Reflections on the Global Leadership Council Kick-off Meeting
The Challenges:
Communication and community where consistent themes in regards to the challenges faced by Local organizers. There is a feeling among organizers that it is not always easy to explain “what NetSquared is.” It is difficult to communicate the message of NetSquared when that message and the values and goals are unknown or vague.
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Communication and community where consistent themes in regards to the challenges faced by Local organizers. There is a feeling among organizers that it is not always easy to explain “what NetSquared is.” It is difficult to communicate the message of NetSquared when that message and the values and goals are unknown or vague.
The other challenge that grows out of this communication need is the transfer of knowledge to the NetSquared Local groups. Not only do Local groups require clear communication to build awareness, participants and differentiate themselves, but to enhance program offerings and meet localized needs.
Growing from the individual organizer challenge and those faced by the Local groups, there is also an overarching challenge centered on the relationship between the Local and the Global NetSquared. Organizers are eager to connect with other organizers globally to enable them to enhance value locally.
The Opportunities:
The Global Leadership Council members were full of amazing insights. They noted many opportunities for NetSquared and offered thoughts on how to best to maximize on the opportunities that they are observing:
The development of a clear and concise definition of NetSquared that Local groups could modify as appropriate to their own local purpose. This would provide a shared understanding that supports localism as well.
Greater promotion of the fact that NetSquared Locals are are part of a global network. Make more points of connection between NetSquared Locals, the global NetSquared network, and TechSoup as a point of unique value.
The creation of a feedback loop that would enable NetSquared Locals to share, problem-solve, and collaborate more effectively with one another. This would serve as a means of sharing resources, lessons learned and capacity needs.
What’s next for the Global Leadership Council?
In preparation for future Global Leadership Council meetings, we asked the members to wrap-up the call by brainstorming topics that they would like to discuss over the coming year. These topics included a review of the event programs that could be used by a variety of Local groups, the development of an annual project collectively tackled by Local groups, the identification of risk and the necessary steps to sustain a Local group, among others.
If you have a specific topic you’d like to see the GLC members discuss please share it in the comments section or via @vrhinesmith.
Our next meeting will be held in mid-February. In the meantime, if you’d like to listen to the full Global Leadership Council kick-off call, we welcome you to do so here. Please note that if you do not have Flash installed, you will be prompted to install Flash before viewing. For additional instructions on playback, click here for more information.
Don’t forget that you can stay connected by:
- Following and participate the conversation on Twitter using #net2glc
- Learning more about the GLC and it’s members on our GLC wiki
- Reading the NetSquared blog for reflections from the GLC members
- Sending me, Vanessa, NetSquared Local topics for the GLC to address
