Guidelines

Working group: Gita, Binna, Yollotl

This guideline tries to create a common language and understanding of what tooling is and offers a way for (1) sharing your tools with others and (2) doing a collective tooling in experimental tooling project.

What is tooling?

• Tooling is a process of generating tools that have been (consciously or unconsciously) used in our practices.

• Tooling is a way of practicing our radical imagination not only for making artworks but also for supporting the way we organize our daily life resistance.

• Tooling is a method for reflecting / making sense of the way we do our (im)material labour.

• Tooling is a strategy for sharing knowledge inside and outside AC ecosystem, as well as building a solidarity/interdependent relations based on our open ethical principles beyond AC ecosystem.

• Tooling is a mechanism to sustain openness.

Why tooling?

• Tooling relates with our common interest in practicing AC (open) ethical principles.

• Tools made from tooling process form the important part of the AC common resource, which consists not only of (1) money, space, infrastructure, facilities but also (2) ideas, thoughts, affect, and knowledge. Tooling makes (2) shareable and accessible within and outside of AC ecosystem.

• Tooling also supports the sustainability of ideas and there’s a process of learning and unlearning when we form, share, test and give feedback to the tools.

What are tools?

• Tools are different from products. Tooling shows the structure and the entire image of our working process.

For example: You made a book in a collaborative project. The book is a product. Inside the book there’s knowledge. But the way you make the book (e.g. how you collect resources, how you do collaborative editing, how you deal with conflict in collaborative process, how do you fundraise the project, how you make a DIY printing machine, how do you circulate that knowledge, hot do you circulate the book) is also knowledge, and that is what you can share as a tool, the methodology of that process.

• Tools can be theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, or both.

For example: Theoretical tools can be an argument about subverting the notion of School in conventional sense. This theoretical tools (the new notion of “School”) will feed to the growing knowledge of our (open) ethical principles and common languages.

Meanwhile, an example of practical tools can be about how to create a new setting of learning environment by changing the arrangement of chairs and tables in a classroom.

The example of practical tool that was given above can be generated into a theoretical knowledge, for instance about the politics of spatial division.

• Tools should be replicable, in a sense that at least it can be applied or tested in different contexts. However, it doesn’t need to be a super mechanism or determinative algorithms.

Perhaps your tools won’t work in other contexts, but the process of testing the tools also form or add new knowledge to your initial tools. Tool is always in the process of becoming. For example: you share your tools of doing a collective making decision that you learned from a collaborative project with Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong. Could we use the tools to work with undocumented migrant workers in the Netherlands? It should be tested; and the person who try to use/apply the tool should give feedbacks and report their experience upon using the tool. This way, tooling replaces reporting and demonstrational practice of superficial publicity. All the tool need to pass through a process of contextualization that gives meaning of using that tool that comes from other place.

Tool is a cycle of sharing, it’s always working for and from inside and outside.

When do you have to do tooling?

Tools should be generated from:

• Study Buddy triangle

• Experimental tooling projects

• Banga

• Assembly

• AC organizational works like Fundraising, Financial Admin, Website and Tam Tam (Internal communication)

Tools could be generated from:

• Lifelines (individual organizational projects)

• Each organizational works

How to do experimental tooling projects?

• Experimental tooling projects should be based on affinity of minimum three organizations (the triangle!), with involvement from minimum two members of AC. Inviting other organizations outside AC is therefore allowed or even recommended in order to keep our network open.

• Funding for experimental tooling projects can be taken from the collective pot. However, you may also consider the project as a strategy to get funding from outside for AC collective pot. Therefore experimental tooling projects can also be a form of fun(d)raising.

• Experimental tooling project proposal does not need to be agreed by the Assembly. As long as two members of AC are involved, the project can be conducted. This is also an exercise of practicing our autonomy.

• The accountability of experimental tooling project will be assessed in Tam-Tam and should be presented in the next Assembly.

How to do tooling?

• Tools should be based from our own experience.

• Before doing tooling, consider the existing tools that have been made by others. Therefore your tools won’t be redundant. If you have similar concept with other tools, you may just add your tools to the existing one.

• As a start, think of comprising a “How To” “Why to” “When To” instruction based on things that you consider can be used by others (particularly when you’re going to write about a practical tool). However, remember that the instruction is not a universal mechanism. Therefore you should give a context of your particular situation and how you came up forming the tools. Giving concrete examples are also an effective way to give a clear understanding of how to use the tools.

• When creating a theoretical tool, referring to the style of our Common Language is helpful as a loose guideline.

• Tools are created for the commons and belong to the common resources. When it is go public in our website, it is not longer “Riwaq’s tools” or “Art Group 705 tools”, it’s only tools, that can be shared and used for everyone. We let go the ownership of the tools to disrupt the prevailing capitalistic paradigm of property and sharing. (tools are not signed)

• When you do tooling, you should consider that the way you communicate the tool need to be understood by others.

• Tools can took the form of diagram, video, writing, audio, everything you think can effectively communicate your tools.

Technicality:

• The tooling process should start at least one month after doing events/activities/projects. The tools should be shared with the rest of AC members maximum 3 months afterwards.

• When tooling is going to be done collectively within AC (for example from Banga, Assembly), form a temporary working group and appoint a guardian of process within the group.

• The procedure for sharing tooling need to be discussed with the Internal Communication and Website working group. Proposal: We can share it through our Tam Tam newsletter for internal reading and then share it in our website for public under the section of Tooling.

Examples of Tools (or almost tools) from the Assembly:

• Cascade of coherence

Cascade of coherence is a tool that works for checking correspondence and coherence between rooted struggles, ethics, activities, delivery mechanism and resourcing (labour, affect, money, time.

(1) The rooted struggle is a point of embarkation, the main reason behind our practices. The struggle can be identified as something that we want to tackle, for example: the prevalent neo-liberalist paradigm.

(2) Ethics is an open principle and an orientation, it serves as an objective that aims to shift the paradigm in our rooted struggle. Ethics should be the antithesis of our rooted struggle.

(3) Activities are the materialization of ethics through collective practices.

(4) Delivery Mechanism details the activity.

(5) Resourcing is the material and immaterial support for delivering activities. For example, if an exploitative oil company wanted to support our activities, the cascade of coherence will show that the resource contradicts our rooted struggles and ethics. Should resources follow ethics or ethics follow resources? Or, can resources and ethics create a productive conflict? When there’s a contradiction in the cascade of coherence, we will start to question all elements that interact in the cascade of coherence (and that’s good).

• Triangle

Mechanism/guideline proposed by the Lifeline group can be a tool for sustaining self-care within a network.

• Collective pot

Mechanism/guideline proposed by the administration working group can be a tool for radical decentralization of sharing money.

• Please add more, anyone! :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1dvlBDD00WpOGVhMjJQNWVQZHM

Appendix I – Working groups: List & Guidelines

Administration group contact details (email + whatsapp):

Yu Lan yu-lan@doen.nl +31 6 24 63 33 19

MHP mariehelene@rawmaterialcompany.org +221 77 560 61 83

Khaldun khaldun@riwaq.org +972 59 9887848

Farid fairdkun@gmail.com +62 878 76940554

Jagath jagath.weerasinghe@gmail.com + 94 77 778 0054

Vero prog@centredartwaza.org +243 820003973

Introduction

The Administration working group have decided to rename the group into Attaya (sing. Attiyya). Attaya is the senegalese word for the popular African tea ceremony around which care is given, information shared, and disputes are resolved. In Arabic, Attaya stands for “givings or offerings” that are necessarily unconditional. We will refer to our admin group hereinafter as Attaya and each member in the working group as Attiyya.

Attaya will admin the AC collective pot. The AC collective pot is made out from the sum of the collective activities’ budgets in each AC member individual budget. For the 2016/2017, the collective activities’ budgets were transferred directly from DOEN to each AC member at 21,000 Euros each. During assembly Attaya proposed to have a decentralized collective pot. So the AC collective pot is not in one place but it is being kept in 24 AC collective pots, each organisation being 1 pot.

From the collective pot, the AC will spend on collective activities, namely: AC Assemblies, Bangas, collective studies, expenses related to permanent working groups, savings, advance payments and time strikes. Bangas, collective studies, advanced payments and time strikes will be subjected to the AC members’ needs, urgency and the availability of funds in the collective pot. It is not about give and take; it is about caring and sharing as outlined in the AC ethical principles.

We are 6 attiyas in Attaya. In the spirit of sharing and caring, each attiya of us will directly communicate with 4 AC members. Each of us will be the link to each organization in order to gather information, reports… The Attaya team is divided as follows:

To make it easy for us to admin the collective pot and to be able to share information with the whole AC in timely manner and to be able to provide needed care, we propose that each AC member opens a bank account that will only be dedicated to AC funds with three sub-accounts: the first for the institutional funds, the second for the collective funds and the third for the savings. This will help all of us keep track of all AC related common pot expenses. It will also be easier to know how much money is left by the end of each year, and therefore direct these leftovers to savings.

2016/2017 Budget:

Each institution has received 50’000€ as Institutional funds

Each institution has received 21’000€ as Collective funds

Each member can ask for an advanced payment of maximum 50’000€

Each member can call for a Time strike of maximum 32,000€

Each member needs to save 10% of the collective funds. For 2016 it is a min. of 2,100€.

1- Advanced payment

If you would like to ask for an advanced payment:

Send a written summary to your Attiyya, the summary is free of format but should specify:

• The amount?

• When do you need it?

• What do you need it for? It should be related to your lifeline.

• Triangle consultation: feedback is needed from each study buddy

• How will you reimburse the advanced payment?

• All advance payments need to be reimbursed before December 2019.

Attaya group will need 2 to 3 weeks to work on your inquiry and issue an open call for advancers to the whole AC members. When the advancers are found, a general communication will be done via email to get feedback.

If we all agree on the advance payment, we will start working on the practical level :

• Attaya will make sure that the advance payment contracts are signed by all parties

• Money transfers can be done after signing of the contracts

• Attaya will supervise the process

• Each party sending/receiving money should inform his Attiyya and he/she will update the excel sheet on google drive.

• Attaya will make sure that the google drive sheet is being fed and updated with the proper information and numbers. Each Attiyya will follow on the 4 AC members.

2- Time Strike

If you would like to ask for a time strike:

Send a written summary to your Attiyya, the summary is free of format but should specify:

• The amount?

• The duration? When do you need it?

• What are the activities that you will develop during the time strike?

• What do the organization of your triangle think about your time strike inquiry? Feedback is needed from each study buddy

• How will your time strike help you overcome your current situation?

• What tools you will develop and provide AC with during or after your time strike?

Attaya will need 4 to 8 weeks to communicate with all AC via email and get feedback.

When your time strike inquiry is approved by all AC, Attaya will:

• Find possibilities for the organization to get the requested amount

• Institutions can offer to transfer money from the collective funds directly

• Money transfers can be done after the institutions receive the invoice (check templates)

• Attaya will supervise the process

• Each party sending/receiving money should inform his Attiyya and he/she will mark it in the google drive sheet as receiving/spending from the collective pot

3- Banga meetings and Collective study

Each institution is free to organize a Banga or a collective study as decided during 2016 AC Assembly in Bishkek.

However:

• Before doing a Banga or a Collective study, The organizer should check on funds availability with Attaya

• After implementing a Banga or a collective study, each institution should send us a financial report in order to help Attaya keep track on the collective funds expenses. Your Attiyya will help you in the process. Banga meeting and collective study financial report template is available here

4- Savings

Driven by sharing and caring and by the idea of sustaining our AC network beyond the 5-year funding, a saving mechanism is hereinafter proposed:

• Attaya suggests that each institution saves at least 10% of each year’s collective money.

• From Bishkek discussions, Attaya thinks that we need to increase the percentage of savings to 15% for next years.

• Each institution can decide to make extra savings from their own institutional budget. You need to inform your attiya and he/she will mark it in google drive sheet.

• The leftovers funds in the collective pot will also be transferred to the savings at the end of each year. You need to inform your attiya and he/she will mark it in google drive sheet.

5- Invoice payment

Working groups might need to pay some invoices related to their tasks, in that case you should:

• Notify Attaya via your Attiyya

• Attaya will tell you who will be available to pay for that invoice

• Use invoice template and send the final invoice to the institution that will pay the invoice. Always CC your attiya so that he/she can follow up

• Payment should be done by bank transfer within two weeks after receiving the invoice

• Inform your Attiyya when you receive the payment, he/she will inform the google sheet

6- Assembly expenses Reporting

Each institution should tell Attaya how much they have spent for the assembly in Bishkek. Send those information to your Attiyya by giving the amount in Euros for each line:

Deadline August 15th, 2016

You can also see how much have been spent by other organizations on this sheet.

7- Reporting and feedback from Attaya to all AC

Attaya will update the TAM TAM every 3 months.

Attaya will report annually on the status of the collective pot during AC assembly.

Assembly Working Group

Current members:

Barto (ruangrupa), Ana Maria (KIOSKO), Raquel (KIOSKO), Aline (Al-Ma’mal), Lauren (VANSA), Malika (Art Group 705)

General questions we need to address:

1. What is an Assembly?

2. Who makes up the Assembly group? How do members enter/change?

3. How is an Assembly chosen?

4. How is the Assembly organized?

5. How is the Assembly facilitated?

6. How do we ‘document’/’harvest’ the Assembly?

7. How do we ‘tool’ the Assembly?

8. What is an Assembly?

Assembly is the main space for the AC organisations to gather, share experiences and

collectively engage in decision making processes. It also plays a crucial role as a laboratory for

studying together on how individual organisations navigate local dynamics while collectively

envisioning ways to deal with unfolding challenges in and beyond the networking of AC.

Main Objectives

• Studying the Sustainability Lifeline Plans and visiting our Ethical Principles;

• Meeting with the Lifeline Triangles;

• Engaging in collaborative projects and exchanges;

• Developing tooling methods for sharing what we learn with others;

• Evaluate Banga Meetings and tooling generated by them, and addressing possible future meetings;

• Visit communities and organisations in the local environment as a means for extending our affinity lines;

• Engaging in non-discursive and non-verbal moments where our emotions and bodies are directly involved, experimenting communication methods. This could be in a form of party, dancing, picnic, or ‘emotional assembly’;

• Evaluating the common resources that are tangible, intangible, imaginary and material;

• Dedicating part of our time for updating and fundraising new resources.

(TEMPORARY) GUIDELINE

Working Group: Breyner, Ferdi, Jumana, Sally, Ying

This is a temporary proposal on how to document and archive AC’s working process. The goal of having clear guidelines about documentation is to create a common ground for what kinds of things are important to be documented. We like to think through a common digital space with a clear archival structure that working groups can use to archive their working processes and materials. An accessible archival structure can help to make each other’s work internally transparent, make our knowledge easily transferrable to new members and smoothen the working process.

This proposal is temporary, as ideally, this archival structure would become part of the website. Until that moment comes, we like to reorganize the google drive.

Click here to access the AC Documentation & Archive at Googledrive:

We see this drive as a pilot to exercise how to collectively document and archive. As soon as the website is up, we can learn from this process to habituate the practice.

GENERAL INFO

• The capacity of Googledrive free service is very limited, so make sure that the documents you upload is not too large in terms of size and file types (see below for details).

• As we agreed, the network working language is Spanish, English and French. So try to provide translations for the archive that you upload (even if it is just a summary of the document).

WHAT TO DOCUMENT

General

• Photographs/Images (Jpeg. format, max. File size each: 500 kb).

You may use our AC flickr account (Yahoo ID: we@artscollaboratory, password: Artscollaboratory123) and archive the link in the folder. Heads Up: Please note there is a difference between images of your harvests/working materials and images of activities like Assemblies, Banga’s or group (selfie) pictures. Upload your working materials in your working group folders. Upload the activities images on the Flickr.

• Audio (mp3 format, max file size: 4 MB)

Another option is to use your own soundcloud account (but mind you that the capacity is only limited to 3 hours for a free account).

• Video

Due to the limited capacity of the google drive, we propose the following: upload your videos on your own channels, for example: youtube or vimeo. Then archive the link in the folder.

• Reading material (Articles, Books, References, Models of working etc.) (In pdf.)

• General AC information, including general info of all members (logos, mission statements, etcetera) and documents related to the network life (Resource map, AC Future Plan etc.)

Working groups

• Meeting minutes

• Meeting harvest (if it was harvested)

• Process materials: sketches, diagrams, doodles, etc.

• Working documents: concepts, proposals, budgets, schedules, etc.

• Financial documents, in collaboration with Admin group: budgets, invoices, bank information, taxes

Activities

• Lifeline Triangle

• Banga

• Assembly

• Collaborative projects (for now Minga, Schoolaboratory & Territories)

HOW TO STORE ARCHIVE ONLINE

The documentation WG had initiated a simple and general archival structure, where each working group can adapt to fit their own working process.

Working groups are responsible for their own documentation and archiving. The documentation WG has created some basic folders for a start but all the other working groups can add more based on their specific needs.

Save all your material in the digital archive!

Digitalize whatever you can! Meaning: type out your notes, photograph your harvests, scan your diagrams.

The Map for AC Documentation & Archive @Googledrive

There are six main folders provided (see diagram in dark grey box for details), and each folder contains several subfolders depending on the complexity of the informations documented.

In the future website, it should be much easier since the different subfolders can be marked and managed by clicking certain bulletpoints.

But due to the limitation of googledrive appearance (you may get lost in different layers of folder!) we limit the maximum amount of subfolders to the third layer only (such as in the blue box related to working group documents and the red box related to activities).

NOTES

• In general, to simplify the process of migrating existing documents from google drive to the website later on, make sure that each document that you uploaded has a clear heading.

For example, if you want to upload a note during one working session on Website on in Assembly 2016, during day 2 in Issykul, then put the document in the folder assembly under a title. Please also mention the language of the document:

File name: Working Session-Website-Note-Spanish- Issykul Day 2

• In case you have many things to document, like a set of images that you want to upload, place them together in one folder and name it accordingly based on the name of the events-time-location, such as: Assembly 2016 Bishkek

You can name the photographs as you wish. If there are many, please make a small selection of your favourites (about 20-30) by adding a star. It’s an option in Googledrive, that you can get to by right clicking on the file.

Calm down!

We understand the detailed naming of the files can be jarring, but this is important for future use and hopefully after the website is done we can assign different archive automatically.

Guidelines – Editing of AC Documents

This document has been developed based on the experience that we (Marie-Nour, Ana, and Tony) had in editing the first version of the AC Future Plan into the second version (from Dec. 15 to Feb. 15).

It could be extended to any editing process realized for AC documents.

Note: Google doc is currently AC preferred mode of working collectively on a document, as it allows several people to work simultaneously on it while viewing live the changes that are being made.

A process should be determined to identify the editorial group for each version of the AC Future Plan.

I- Planning

1/ Delimiting the goals of the editorial project with the agreement of AC members. These goals can include, but are not limited to, simple spelling and grammar corrections as well as more substantive changes that reflect new or changed processes or dynamics in the AC ecosystem.

2/ Identifying exactly what would need to be done, i.e: the missing points that need to be developed; the paragraphs that need to be reviewed to reflect the change of tone/ the recent practices of AC, etc.

3/ Agreeing on a general timeframe.

4/ Dividing the tasks between the members of the group.

5/ Planning weekly or bi-weekly skype meeting to check on the progress, plan the next steps, and talk about the difficulties encountered.

6/ In order to keep track of the progress and the upcoming tasks, after each skype meeting a member should send by email the notes of the skype and/or a list of the upcoming tasks to do to the group.

II- Working on the document

1/ It is preferable to use the suggestion mode so that previous texts don’t disappear.

2/ In general one or more persons are solely responsible for a section, this doesn’t mean that the section can’t be reviewed by other members of the editing group. They are more than welcome and encouraged to comment on the changes, raise a question and/ or suggest edits.

3/ The person working on a section could also actively ask for help, by adding a comment and/ or bringing up the issue during a skype meeting.

4/ Every once in awhile, it is preferable to review the whole document and read the comments that are marked.

III- Incorporating comments/ accepting the changes

1/ It is better that the person in charge of a certain section is the one accepting the changes, and reviewing the comments made by the others

2/ Make sure that previous sections are not deleted before they have been included elsewhere or it appears clearly that they are not relevant anymore

IV- Highlighting unclarities

1/ If questions arise during the editorial process regarding processes, policies or principles, it is recommended to create a section or sub-section highlighting the unresolved questions and/ or future suggestions that arose during the editing process and that should to be further discussed with all of AC. These can then be addressed in the next assembly or perhaps in consultation with a working group who is familiar with the question.

V- Review and Finalizing

1/ After the bulk of the work has been done, it is recommended that the document is reviewed by members of AC (one or two people max.), outside of the Editing group, that could have a fresh perspective and give their comments. At this point in the process the task is to continue to check details such as spelling and grammar, and also to add comments regarding the organization of the document, the importance and clarity of each section, the accuracy of the incorporation of the decisions that were made prior to the edition of the document and the adherence to the original philosophical and ethical principles.

2/ After the outside review is completed, the document should be returned to the Editorial Group in order to incorporate the suggestions made in the review. It is recommended that these comments and suggestions be done in the ‘Suggesting’ mode and by using ‘comments’ in Google docs.

VI- Translation

1/ In line with our principles, AC documents should be translated as often as possible into Spanish and French.

2/ This step should happen only after the final edits have been made, in order to have a clean version and not duplicates in process.

3/ The Editorial group should suggest names for translators and supervise the process.

4/ It would be helpful to also be able to review the translations for accuracy. This could occur if some of the members of the Editorial groups are fluent, or native Spanish or French speakers or by asking other AC members to help or by contracting with outside reviewers.

LEGAL ENTITY WORKING GROUP

Marie-Nour Hechaime (Ashkal Alwan): Harvester

Molemo Moiloa (VANSA): Host

Paula Piedra (TEOR/éTica): Guardian of process-intention

The decision on Legal Entity is related mainly to AC need to distribute and receive money. Once it is defined, it can also affect some of AC self organization mechanisms. The legal entity decisions we make also are related to what we call the AC Myth (how we define ourselves inside and outside AC).

Legal Entity Working Group Guidelines are divided in two stages: research and legal entity constitution. (We can’t make guidelines for Stage 2 Legal Entity Constitution before we accomplish Stage 1: Research).

1. Stage 1: Research

This research is to find out what is better to fulfil AC need to distribute and receive money according to our values, principles and ethics.

Guidelines for this research

• Structure (registration option) should be the one most close to AC ethical principles

• Place of registration/account should also be measured against ethical principles

• Financial sustainability should be primary driver of registration decision. Eg. funder, banks/accounts, currency.

To consider for this research

We have two options: REGISTRATION or NON - REGISTRATION.

For Registration:

• Best location

• Least bureaucracy

• Ease of registration

• Ease of financials (strong currency, strong banks, cheapest)

Non-Registration:

• Shared bank account

• Modalities if possible

• Once clear, decide next steps

Legal Entity affects Admin/Bank and Fundraising:

• Documents of legal entity and bank account

• Governance checks & balances guides

• Communicating legal entity clearly to funders

Legal Entity affects Newsletter (TAM TAM):

• Governance checks & balances guides

• Communicating our Myth

Legal Entity affects Website:

• Communicating legal entity clearly to funders

• Communicating our Myth

2. Stage 2: Legal Entity Constitution (PENDING)

Network health group (Guardian of Process/Intention)

Aline Khoury, Lina Mejia and Gertrude Flentge

Guidelines

• Intervene mainly on invitation

• Identify gaps between working groups, but does not solve the problem

• Receives questions that are not answered by anybody

• Checks dynamics of Working Groups/Triangles/network

• Proposes techniques and solutions, when needed, that help in inclusive communication, planning and decision making, problem solving and habitualization methods.

Tasks

• Read all working group documents and identify gaps between them

• Answer upcoming questions and distribute to right person

• Research and share tools for working process, like f.e. EBS, to Lifeline Triangles and working groups

• Be available for skype coaching in these tools on demand

• After 4 months we check how healthy network/triangles/working groups are, by checking in which each individual (one per organisation)

• If symptoms arise we actively start conversation

• Develop strategies for serious problems (Banga, independent mediator, friendly supporter)

• For assembly: make sure there is time for care taking + inclusive discussion/decisionmaking methods. Advice and develop tools + training in this.

Habits

• Collect tools and share them amongst us and then whole group

Before end august (is not realistic!)

• After 4 months and one month before assembly individual check-up. We will divide the group amongst us.

• Read working group plans and newsletters to identify problems/gaps

• Make digestible material to share in newsletter to remind on humanity, inclusiveness etc.

• Develop tool for this group to track our progress (Lina I forgot what this is exactly)

Concrete planning:

• Beginning August: work on guidelines

• Beginning of September (start tools collecting etc.)

• End october/beginning November: individual check-in with everyone

• End November skype meeting to analyse all this

Internal Communication Guidelines

Working Group

Lina, Luciana, Oscar, and Teesa

==================================================================

1. Email Formatting

Email Subjects

• [Name of the Working Group or Activities] Concrete Subject

• Use a relevant and descriptive subject line that adequately describes the content of your message.

For example:

[Resource Map] New name for Resource Map

• To make email conversations easy to follow, stick to the subject of your email

For example: [Internal Communication] How to make decisions using our Google Group

[Internal Communication] Survey Results

• If you feel the need to discuss a topic that is no longer directly relevant to the original subject of the email conversation, consider starting a new email with a new subject line that is more relevant.

Content / Body of the Email

• Use short sentences.

• Put them in short paragraphs.

• Clear and simple English so your email is easy to understand and translate.

• Feel free to use bullet points.

Translation

The language used in Google Groups is English but when a decision needs to be made, or the content of your email MUST be understood by every AC member, then it is the responsibility of the person initiating the email conversation to translate its main points.

We suggest using Google Translate as the first step for translation.

You can then reach out to someone in the AC network who is:

• Fluent in the languages you need to be translated.

• Able to respond to emails quickly.

They can then look over the translation for any major errors.

Then send out the email, with translations of the major points in French and Spanish.

2. Email Replies

When to reply all vs. replying directly to the original author of the email

Before you reply, ask yourself if this is something that everyone needs to be aware of.

Reply all when your response can help move the conversation forward, or provide clarity for.

Example:

“How many books can we print with that money?”

“Is it possible to make this transfer from your country?”

“When is the deadline?”

and so on.

Avoid "me-too" and “thank you” replies

It's rare that these add much to the discussion. You can still be kind <3 but just to the person who wrote the initial email (reply to the sender).

Quotes and Between lines answers

This makes replies easy to follow and helps get to the point quickly. So instead of replying with a long response like: “I hear what you’re saying about this proposal but regarding the budget issue I believe that...” you can just quote the specific section of the email that you are replying to and then add your comment.

You can also use a different colour for your reply, in order to make it more visible for all readers.

Example:

1. Is AC in agreement that we all begin working in some way (starting small) with Lambent based on our affinities.

Yes.

2. Is AC okay with us all opening banga and assembly to lambent in a limited way and where mutually beneficial?

Yes.

3. Is AC okay with us all opening banga and assembly to lambent grantees in a limited way and where mutually beneficial?

I am not so sure about this yet. We should know some more about these grantees.

3. Decision Making over Email

Whoever needs a decision made by AC will initiate the email chain. This person will be the host and harvester and shall also appoint a Guardian of Process to help moderate the conversation. The guardian should be mentioned in the body of the email.

Subject: [Name of working group or activities] Decision on….x

How to communicate your proposal for a decision

• Describe your question/proposal and the context

• Be as clear as possible about what you are asking and the kind of decision to be made

• Ask questions that people can answer with yes (agree), no (disagree), stand aside

• Also add the possibility to insert comments or ask more information

• Use a survey tool like Google Forms, here's a template that you can copy and adapt to your needs

Timing for Decision Making

• Urgent decisions > 4 days (96 hours from when email was sent)

• All other decisions > 10 days (240 hours from when email was sent)

• The person calling for a decision prepares a simple survey like this and includes the survey link so that people can vote

• You can use this template, copy it and add to your drive, then adapt to your content

• During that period people ask questions in the list in order to clarify

• When the deadline is near (48h) Guardian of Process sends a reminder to the group so that people remember to vote/share their thoughts

Results

• When the 4 days or 10 days are up, if you have not responded, it is assumed that you are standing aside

• The initiator of the decision making process is responsible for harvesting the results and will share with the AC Google Group

• In case of decisions that are not urgent: after sharing, if nobody blocks after 48hrs the decision is made.

• If decisions are urgent, the decision is made after 96 hours. The decision is urgent after all.

• We suggest that more than one person in your organization is available to make decisions over email, in case you are offline and unable to share your vote.

Example:

[Internal Communication] Decision on Dissolving Google Groups

Hello Everyone,

Google Groups has become irrelevant because it is the future and we are all communicating telepathically. I propose that we dissolve emails for good. Please share your thoughts through the survey here

Guardian of Process: Luciana

Looking forward to having received all of your responses in 10 days.

Peace!

Note: these guidelines are inspired by the decision making process during the AC Assembly in Kyrgyzstan

1. Proposal

2. Clarifying questions + friendly amendments

3. Time to reflect (if needed/asked) > smaller groups to discuss and think inside each organization < if you don't understand and want more clarification / if you don't agree / if you don't have the capacity to do it.

4. Block > you definitely disagree.

5. Stand aside > you are ok with the proposal but will not block it.

6. Any other friendly amendments?

7. Any other reflection needed?

8. Decision making.

More information on stand aside and block: http: //www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus

4. AC Whatsapp Group

Whatsapp group is great if you’re missing some AC love and also for building/maintaining relationships beyond “work”.

• If new people are added, please introduce them to the group

• If you have something specific to bring up with one person, consider having a separate chat outside of the group.

• If you feel that there are too many messages, you can mute the notifications of the group.

Malika and Rima from Art Group 705 are the current admins.

5. Internal Communication within Working Groups

Be self-organized!

Here are some suggested tools, so you can choose the ones that best suit your needs. If you find others that work better for you, go ahead and use them! Then please share with the AC internal communication working group so we also get to know them ;)

> Working Group Mailing List

In order to have an archive of the emails that can be seen by new members that can join the group in the future.

Google groups

> Video/audio conferences: Skype > (we all have already used it)

Google Hangouts (works better with unstable internet connections)

Jit.si Meet (easy to use, works fairly well with unstable internet connections, and it is a free software tool! better using google chrome browser)

> Instant messaging - useful for reminders and very urgent messages

Whatsapp (you can use it in your mobile phone and also in your browser with Whatsapp Web)

Telegram (free software tool, you can both use it in your browser and mobile phone)

> Setting the best date/time for a grupal meeting

Doodle

>Once the meeting day/time is settled, add in a calendar for sending reminders to all the participants

Google Calendar

During the meetings, please remember the facilitation method > have a host, harvester, guardian of intention/process.

6. Adding new people in the AC general list

For adding new people please get in contact with the current administrators of the list:

Teesa Bahana teesa@ugandanartstrust.org Luciana Fleischman residenciasplatohedro@gmail.com

Odile – Nubuke Foundation

Marion - Kër Thiossane

Diana – 705

(Gertrude – DOEN – Associate)

WHAT FOR ?

Fund-raising Working Group has to coordinate, strategize and facilitate contact and relation with external organizations to find financial resources for AC Ecosystem and projects within AC ethical principles. The group will provide guidelines to member organisations to identify and harness potential funding sources within their own networks.

Fund-Raising Working group is not responsible for directly fundraising but will follow different leads that could become sources for the network or for projects within the network.

GUIDELINES

• Habitual process

Within member’s network

1. Every member organisation will present AC with identified possible funder.

They will always inform other fund-raising group members of discussion with potential funders.

Always make a small written report of meeting with potential reports and archive it in the website document section.

The Fund- raising working group will:

1. Identify potential funders from member’s resource maps.

2. Analyse the potential fundraising opportunity ie. In accordance with AC ethical principles1 or related to any practice.

In that sense emphasis will be put on finding financing or donors within the countries/regions that AC organisations are based to develop funding mechanisms acceptable with our ethos.

1. Develop rough guidelines on the different ways to establish relations with funders: when do they become part of the ecosystem, when do we work on a project together, when are they just outside funders?

2. Make available a revised AC Presentation and AC ethical principles.

3. Be abreast with local organisation negotiation with a potential funder.

In presenting negotiations back to the rest of the members :

• • Open up a window for member’s feedback. [2weeks]

  • If agreed, passed on to Administration group

    • Not agreed then-update guideline

  • If there are objection – Discussions to be organised

  • If stronger objection – Brought to assembly

1. Keep record of all decisions with each funder and AC members in negotiation.

We will identify potential options we have now and follow through.

We are the point of contact for external request about support.

We are point of contact for and will give guidelines for individual members so they can harness (exploit) their own potential networks.

Find potential funders to collaborate within the fields of:

Travel Technology

Residency Education

Regional/ Geographical Location Ecology

RAISING FUNDS WITH EXTERNAL PUBLIC

1. Identify and analyse the needs within AC ecosystem through resource map/projects.

2. Research and collate information about potential funders based on the needs identified.

3. Go to represent AC at international conferences.

4. Research and collate information on existing calls in region- share its in newsletter.

5. Consider other forms like sponsoring or selling our “tools’’ or our knowledge on “intercultural collaboration/radical imagination”.

6. Launch a Call for Donors to apply to fund AC.

7. Add a donation button on website.

8. Explore how to promote and present AC and sell art works at commercial art fairs.

WHO DO WE NEED ?

• AC representation

• Website updated with AC info and our programmes.

• TamTam : newsletter

• Admin group.

• Central repository (répertoire central).

• Resource map.

WHAT ARE WE DEPENDENT ON ?

. Legal entity : We need the entity registered or have some AC members functioning as legal entity for AC.

. AC Presentation : We will work with the AC Presentation team.

Website : We need an address for external communications . A place/ server / cloud to store our records.

. News : We will use guidelines from Communication team.

. Resources : Resource maps harnessed with funder identity available by region, interests , etc