Category: The Transition Narrative

Notes from the Field: What is Home?

by Aja Schmeltz “ECO MEANS HOME: ‘eco’ comes from the greek word oikos, meaning ‘home’” – from Movement Generation’s JustTransition Zine Home. What does that mean to you? Is it a place? Is it an idea? Is it people? Perhaps it is a feeling? I happen to think that home is all four of those … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Caitlin Dourmashkin. Photo by Decora A few months ago, our co-Worker Susan told us about Move Up, Move Up, a less ableist alternative to the Step Up, Step Back framework that encourages people who historically speak the most to step back and create space and for others to step up and share their voice. … Continued

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Roles: Circle to Circle

by Hélène Lesterlin, with Susan Grove At Good Work Institute, we organize our collaborative work into “Circles”. Circles function as sub-groups of the six-member GWI team; each circle is focused on a specific aspect of the organization. We have three organizational circles (Operations, Development and Communications), four program circles (Network, Academy, Alliance, Greenhouse), a Learning … Continued

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Leading Through Shared Leadership

The Role of the Steward at GWI By Terri Hall with Caitlin Dourmashkin At GWI, we have done away with roles that place each person on a hierarchical scale of power. There is no one at the top who gets to make all the decisions and no one at the bottom who gets us coffee. … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Micah Personally, I think I’m good at playing the support role. I have played this role many times as a board member, volunteer, and also as staff. I think I’m good at working for myself. I like the autonomy – no one to answer to except me. But working in circle with others is … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Susan Grove In the conversations that swirl around being worker self-directed, here’s one of the most frequent questions that comes up, explicitly or implied: “Is your work slower?”  We’ve started looking at our time allocations. On average, we estimate that we collectively invest at least 20 hours per week in governance work. This is … Continued

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Wait, Who’s Driving this Bus?

Roles in a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit by Caitlin Doumashkin with Terri Hall Over the next few weeks, we will be posting specifically about roles in a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit. This is a tricky area and we have learned a lot over the past few months. Sometimes roles are specific: we define organizational stewards and place … Continued

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Coming Soon…

Thank you to everyone who has been following GWI’s blog series on our journey of transitioning to a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit. The response has been incredibly positive and thought-provoking.  We will be taking a brief hiatus from posting as we wrap up 2019 and prepare to put our 2020 plans in action. We’ve been having … Continued

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Notes from the Field

By Terri Hall A few springs ago, one of my friend’s daughters spent the night alone in the woods as part of a Wild Earth youth program aimed at building character, confidence, and self-reliance. Heather had been well-prepared by Wild Earth over the months prior to this wilderness-based rite of passage, learning practical skills like … Continued

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Notes from the Field

by Micah Last February, I was on a panel discussing the Race To Lead Survey at Non-Profit Talks here in Kingston. The survey detailed what many of us know, that within the well-intentioned world of nonprofits, leadership is disproportionately white. Only a couple of months prior, I suddenly had realized that in all my years … Continued

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