2023 Network Announcements and Reflections

Sad news but also not out of left field.

The change in fiscal support won’t impact Code for BTV much on a regular basis. However, I fear then this means the end of Brigade Congress. Without CfA supporting brigades in connecting with each other in-person, I think the network will continue to lose energy… large brigades that are already self sustaining like BetaNYC, Code for Boston, Code for Philly, Hack LA, probably will be fine. Small brigades where the weight of keeping the brigade going falls to just a few, or just one volunteer will likely suffer as those individuals become less energized and motivated by peer connections. Peer connections provide a lot of the magic for a distributed network like the brigade network. I guess we’ll see … hard to say with certainty what will happen.

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I’ve not come across either of these limitations, I’ve sent a message to OCF administrators to confirm and will update this post when I hear back (see below)

Advocacy is in fact highlighted as part of OCF’s Mission & Values:

3 - Fostering civic participation within cities and communities.

… 4) hosting advocacy groups that bring people together to work for their community.

OCF response

OCF admins confirm that:

  • Per the Political Activity policy, collectives are specifically not permitted to engage in legislative lobbying on behalf of the collective (i.e. influencing the creation of law via direct efforts to influence legislators).
    • They are working towards making this more permissive but the reporting/compliance burden is heavy and systems need to be set up to track it.
    • They also noted that a lot more is permitted under the current policy than people tend to think.
    • The policy clearly slates that educational activities and influencing executive/judicial/administrative bodies is okay—so it’s fine to advocate for administrative policies / executive orders / projects etc which I think the vast majority of brigade advocacy work falls into
    • If you want to lobby for law it has to be under your personal name or an org set up to conduct lobbying
    • It’s kind of complex, OCF has someone you can talk to about it if you’re thinking of coming on board and have concerns about what sort of advocacy is in-bounds, message me somewhere and I can give you their scheduling link
  • Yes, collectives must have at least two admins
    • Perhaps small brigades could ask leaders of peer brigades to serve as their “backup” admin
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Hi, here’s their detailed statement on political activity: Political Activity - Open Collective Foundation .

A key sentence where some Brigades might get tripped up. " Although technically 501(c)(3) organizations may be able to engage in lobbying to a small degree, our program does not allow Collectives to engage in it at all."

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That’s a good catch, it’s a pretty small but notable gap from the policies brigades were already under with CfA.

However, they seem to draw the line at legislative vs executive bodies. So, working to influence your city’s administration is fine, but targeting legislative members to influence the creation of laws is not. So, things like influencing government policy and budgets would be fine if those things are driven by an executive branch (i.e. your mayoral administration)

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Thank you @arenteria , @chris , @anon79192816 , @nFlourish , and @noel_hidalgo for this helpful information and all of your valuable insights to those of us who depend on CfA’s fiscal sponsorship. Through my involvement with GYR and being a Brigade Leader, I can see all sides of the coin. No one relishes change, especially a change that they had no part in initiating. I have been fortunate to get to know many Brigade Leaders, Volunteers, and Network staff throughout my going on 4 years here. My heart and support go out to Everyone! @elb , thank you for never failing to be a North star to our Brigades. @jillzey, your leadership will truly be missed. @sung , your insights will be a source I will continually remember. @bentrevino , your a true pioneer and I will always be grateful for the lasting positive impact that Empathy Circles, SEEDS, Direct Democracy, and the Ma’awe Pono Indigenous Research Methodology course has brought to my life personally and professionally.

I look forward to a fresh start and positivly exploring our ever evolving relationships.

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I’m very sad to see this outcome.

It’s unfortunate, but this is likely the death knell for Code for New Orleans. We are very small. I’ve been leading the group solo for several years now and had no success bringing on new leadership partners. I’ve had no success engaging volunteers that stay on. I have new health and mobility challenges that make it impossible for me to do the work needed to fundraise and operate an organization in addition to my full-time job, which seems more and more tenuous by the day with all the layoffs happening. And I don’t have the energy either.

I’ve been involved with the Code for America Brigade Network since 2010. This network made Code for America what it is. It’s frankly quite depressing to see Code for America the organization now jettison the brigades.

Thank you to all of you in the network for your hard work these many years. Hopefully you can find ways to continue to serve in this new independent model.

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Is there a Zoom registration link for the Feb 9th session?

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Great point and also note that FCNY has the National Center for Civic Innovation which has less New York centric branding. They were super easy to work with at ARGO ( A.R.G.O. – Medium )

What is Open Collective’s cost of fiscal sponsorship for government contracts versus private grants? Last I checked FCNY / NCCI was 9% private philanthropy / 12% government

For us, a partner project under the FCNY EIN, there is no difference in costs. It is a flat 9% overhead fee. That 9% really packs quite a punch.

I’m going to work hard to keep a Brigade Congress going. We’ll do something in NYC in 2024. You can put that on your calendar! We already have a venue.

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Just added it to the post. It will be the same link for all forums.
https://codeforamerica.zoom.us/j/84871319841?pwd=ZDR5RE1sanI5ZW5JMUxRdzVHbDY3UT09

As far as I can tell from their docs on grants and government contracts, there is no special fee so I think their normal 8% fee would apply. However they state that anything with complicated requirements needs to be reviewed case-by-case for their ability to administer it

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The OCF staff have agreed to participate in an AMA-style thread for the brigade network:

If you posted a question in here about them that I tried to answer, please re-post in there so we can collect authoritative answers @caseywatts @anon79192816 @patwater31

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Hi everyone,

I am Mike Strode, Program Officer at Open Collective Foundation. I would be glad to have further conversation with anyone interested about our fiscal sponsorship offering.

We have hosted a range of CfA Brigades in past and at present. We are familiar with the type of work that you all do and generally have easily understandable systems to ensure you can access your funds without constraint. You can use my scheduling calendar to select a time for a conversation.

In the meantime, you can visit our Mission Impact Areas and How To Apply pages to learn more about the types of groups we host and how we evaluate new groups for sponsorship.

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Are there Meeting notes or a recording from yesterdays meeting?

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Hi all,

The first forum was not recorded, but we hope you can join us at our next Town Hall. Additional information about the transition process will also be sent out as we work through the important questions and needs that surfaced in last week’s Town Hall (and before and since then).

We rescheduled today’s Town Hall to March 2nd so that we can more fully address your questions the next time we come together. In the meantime, our team is working hard to ensure we bring you the clarity and details requested so that each Brigade is set up to successfully transition as our current MOU comes to a conclusion on June 30, 2023.

I believe the relationships among brigades, and between brigades and Code for America, have been an important distinction that has kept a grassroots and volunteer perspective alive in CfA and civic tech in general. CfA shifting away from this key element of GRASSROOTS civic tech makes this organization more like “the herd” of well-meaning consultants seeking better government services. The loss for engaging a wide variety of communities and thus be less tied to their Bay Area and California orientation is significant. John Stephens, Durham NC

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Hi all, thank you so much for your patience as we reviewed your questions about the fiscal sponsorship transition.

Reminder that the forum is happening today, March 2nd at 7pm ET/ 4pm PT . We will cover the offboarding process, key dates, and name and likeness.

Can’t attend? All Brigades will receive written guidance and a session recording after the forum.

Date: Thursday, March 2, 2023 @ 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Zoom Link: https://codeforamerica.zoom.us/j/84871319841?pwd=ZDR5RE1sanI5ZW5JMUxRdzVHbDY3UT09

An email was titled Offboarding Process + Forum Follow-Up was sent on 2023-03-04

In it there were some links. One of the links is review the FAQ

Inside that notion document, there is a link to Key Dates

Clicking on it, takes me to a Google Access Denied page, where I have asked for access, but it has not been granted.

Does anyone else have access to that doc?

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