TL;DR Let’s collect feedback about membership criteria and refocus on the Collab’s goals. There is a need for clarity internally and externally :)

Dear Collab members,

Based on yesterday’s conversation on the Collab call, and on the growing experience that we (the Collab and the Education Team) are having, it seems like it is time to move to the next stage in the Collab’s evolution. We all appreciate how the dedicated services the Collab selflessly offer to the Movement, and its the education goals in particular, are valuable and indeed bring a highly specialized focus to key aspects of its growth.

As the group decided in its in-person meeting in March, the Collab has three key focus areas:

• Dashboard implementation

• Mentoring

• Comms support + Resources

These areas may change over time, as the movement and its needs progress, but are representative of the current stage of the movement’s activities. As we all know, participation in the Collab is completely voluntary, and the time each member dedicates to it is even more valuable because of that.

As the Collab’s specialized service to the Movement evolves, it becomes somewhat natural to make the framework for its work more explicit, and having open conversations around the expectations we have for it also become necessary.

We would therefore like to propose continuing this conversation we started this month. Participation is welcome on this list, on-wiki, or privately through direct email. We also want to make sure that other stakeholders in the movement can join in the conversation (our list and wikis are public and open, and some affiliates are already giving direct feedback to the Education Team). We expect the outcome to be a frank and constructive conversation that will update the membership criteria, and clarify for everyone (including non-Collab members) what the Collab is and does. We would like this conversation to happen over the months of December and January.

Our team sees a need for robust conversations around education that are not limited to the Collab spaces (our mailing list, virtual meetings, and in-person meetings). Considering the specific work of the Collab, it doesn’t make sense for Collab conversations to take the place of discussions on the Education list, for example. For starters, the Education Team intends to dedicate more of our efforts to general education spaces, not just the Collab spaces. We appreciate Collab members who have helped in these areas (like on Facebook, Twitter, Education-l, and the Newsletter).

We believe in a multi-pronged approach to making the Collab and the general education spaces in the Movement productive and meaningful. Ideas welcome :)