April 18, 2018 Meeting Agenda

Archive of Projects/Programs National Advisory Council (NAC)
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Attendees: Chris Alfano, Laura Biediger, Jill Bjers, Emma Burnett, Jason Hibbets, Nina Kin, Dawn McDougall, Janet Michaelis, Neil Planchon, Tom Dooner, Erie Meyer, Hashim Mteuzi, Christopher Whitaker, Veronica Young

Network Updates (pre-meeting)

Upcoming Calendar

Upcoming Workshops

  • Free Software For Brigades on May 14 at 7pm ET/ 4pm PT
    Brigade Onboarding/Offboarding

Onboarding: Open NC Collaborative- Chris Matthews, Open Toledo- Victor Ogundipe

Attendee Updates (pre-meeting)

NAC Updates

  • West Regional Updates:
    • Got 99% on Slack channel.
    • Slow process and engagement.
    • No major headline news from anyone. So far!
    • Had 1-1 phone and email conversations with a few.
    • Lots of excitement around Brigade Day. Major buzz for and busy-ness for OpenOakland’s CityCamp on Saturday!
    • Not yet connected with Nina. Mine to do!
  • Midwest Regional Updates:
    • Onboarding: Open Toledo - whose new Brigade captain came to our Open Data Day event, then decided to start the new brigade!
    • Collaborating with 2 other Ohio brigades to try to get at the Ohio central repository of conviction data for a pre-screening tool for Clear My Record
    • 6 of 11 Midwest brigades have rsvp + for summit
    • Note: I’ll be at local PBS affiliate for mtg I’m on operations for the annual on-air fund raising auction, but should be able to find quiet corner
  • Northeast Regional Updates:
    • Generally not getting a lot of engagement from current outreach efforts
    • Just sent out a message to have regular meeting with captains and planning to do some “virtual happy hours” or the like-- only heard back from Code for JC so far
      • Interesting insights from him about the transition between old regime and new regime – damaged relationship with the city where the brigade felt a bit vulnerable to exploitation
      • Need to follow up with one of their core members, Jen, who would be great on the Trust BAT, or whatever the latest version of the D&I working group is
      • There big goals this year are to build up momentum and work with other NJ brigades to do some shared programming
    • Some feedback on the community fellowship
      • One brigade looking to apply
      • Another note from a brigade – wished CfA would have reached out before to learn from other similar efforts before launching
      • Code for JC doesn’t feel ready and city unlikely to spend the money
  • South Regional Updates: (I have more detailed notes in another document- trying to figure out how to organize, then i’ll link.)
    • Feedback to CFA
      • Awesome Points
      • Helping local brigades make connections
      • Like purpose- make a more efficient government
      • Community fellowship is awesome
    • Challenges
      • Ways brigades communicate with each other
      • No / unclear mechanisms for providing feedback
      • Feeling of in-groups
      • Asking a lot of leaders to be involved with brigade and network level
      • Fellowship feedback
      • Pull between tech/startup and government/volunteer worlds
    • Code for Austin
      • Awesome Points - Monthly event schedule: Community action night, Library night, Civic hack saturday
      • Challenges - Member / attendee retention. New project ideas
    • Sketch City (Houston)
      • Awesome Points - Great at hackathons. Building a network of community partners (by co-sponsoring events with other organizations)
    • Open Savannah
      • Awesome Points - Proud of community involvement. Good at bringing in people who wouldn’t otherwise be involved
      • Challenges - Lack of tech initiatives
  • Jason
    • BAT Champion Updates:
      • Waiting for proposals to come through
      • Reached out to trust (diversity, inclusion, and equity) leadership to have them submit a BAT proposal
      • Reached out to Laura and Dawn about strategic planning BAT proposal
  • Emma
    • Rural Brigade Updates:
    • Resources for brigade captains & documentation
      • Talked w Micah (code for BTV) and he has heavy lift w creating resources that might already exist.
      • Starting folder of additional resources that can (hopefully) eventually get incorporated into the Brigade handbook. Basically storing things that otherwise get lost in Slack.
      • Email templates
      • Press releases
      • Planning/ wayfinding signs
  • Chris
    • Civic Cloud Updates:
      • Got Chef interested in funding my doing some pilot work
      • They also want to fly to to chefconf right before the summit to talk about it
      • Other possible supporters: Protocol Labs, Comcast
    • Project Planning Updates:
      • Got some materials from Code for SF
      • Need to figure out how to create a shared space for working on this effectively. Is it really both brigades getting all their active members also in slack?
      • We need to recruit a BAT lead for this: The Project Lifecycle and Matchmaking BAT… PLAM! PLAM! PLAM!
  • Nina
    • TIDE Updates: Now called IDEA, which stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility. Hoping to submit the proposal within the next week. Targeting June/July start date.
    • Cross brigade Collaboration Updates: Finishing up Et Al group email.
  • Jill
    • Chair Updates: Reached out to most Brigades that hadn’t registered for Summit last month. Still fielding emails and connections but working through them.
    • Brigade Recognition: Forms are live and on c4a.me/nac. We need promotion to Brigades to sign up for recognition. I’m writing some invite messaging and will share for feedback on Thursday. But feel free to promote to your regions or Brigades.
    • Knowledge Sharing Updates: Scheduling a meeting for May to talk incentives and motivation for contribution. My goal is to have this meeting before Summit so that we can, hopefully, change the conversation about a knowledge base from tools to how do we contribute.

CFA Updates

  • Brigade Summit
    • Laurenellen McCann is going to run our Brigade community organizer and intervention training
    • We’re going to have a Brigade Lounge Space, we’re waiting on getting dimensions - but we’ll use that space to highlight Brigades and have some fun stuff. We’re going to ask for a few volunteers to help staff the booth. I volunteer!
    • Sticker Exchange! Tom is working on collecting stickers. Regional NAC Reps can help by nudging their Brigades
    • Travel: Travel fund is gone, but if a brigade isn’t repped yet let us know and we’ll see what we can do
      Questions for NAC (ideally answer by each NAC member)
  • Does this sound OK for inclusive language on surveys:
    • All Brigade members are welcome to submit a Lightning Talk, especially under-representated Brigade members, such as women, people of color, LGBT individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, people with prior convictions, foreign-born residents, and veterans. If you identify with any of the above please check the box. Checking the box is entirely voluntary and is strictly confidential. The only purpose is to represent a diverse voice at the lightning talks.
    • :ballot_box_with_check: I identify with one or more groups listed above.
      Agenda
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Standing Items to Cover:

  • Burnout Check-in (10 min)
    • In this order: Chris Alfano- pretty good, Laura Biediger- things are good, been able to talk to a number of Brigades, Jill Bjers- catching up, Emma Burnette- things are good, Jason Hibbets- not bad, recharged, Nina Kin- good, Dawn McDougall- doing well, haven’t heard much from regional brigades, Janet Michaelis- okay, prepping for DC rally, Neil Planchon- a little challenging connecting with Brigades in the West, City Camp,

NAC Time

  • Pre-meeting updates vs 3-5 minutes each for update (10 min)
    • Do pre meeting updates work?
      • Dawn- hard to get context, would love opportunity for conversation/ feedback
      • Jason- reminder?
      • Erie- time for discussion of needs? Instead of blanket round robin
      • Emma- time for requests, rename burnout check-in to something more positive?
      • Chris- space for wins, what we need help with
  • Et-al project discussion: Nina (20 min)
  • NAC Badges & Awards - Do we want to do them? (20 min)
    • Laura- wondering about the “grant” badge? should the Network give the badges or NAC?,
    • Dawn- we’re a little bit ahead (regularity?), dependency?
    • Emma- doesn’t know how useful it is? Is it antithetical
    • Jason - Devil is in the details, Automate badges and make awards strategic and use it to build community–there are logistics involved with tracking things for badges; Awards should encourage behaviors we want in our community.
    • Erie- awards can be very positive, good for Brigades to be able to promote themselves with awards
    • Neil- any feedback from last time? Loved giving them out last time
    • Jill- let’s celebrate each other!
    • Chris- let brigade captains nominate people from their brigades that they want to highlight
  • NAC Social - Wednesday Night after Training Day. Do we want to do that or defer to Open Oakland for the welcome event?
    • Regional competitions at the bar! (fun)
  • NAC Strategic Plan Document Update- Dawn (5 min)
    • Comments in Doc

CFA Time

  • Fellowship Update (5 min)
    • Erie- What feedback are you getting?
    • Ask specific questions about how things could be better (ie timeline) if that is an issue that has come up
    • Timeline questions
      • Please get people to apply
      • If regional- ask Brigades in your region to apply
      • Ask your friends
  • Brigade Day/Summit Update (25 min)
    • Updates above.
    • We’re going to have a Brigade Lounge Space, we’re waiting on getting dimensions - but we’ll use that space to highlight Brigades and have some fun stuff. We’re going to ask for a few volunteers to help staff the booth. Sticker Exchange! Tom is working on collecting stickers (folder here). Regional NAC Reps can help by nudging their Brigades, please check the folder first to make sure we aren’t asking them for something they have already done.

Decisions Made

Pre-meeting updates: keep written updates and add space for needs and wins.
Change Burnout check in to a more positive term