Week 27
Mon 30th Jun - Sun 6th Jul 2025
Monday 30th June 2025
WG Sync Call
Type of meeting: Monthly
Present: PeterE [facilitator], CallyFromAuron [documenter], PeterE, CallyFromAuron, guillermolucero, UKnowZork, Sucre n Spice, Effiom, Jeffrey Ndarake, AshleyDawn, Alfred Itodele, advanceameyaw, Rems
Purpose: Monthly call for all Workgroups to discuss Program-wide issues
Working Docs:
Agenda Items:
Should WG Sync calls and monthly Town Hall Update sessions be compulsory?
Did End of Year Report get published?
From Onboarding WG: Rethink of overall premise of Ambassador Program - what are we onboarding people TO?
From Onboarding WG: proopoosed changes to approach of Ambassador social media accounts - less coontent creation, more amplifying oof content from else where in the ecosystem
From Onboarding WG: Do we need WGs - even if only temporary ones - for a) external fundraising and b) selling our skills and tools as a service?
Discussion:
As often happens with WG Sync calls, the meeting had a slow start and was quite at first, but gradually warmed up.
WG Sync call is important, and we can ask WGs to send a representative, but we can't really make it compulsory.
Are there barriers to participation? We need to find out.
Monthly TH updates - if everyone attended, they'd only get a couple of minutes each.
Are people not attending because they don't get time too say anything?
Do people find it boring? Are they listening to what's said?
We have quarterly reports - isn't that enough reporting?
Are quarterly reports more internal, and TH Updates more outward facing? (Maybe not - view counts are pretty low)
Can we try a different approach for a while - people only present if they have something specific to share?
End of Year report - it's quite old now, so we can't really make a splash about it - but people worked hard on it. What happened? Need to ask Writers' WG why it didn't go oout.
When the new Ambassadors website goes up, we could put it there, without making a massive splash about it.
Rethink of overall premise of Ambassador Program - feels like something that needs a meeting of its own.
And it needs to be facilitated in an engaging and participatory way, to help overcome barriers like pooor Internet connections and make sure everyone's heard. For example: have a shared doc that people can contribute to in advance of the meeting.
We'll set up a "mission-and-vision" session, and invite a small group to be part of planning it.
Ambassador social media accounts: the suggestion is that they should do less content-creatioon, and more amplifying of content created elsewhere in the ecosystem; make sure to attribute and namecheck people; and try to engage more with followers - discussions, etc - rather than just giving information
Maybe use Mindplex more?
This meeting felt that an overall communications strategy might be what is needed
Regional Guilds (LatAm, African) might be able to help, as they have some goood strategies
But important that the content-creation WGs (Writers, Video, Marketing) are strongly involved - not least because of WG autonomy.
We'll ask them if they think it would be a good idea.
Do we need WGs for a) external fundraising and b) selling our skills and tools as a service?
We didn't have time for much discussion, but agreed to take it to Governance WG
Decision Items:
We agreed WG Sync Calls should not be compulsory, but maybe we should looom at which WGs are rarely represented, and ask them if there is a blocker for them
[effect] mayAffectOtherPeople
We agreed that we will try a different approach for Town Hall Updates for a few months: have a sign-up sheet, WGs oonly sign up if they have anything they want to share, and they can then be alllocated a slot, which will be a bit longer.
We agreed groups that do present should aim to be a bit more participatory in what they present - it's an opportunity to ask for input and opinions, seek collaboration from other WGs,
[rationale] Aiming to avoid having all 21 WGs trying to present at once, people having to present if they have nothing much to say, and presentations that are just talk.
We will organise a special meeting to discuss whether there needs to be a change in the overall focus of the Ambassador Program We'll try to facilitate it in a moore engaging way, and offer opportunities for peoople to give opinions ooutside of the meeting itself
[rationale] it needs a full meeting of its own, and peoople might be more likely to come to a special meeting
[effect] mayAffectOtherPeople
We'll approach the content creation WGs about whether they think developing a comms strategy is a goood approach
[rationale] because it's their field of work so they should have the final say
[effect] mayAffectOtherPeople
On the question of new WGs for a) external fundraising and b) selling our skills and tools as a service - we'll discuss in Governance WG in the session when the 2 Task Forces on this from Q2 are reporting back
[effect] mayAffectOtherPeople
Action Items:
[action] Peter to check Read.ai / Archives for which WGs were and weren't represented at the last few WG Sync calls; then we will contact those WGs and ask how they feel abot the calls, any bloockers, etc [assignee] PeterE [due] 8 July 2025 [status] todo
[action] Peter will create and share a sign-up sheet for the July TH Updates session, about a week before [assignee] PeterE [due] 21 July 2025 [status] todo
[action] Peter to post in Writers' WG Discord to ask what happened to the End Of Year Report and why it wasn't published. (Already done during meeting, so awaiting reply) [assignee] PeterE [due] 30 June 2025 [status] done
[action] Peter to post in Ambassador-General Discord channel to ask for people with an interest in facilitation to get together and plan a session on whether the "overall premise" of the Program needs any changes. [assignee] PeterE [due] 4 July 2025 [status] todo
[action] Peter to ask Marketing, Video and Writers WGs if theywould be interested in a session to discuss a communications strategy. Tie in local WGs (African/LatAm). [assignee] PeterE [due] 4 July 2025 [status] todo
Keywords/tags:
topics covered: Town Hall Updates, Mandatory WG Sync calls?, Participation in governance, Engagement, good facilitation, participatory facilitation, EOY Report 2024, Ambassador Program mission and vision, Ambassador Program shift of focus?, Mindplex, social media, content creation vs amplifying existing content, follower engagement, communications strategy, social media communications strategy, content creation, LatAm Guild, African guild, Selling tools and skills as a service, external fundraising
emotions: Only a few of those present spoke, progressive, long, slow start, decisive
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