meeting

NGO Dotmocracy session 2

in
NGO Dotmocracy session 2

This was an early version of Dotmocracy that used stickers on the the Dotmocracy sheets placed within a scale of agreement, and sticky notes.

 

OCIC 2006 Group Dotting

in
OCIC 2006 Group DottingWe had three walls full of posted ideas. It seems you can never have too much wall space.

Karma Food Co-op 2004 AGM dotmocracy wall

in
Karma Food Co-op 2004 AGM dotmocracy wallMany people dotting at once. Using old version of dotmocracy sheet using stickers and post-it comments.

Kensington Market Community - plans for the 2005 Pedestrian Sundays

in
Summary: 
The process resulted in over 25 strongly approved proposals covering eight key questions, completed within 80 minutes. The participants were a diverse group of residents, business owners and community visitors.
Date / Time: 
March 9th 2005, 80 minutes
Name of Facilitator(s): 
Jason Diceman + City of Toronto staff
Total number of ideas dotted: 
88
Number of participants: 
40
Preamble: 

To start the meeting, the City staff presented results from their recent community surveys and also gave context from their insight. Maps of the area were provided for reference.

In small groups, attendees brainstormed multiple answers to each of eight key
questions:
1. Why do you want (or not want) to hold a Pedestrian Sunday event(s)?
2. Which streets (if any) do you propose to close for a Pedestrian Zone?
3. How often and for what hours do you propose Pedestrian Sundays?
4. How will you consult with the community and be inclusive?
5. What kind of activities do you propose?
6. What is your plan for vehicular access and parking?
7. What considerations will you include for local business?
8. What considerations will you include for local residents?
Each answer (proposal element) was placed on the wall under the related question.

Details: 

PS Kensington Dotmocracy sessionAttendees (not including staff) participated in a show of hands to determine who was at the meeting:

  • Kensington merchants (managers or business owners): 9
  • Kensington employees (business or non-profit): 3
  • Kensington residents: 21
  • Kensington visitors or shoppers: 10
  • Other: 1

At the end of the process the city staff read back to the room the top 3-4 ideas for each question.


Read the complete results PDF

 

View a photoÂ?


Learnings: 

This meeting was one of many in a series organized by community leaders and the City. A major difference at this meeting was the lack of grand standing and loud debate. Some of the 'usual suspects' that often dominated the agenda got frustrated with not being able to make speeches, while accepted the new 'write and dot' format.

It was obvious that a majority of women participated where usually men dominated.

Having the City host and endorse the dotmocracy process gave it greater legitimacy.

There were some concerns that I as facilitator was biased because I was also friends with Pedestrian Sunday organizers, but after promising that I would be objective and would not contribute or influence the content, there were no more concerns.

The 8 parallel questions seemed to work well. I had to encourage people to give answers to the those questions that had less answers. I think this worked because there were many small groups who were familiar with the topic and the questions were very accessible.

After the final results were given to organizers and city staff, it is not clear how much they used them. Both City officials and community organizers commented that getting support and buy-in from a few power brokers was more important.

The City took the top 20 ideas to document in their own minutes. I took all the results and generated a complete report. The turn around time was about 3 weeks. I think it might have been more well received if it was presented in print, given to more people, discussed in the local press and was given some agenda time in a follow-up meeting.

Big Carrot food co-op member meeting

in
Summary: 
The Big Carrot food co-op used dotmocracy to inform the policy decision concerning staff uniforms.
Date / Time: 
January 2005, 30 minutes
Name of Facilitator(s): 
Jason Diceman
Total number of ideas dotted: 
20
Number of participants: 
45
Preamble: 

I gave a brief explanation of the dotmocracy process. The issue of staff identification was already well understood by the members present. The two questions posted on the dotmocracy wall were:

1. What can we wear to identify ourselves to customers as Big Carrot employees?

2. What can we wear to identify which department we each work in?

 

Details: 

The 30 minute dotmocracy session was part of the bi-weekly staff meeting for the 45 member/owners.

While a clear winner was not recognized immediately, the results were reviewed later and did inform a final policy of eusing an identifying shirt pin.

They have since used dotmocracy for other decisions, such as renovations to their interior.

Learnings: 

It took some real encouragement to get some members our of their chairs and dotting. There were also a few joke ideas posted that did not seem to discredit the process.

 

Non-profit leaders training in Niagara Falls 2004

in
Summary: 
Collecting clear direction for next steps at the conclusion of a non-profit leaders project training.
Date / Time: 
December 2004, 1 hour
Name of Facilitator(s): 
Jason Diceman
Total number of ideas dotted: 
42
Number of participants: 
16
Preamble: 
I asked the participants to brainstorm in small groups and produce suggestions for promoting success in the project that they were all being trained on.
Details: 

In December 2004, sixteen diverse non-profit leaders used an early version of the Dotmocracy process to identify and prioritize issues and outline next steps at the conclusion of a two day national web portal project training workshop.
  • 42 proposals were written and discussed
  • An average of 12 participants critically judged each proposal
  • 30 unanimously accepted suggestions were recognized, 13 of which had strong approval
  • Conducted in a single 65 minute session, including instruction and debriefing

The steering committee was able to use the written results of the Dotmocracy process to generate a clear plan of action towards successful project roll-out.

The process used the original sticker version of the Dotmocracy sheets.

A staff member recorded the results and e-mailed them to the group.

Learnings: 

People really liked the process. Some quotes...

 

"I felt engaged, listened to, and invigorated by how much was accomplished."
Kirstin Beardsley
Communications & Research Officer, Developing Human Resources in the Voluntary Sector

"An excellent energizing way to bring interactive brainstorming to a whole new level. A process that gets EVERYONE involved!!"
Kathy Marshall
Executive Director, Womenspace

"Rapid and efficient"
Glory Ressler
Professional Adult Educator and Facilitator, Edge of Avalon - Avalon Consulting and Associates

"Engaging and fun"
Norm King
Director, BoardMatch Fundamentals

"I look forward to using it further"
Beth De Long
Executive Director, Pillar - Voluntary Sector Network
........................................................ . . . . . . . .

Karma Food Co-op 2004 Annual General Meeting

in
Summary: 
In parallel with the meeting agenda, members were invited to post and dot ideas for the co-op. We used an early version of the dotmocracy sheet with stickers.
Date / Time: 
October 25th 2004,
Name of Facilitator(s): 
Jason Diceman, Sophia Wong
Total number of ideas dotted: 
20
Number of participants: 
88
Preamble: 
"Throughout the meeting, speakers will pose questions and mention issues that need to be addressed. If you would like to propose a solution, write it on a proposal sheet. Please write large and clearly. Include only one proposal per a proposal sheet. Once you have a completed one or more proposal sheets, pass it to a Dotmocracy facilitator who will tape it to the back wall."

"When the opportunity arises (e.g. when getting food, during a break or as you leave) go to the Dotmocracy wall and review the posted suggestions. After reading and considering a posted proposal, place one sticker in the multi-vote box the best reflects your opinion of the proposal. Any adult member can vote on any number proposals, even if you have not submitted any proposal sheets. You may also post comments and concerns under a proposal using a sticky note."
Details: 

We received proposals through out the first part of the meeting. Almost all of the dotting was done during the 15 minute break. We used dot stickers and comments using post-it notes. People found it to be fun.

See complete results in PDF report (860 KB).

See a photo.

Learnings: 

Having the dotmocracy wall close to the food table helped promote use, although it got rather crowded at times. The use of sticky-notes for comments worked but were hard to archive. Brighter lighting would have made it easy to read.

Syndicate content