A new circle has been created – Structure Development. The Structure Development Circle is open for any interested member of Recovery Dharma to join.
The purpose of the Circle is to define and document structures for Recovery Dharma community support at the global, regional, and intersangha levels. In cases where these structures already exist, we’ll reach out to those involved and document common practices that have worked.
What will the support structures do? That will be one of the first things for us to discuss! Possibilities include supporting new meetings getting started, problem-solving for challenges groups are facing, providing a forum for members within a region to connect with each other, hold events, etc.
The Structure Development Circle won’t actually implement the structures that are defined, although it may help with initial logistics of getting the structures started, if it makes sense to do so. Once the work of the Structure Development Circle is complete, the Structure Development Circle will dissolve.
Questions the Circle will address include:
- How those providing service to our community would be identified or selected/elected.
- How those serving would be accountable for their work.
- How the work of current circles would be incorporated (Sangha Support Circle, Community Wisdom Circle, etc).
- How the regional map adopted for elections might be incorporated into a support structure (if at all).
- How the support structures and the Board of Directors work together.
- Limits (if any) of participation of members of the Board within the support structures.
The general process of the work will be:
- Open invitation to the community for participation in the Circle.
- Discussion of the purpose of community support structures
- What do we want them to do?
- What is not part of what community structures do?
- Develop a proposed community support structure document.
- Present the proposed community support structure to the community in open Zoom calls for review and discussion.
- Incorporate feedback from community meetings.
- Send the proposed community support structure out to the community for ratification (exact ratification process TBD).
The work of the Circle will be accomplished through meetings on Zoom and conversations on a Slack channel. Regarding Zoom meetings – scheduling is always hard. We’ll use a poll to pick the best day of the week and time to meet, and then meet at that same day/time, generally every other week. Unfortunately, it will likely not be possible to come up with a day and time which will allow everyone who is interested in participating to attend the meetings. However, the meetings will be recorded and made available to the members.
If you would like to join the Circle, or have further questions, send an email to: garymatulis@recoverydharma.org