16 which for us started in July has a single leader position for FY16 unless funding that is project related funding comes in that allows us as you all know how this works to shift things around in ways that let us then bring on at least half time question Marcus to more than that someone in this year and just to say I guess really all I would add is that y'all know how amazing that staff is what may not always be visible to you is the extraordinary amount of work they put in to keeping this community running forward working well above and beyond what could really be expected of them and so a big part of our work as a board has been to try to absorb that reality and honor that work and make sure that the business model of net that moves forward is one that can sustainably honor that work and allow me to do that. I think that we want to pose for just a quick anybody who wants to answer discussion and I'm going to take out the writing part of it, sorry to traverse you're no longer privileged. It's just because I'm being very time focused to get us through in a year 545 shortly. What of this structure that we're talking about, what of this way of working that we're talking about has value for you the more I think you've already identified some of that in asking the questions and looking for transparency. But as we think about this notion of distributed leadership within the membership across the country as we think about the practical programs that share in the outline what has value? What would you like to help us with this question? I'm not sure if this is that, but what's sticking out to me is what we're going through as net is exactly mirroring what hard lead is going through as a company. And that's really affirming I think actually. Not that you have am I, but it just feels good. Maybe you have something to do too. Cool, so you're seeing yourself in your own struggles mirrored larger and maybe there's a way through struggles and possibilities. What else? I think that the distributed leadership at least in my mind allows for us to go out as advocates of this group in a more effective way than just like oh yeah I joined this club, but really being like no I can do something and then I can talk to other people in not an authoritative way, but in a way that feels significant. I actually have a way of connecting people because I'm part of that distributed leadership. Excellent, thank you Kyle. It's totally okay for either of the two of you to respond to this. I want to thank you for feeling like that's something you would want to do. But then also it's really incumbent upon us who are in the accountability position at least right now to honor that. And so I just want to say that out loud that if you step up and if you are leaving that net needs to honor that we need to call that out you know so like for example just to say thinking about we've been talking a lot about microfests and their impact right you know and so like it's important that we're talking about the impact of microfests to talk about the amazing work that Ashley Sparks did. She's the kind of leader who creates space for other people to be visible right and that's the especially the kind of leader that needs to get shouted out in a really big way. So I just want to say that as an organization you know and as a community for net to move forward we just want to always be sure we're honoring that spirit that you just voiced here. Yes and very quick to help us do that let us know when you're doing things it's not bragging it's helpful for us to know because we can share it with other people for a good example of something they might be able to do but wouldn't have thought of and if there are ways that we can support you in doing that there's something you want to do but you're like but I need to know this and I don't feel like I understand let us know that too so because if you're feeling it probably other people are also and then we can think about how we can create resources to support you taking that out into the world so. And I'm just going to insert myself in this for one moment it is as if you were speaking my thoughts my fear for net having been the consultant who did the first big organizing meeting where we wrote the mission statement and the definition of all that is that net would somehow devolve into being a club right and a little collective ensemble of people who all spoke the same ensemble language and what gives me hope about this and what has value to me is that we are looking so much broader than that that it's not a club it is a community of people who are changing the world we're in it for the future Pam, thanks Same topic and I think maybe it's going to be from the board's perspective a little bit of the board felt to me a great opportunity to be able to be a voice of net in the world and I think that we were given good tools to do so when I think about more distributed leadership in the country I think it's very important for you to tell us what you're looking at but I think it's really important for net staff and board to try and articulate some as clear a set of expectations as possible and then also I think some joint feedback mechanisms or something in which not only are you when you've got a great idea and you're about to do it telling Alicia about it but it's actually communication among all the different regional leaders that whole tier of leadership and learn from each other and that's actually sort of the perfect segue of what does it take to do this and where have you had experiences of seeing this work so that's this this sort of distributed leadership this sort of larger membership involvement this sense of I am net and I'm going to invite you on a date to see how fabulous net management I thought or whatever so what does it take to work so maybe three and a half years ago or so we maybe five of us companies who are happen to be also net members created a consortium so a regional outpost of the net essentially and as a way to create a community meet about once a month month and a half and figure out what we can do for each other to promote an advocacy of the model we've lost equity out of our city completely like there's a lot of things that have gone down like critics like who can model who can criticize in the press like well what we do stats people, theater people we want to actually cultivate more critics and more of them for example different things anyway so what we're doing right now in brief is definitely we're doing an annual ensemble audition which is co-led by all the different members of the consortium and we're also trying to get up a technical net like a networking event for tech people so we can create a database of other people and also we have a website so those are some ways that we're regionally working and if there's we want to work once to learn more about it for their region please come through we have not heard from you so what is it that you're seeing this working and then Ashley is going to tell you here's the place where I'm seeing it being tried and another group I work with is the United States Department of Arts and Culture not really an actual department but we just created something called the high load database online which is a collection of tool kits for small like high impact load infrastructure projects that contribute like these tool kits are like the little actions you can do in a neighborhood or on a blank wall or something and then that's out there it's the contents coming from the members and then people are replicating those projects and then posting the projects back on the site Ashley Ashley at one point the executive committee was structured as regional reps and so there would be like a trio of three states and that there would be one representative who would then be responsible as a liaison to report back to their three states and all the members in those three states about what was going on that person at times was also meeting what we call rhizome activities of gathering all the local members together so it's a way of just galvanizing energy it's going to say that Roots has used that model and that model got much more effective the stronger the visionary leadership it matched the visionary leadership and then resources real self-roofs in the world my experience has been that when left to just a collective leadership there's no responsibility for it and if there aren't any resources to put into that engine it just can't go as fast as you can do you want to think it was real quick this is one of my hopes that some of the older timers in the room may remember that net tribe regional reps a long time ago so when you saw the regional organizers go up on the board I know that was somewhere in the back of my brain and I think because it was a great idea back when we tried it and it was not wildly successful because it was at a time where there was no central net it was right when Mark started we were just starting to try to build the organization and there wasn't the kind of central support and organization for us that's here now which I think I hope is what's going to make the difference so I'm going to give Julia the last word on this we're going to do a quick reality check we're going to look at the commitment just to affirm I yes when I saw the organizing you were one of them I was part of that failure we worked really really hard for something that's really good we just in Connecticut and we're really struggling to get it off of the people we have Connecticut round table of theaters and so we've had these start tryout monthly meetings haven't totally done it but we had that and some partnerships out of it collaborations that weren't there a year ago so hoping so we're seeing it work alright so here's the big question and it's a map right so we'll be doing a little bit of movement in the past speaking for yourself alone not on behalf of anomalous others what has been your level of commitment to this kind of distributed leadership field building work right not the building of your own organization but the building of national or regional organizations for those of you actually since you and I are both chairs we can put ourselves over here on the a lot of commitment right and by commitment I mean time energy resources sometimes money sometimes just what it takes to live your life over on this end of the room right and this is your historical sense of it has really not been so much trust me I'm not saying this about you this is just the happenstance of your work related to the theater related to the theater and the larger world of the performing arts going to delve too far beyond social justice active basically working outside your job trying to build national and regional fields have you invested a lot of energy in it a little energy and for those of you who are on the it depends if you put yourself in the middle you can make this a map in motion and we have two questions on it you just said outside your job so this is looking at if you're not the staff of one of these organizations how much of your time and energy and resources you've been able to is this just like placing yourself on the roof or just pure just you do you feel like you've done this a lot do you feel like you've done this a little but Mark you're saying compared to the people in this room we did all of this saying I feel like it's not relative to where I want to see it can we offer a separate pod of people who can do it for their job because they're going to be a resource man let us go there when you can because the next question is where are you going with this in the future there you go the hit in this is distributed leadership or responsibility for organizing our field how much you have invested in that wow across the room there are a little bit fewer people on this end of the field at this end of the room but take a look at where where folks are Christine has exempted herself from this question it's not that she's off the charts she chose to opt out on this one and that's a perfectly respectful thing what else do you see what observations did you make on where where you find yourself in this spectrum and where you see other people then are you aware of that sure not to be quickly at all confusion about the questions that's pretty usual in customary I'm comfortable with that are there things that you see about how things are working on it that is irrelevant yeah isn't that interesting anything else that you see are we a map in motion thank you so here's the next value check with grad that we've just done a very brief overview of this granted that we are in an ambiguous phase and the mark of an evolved human being is comfort with ambiguity recognizing that this is still very much an idea in development looking for yourself in the future where do you see your level of energy and time and resources in this organizing work a lot for net now we're talking about specifically for net a lot a little I don't know I've got to go turn around and circle and move can I at least hear that whole what it's going to give and how I'm going to sacrifice the work I know I just have to say that I want to help but I'm scared and that is totally real and thank you for acknowledging the reality of that and what we're looking for is not a desire I know enough to understand what that noise is we're not going to demonstrate permanently where your commitment is this is just a right now we won't be struck down by lightning you totally will not be struck down by lightning if you move from one end of the spectrum to the other this is say what you were saying when people started to move this is not desire which we all have or passion which we all have this is honest to real gut reality of what you know is going to actually work in your life and we all get that what do you see in the room I just had a question specifically what do people think of as a little bit of commitment and lack this is like four hours a month up from zero hours a month four puts you over there alright I'm going to get one and a half there's four net explicitly this is four net four or four net there's different types of four net which there's a lot of abstractions obviously it's problematic hard to define yeah I guess I'm like are you asking like who's going to do the share who's going to do the net date or are you asking like who will volunteer email you and be like I want to volunteer it would be a boss the great thing about mapping is we're not taking your picture and saying okay she's in the one hour she is but we promise not to use it well I'm not just asking because I'm interested in what kind of help you actually are needing beyond the things that we just saw you know and these are exactly the kind of questions to be I saw the move at the group towards the middle so he speaks to distributive leadership we want to even it out a little bit I see two of our staff people at the very end and so when I think about volunteer time and like that's what this question is just recognizing like the staff is willing to volunteer she's on a time and like that that has an organizational structure and how we as collective leadership and workforce can support equity in the organization quickly this is just a momentary a way to get people moving with the blood following and also a chance to look at how we see ourselves how you see yourselves please resume your questions please thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you how we see ourselves how you see yourselves please resume your seats on which you will find some of you will find a part on your feet you can ask them to be your neighbor each of you want a good part neighbor neighbor neighbor excuse me nice to get out excuse me excuse me excuse me we are within minutes of our tuition excuse me I want to sit down I want to sit down I want to sit down I want to sit down I want to sit down I want to sit down I'm going to ask you to make two commitment to this larger community well it's for the community and we'll have a lot of fun to next the first one and this is standing with you so if it helps you to write it on your card great you just want to think of that fun too think about one thing one task one action that you commit to take in your work or with your organization in the next six months to build deep and broaden or further activate our work together One task or action, and nobody's going to see this but you. One task or action you commit to take in your work or with your organization in the next six months to build, deepen, broaden or further activate our work together in co-creating the NET community. You've got a minute, Kareen or Park or me, same question but something that you want a task or action so this is not like appropriate this is a thing so think about one task or action that you would like NET staff or board or both to take in the next year to build, deepen, broaden or further activate our work together in co-creating the NET community. So you're going to write that down you're going to give it to one of us. These are unique, not NET. Please write allegedly you got 60 seconds. One, so again you can give that to Alicia, you can give it to Mark, you can give it to Shreya, and as we leave, you don't have to get up. Please don't get up. Please don't rearrange the choreography. Are we signing these or not? Up to you. As you are so moved. So, Ned, you've got some logistical practicalities. Before we leave this space, if Cynthia, Claudia, Alicia and Matthew Blasen can meet me in the center of the floor, just really briefly.