Communities Collaborating: A Proposal for the Next 10 Months

1. Communities Collaborating: A Proposal for the Next 10 Months When you dream alone, it remains just a dream: when you dream together it is the beginning of a new reality. Brazilian Proverb

2. Good Conversations Online Learning Together • Stay in our pods (September to June) • Peer learning • Tamarack Tele-learning • Post 3 knowledge pieces • Build a personal learning page and blog your learning Inspiring Action Ideas

3. Good Conversations Learning Pods Online • Your current pod will be your online pod. • Each learning pod needs to assign a leader(s) and a recorder for your online learning. • The leaders: • help Tamarack & planning team plan the learning agenda & format • convene the pod • help the pod set an agenda • ensure every pod member is engaged and contributing • The recorder: • takes notes • reports the proceedings in writing • assigns a reporter for the group Inspiring Action Ideas

4. Good Conversations Monthly Peer Learning Calls • These monthly teleconferences are meant to give each other a sense of how your work is unfolding and the personal and professional issues each member is dealing with. Learning pods will be self-organizing. • Tamarack will provide a number of formats and techniques pods can use to deepen learning (e.g. Peer Input Process). • On occasion, Tamarack may ask that certain logistical items related to the learning community be highlighted during the group’s time together. Inspiring Action Ideas

5. Good Conversations Proposed Agenda The basic agenda for most monthly pod learning sessions will be 1.5 hours and include: • Announcements • Log on Blog - Participants will log onto their online learning blogs and share learning updates for the month and anything new added to their page. • Peer Input Process (PIP) - A pod member will present a paper or knowledge piece highlighting a key collaborative issue they are experiencing or a learning they want to explore with the group. • Check out - Participants will reflect on what they learned that day and make suggestions for improving the learning experience Inspiring Action Ideas

6. Good Conversations Tamarack Tele-learning We invite you to participate in Tamarack’s 2007 learning theme “Thinking like a movement, acting like an organization.” • The topics and, in some cases, the speakers of the tele-learning seminar series will be agreed upon by the Communities Collaborating Institute participants. • We hope you will participate in all of the seminars, but ask that you participate in at least seven of the ten learning events. Inspiring Action Ideas

7. Good Conversations Personal Learning Page Build a personal learning page and blog your learning. A private online area on the Tamarack website (in partnership with Igloo) has been built for the Communities Collaborating Institute. It includes the ability to: • Post your photo & bio • Post your knowledge pieces • Blog your learning • Interact on bulletin boards The Communities Collaborating Institute Learning Community online will form the basis for a larger network of Tamarack Learners to be launched over the next year. These pages will remain on the site for up to one year or as long as they remain active. Inspiring Action Ideas

8. Good Conversations Three Peer-Reviewed Knowledge Pieces Post three knowledge pieces for peer review on your learning blog. Tamarack will provide possible topics and examples for these pieces but the papers should be reflective of the work and thinking of each learner. We have a bias for papers and knowledge pieces that consider practice (the work you are doing) rather than explorations of theory. Each participant will post one of these papers in November, February and June. Inspiring Action Ideas

9. Good Conversations Tamarack Support for Pod Learning Louise Kearney is your online learning lead and with her team will support the overall online learning process. A Tamarack staff person will join each learning pod to act as a resource and to participate as a peer, fulfilling all the activities of a learning pod member. Inspiring Action Ideas

10. As the learning community emerges we will evolve! There is room for spontaneity! Let’s get creative!

11. Discussion • In your pods take a few minutes to: • Appoint pod leaders and a recorder • Set a date for your first pod meeting • Articulate what would you like the planning team to consider going forward