Creating an Open
Space So That CCLOW Could Focus Upon the Future
by Betty Donaldson, Birgitt Bolton, and Larry Peterson
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It was time
to adjust the
navigation
of the ship
of state if
we were
to continue
this
feminist
voyage. |
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In November 1997, the CCLOW Board of Directors added two days to
the Fall meeting schedule so that a strategic directions workshop could be held
in conjunction with the annual general meeting. The purpose was to clarify
goals of the organization, now nearly a venerable twenty years. It was time to
remove the encrustations of outworn barnacles of thought and adjust the
navigation of the ship of state if we were to continue this feminist voyage.
Prior to the meeting, the President's Advisory Council (PAC) had reviewed
several proposals from various consultants and had decided upon the team of
Larry Peterson and Birgitt Bolton; Betty Donaldson, Alberta Director but not a
member of PAC, arrived as a naive player. This article briefly summarizes the
perspectives of these three participants in that workshop; it does not
necessarily include all the work done during those intensive days nor does it
represent CCLOW policy. We hope it provides a sense of how the Board tried to
establish new directions for the organization and what it was like to use this
approach to effect change.
CCLOW was facing the Annual General Meeting of the Board of
Directors in Bolton, Ontario with a great deal of trepidation. The organization
that had been very effective throughout the 1980s had discontinued a major
service (the magazine) at the board meeting a year ago. There was still upset
about this decision. Further, the organization was aware that its guidelines
for funding source would change by March 1998, and the board was unsure about
the future because of impending financial constraints. CCLOW also was operating
with an interim executive director who was holding things together after the
previous executive director had left. This board meeting was clearly the one to
determine if CCLOW had a future. Delegates arrived from across the Country,
representing various groups and voices of women "back home." Some of the
delegates were certain that this board meeting would be the one to decide that
CCLOW had no future. It was a distinct possibility.
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Les auteurs résument les importantes
stratégies et lignes directrices dont il a été
discuté lors de la réunion générale annuelle du
CCPEF en novembre 1997. Le comité de direction avait pris la
décision d'engager des conseillers associés, Birgitt Bolton et
Larry Peterson, pour qu'ils aident le conseil d'administration pendant la
durée de la réunion (22 jours). Birgitt et Larry ont
présenté le cercle d'urgence des peuples autochtones qui, selon
eux, peut servir aux organismes d'instrument de diagnostic et d'outil pour
édifier une organisation saine. La conseillère et le conseiller
ont également eu recours à un certain nombre d'exercices pour
dépister un sens du commandement chez tous les membres du conseil et les
inciter a partager leurs idées quant aux perspectives d'avenir du CCPEF.
Dix-sept sujets de discussion étaient
prévus pour cette réunion (on peut se procurer le compte rendu
des débats au bureau). Désormais, les possibilités
d'action étaient les suivantes : système de financement se
fondant sur des projets, restructuration de l'organisme, rédaction de la
version préliminaire d'un énoncé des perspectives d'avenir
et de mission et mise sur pied d'un système de communication en ligne.
La rédaction de l'énoncé des perspectives d'avenir et de
mission commença immédiatement. De plus, la nouvelle structure
organisationnelle a été ébauchée sous forme de
diagramme. Depuis la réunion, le Comité consultatif de la
présidente poursuit I'élaboration des politiques. Cette
publication commémorative en est I'un des résultats elle vise
à jouer un rôle de charnière entre les aspirations d'hier,
d'aujourd'hui et de demain, à communiquer avec les membres et à
mobiliser des ressources. |
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