Network ReVisioning
Updates & How to get involved
Our work on the Network ReVisioning project is well underway, and this post serves to update the Network on how to get involved, and what to expect next.
TL;DR: What’s Network ReVisioning?
We’re undertaking a collective opportunity to redefine what kind of change the Brigade Network makes in the world and how we relate to Code for America. This post provides the full introduction.
In case you missed it
We had a great discussion with Code for America CEO Amanda Renteria about the Network ReVisioning on March 31. To watch the town hall and see follow up items from that event, view this post.
Decisionmaking Structure and Timeline: 2021
To read about all of the ways we’ve contributed to this process up till now, visit the announcement post
April - May: Additional peer to peer sessions, small group sessions, and analysis and synthesis of existing and new data.
Early June: The Network ReVisioning Spokes Council finalizes an analysis of participatory activities and creates a report with recommendations for the National Advisory Council and Network Team.
End of June: A final recommendation is made by the National Advisory Council and the Network Team to Code for America’s Executive Team and Sr. Program Director Meredith Horowski.
- The proposed final decision making structure is to aim for consensus across CxO + Meredith Horowski, Senior Program Director for the Network. If consensus cannot be reached, the fallback is to Amanda Renteria, our CEO.
In the final decision making process, if there are key changes that differ from the final recommendation, the decision makers will commit to understand the impact of those changes on stakeholders before making a final decision.
How to get involved
- To best get plugged in to ReVisioning work, introduce yourself on the #network-revisioning channel on the CfA Slack. Sign up for the CfA Slack here.
Team updates
Want to join a team? Send a message to the #network-revisioning channel on Slack, or sign up here
Peer to peer: Small group & peer to peer sessions will begin in the last week of April, and run through the month of May. These are spaces for 1-1 conversation or small group discussion about the impacts and questions that arise through the ReVisioning process. To signal your interest in a peer to peer session, comment on this post, or join the #network-revisioning-peer2peer Slack.
Outreach & Decidim: We are piloting a use of the tool Decidim for this work. To explore our Decidim platform, you can visit https://cfa.osp.cat/ and create an account! This is currently a test platform which will be built out in the last week of April, and is where we plan to share many updates and participation opportunities through the remainder of the ReVision process in addition to on Discourse and Slack. Comment on this post or join the #decidim channel in the Slack to help with this work!
Data: The data team is beginning the process of analyzing the many datasets we already have about Brigade member sentiments related to ReVisioning and Brigade work more broadly. To get plugged in to the data team, join the #network-revisioning-datateam Slack channel - or sign up here.
Adopting the Spokes Council Model 
The ReVisioning team has adopted the spokes council model of organizing for this work, allowing us to engage with many different groups and teams and to make decisions via consensus. This is a short overview of the spokes council model:
The spokescouncil takes the models for consensus in small groups further by replacing the need for everyone to come together in one meeting with a system of delegate meetings. It is an effective way of allowing all members of a large group to actively participate.
Related posts and helpful context: