Belief Brainstorming

Introducing Snuggletown! 2005 Vision/Values List:

Bliss

Community

Communication

Connection

Play

Intention

Body

Introducing the Snuggletown! 2005 Mission Statement:

Snuggletown! is a body and touch-aware intentional community that nurtures connection, communication, exploration, passion, and playfulness with healthy, caring, communal opportunities for affection and bliss.

Attendees:

Ellie, Tzara, Bob, Sam, Eric, Angel, Kristi, Jiro, Brian, George, Robin, Beth, Jerry, Zan, Edie, Gene

Angel: brought a intro on mission vision statements

Instructions giving at the beginning:

Keeping in mind that this has a very corporate structure and sound to it – these were the initial definitions and instructions reviewed with the group for level setting of the process so that we all understood the definition of Vision and Mission statements and their purpose.

Outline of the process to be used (several portions were not fully articulated in the initial explanation and the process was revised midstream by consensus of the group and considering time constraints):

Begin with a brainstorming session on beliefs. This will allow us to understand our foundation of core ideas.
From the belief brainstorming we will extract a set of core values that we see as main subject areas highlighted in the belief brainstorming.
From the core values we will then generate a Vision statement
After creating a vision statement we will brainstorm actions, activity, audience, and methods for supporting the vision.
From the second brainstorm we will extract core ideas that we see as the main subject areas highlighted.
From the core mission subject areas we will generate and refine a mission statement.
Mission statement contains 3 components (LoveTribe mission used as an example):

Who – the audience you are trying to reach or owners of the vision

i. Cosmic LoveTribe recognizes we are all connected on a deeper spiritual level

What – the accomplishments or objectives

i. and is helping to create more heart-conscious, touch-positive communities that nurture our whole selves

How – the activities or methods used

i. by providing healthy, caring, communal opportunities to meet our needs for authentic connection, affection, and play.

Reminder that we may eventually end up right back at our current mission statement if it supports the values and vision we generate. This would provide confirmation that our mission was accurate.

Outline of the process as it actually occurred:

Basic introduction to purpose of creating a mission statement (gives direction and supports our activities and values)
Review of descriptions and definitions of Vision & Mission statements
Reminder that we may come back to our exact ’04 Mission statement – but would then be confirmed that it was clear and supported our values and beliefs.
Brainstorm beliefs
Extract and distilled core values
Passed on creation of vision statement and went straight to mission
Reviewed mission statement structure of who, what, how using LoveTribe example
Requested review of current Snuggletown! mission statement from ’04 (for contrast and understanding of current position.
Group consensus that we were pretty close already – wanted to jump to revision of current mission rather than recreation of new mission.
Highlighted Value/Vision concepts already included and identified those missing.
Began revision by adding missing Value/Vision elements
Multiple revisions to generate final version.

Creating Vision (an introduction):

When you begin the process of strategic planning, visioning comes first. When visioning the change, ask yourself, "What is our preferred future?" and be sure to:

Draw on the beliefs, mission, and environment of the organization.
Describe what you want to see in the future.
Be specific to each organization.
Be positive and inspiring.
Do not assume that the system will have the same framework as it does today.
Be open to dramatic modifications to current organization, methodology, teaching techniques, facilities, etc.

Key Components for Your Vision

Incorporate Your Beliefs

Your vision must be encompassed by your beliefs.

Your beliefs must meet your organizational goals as well as community goals.
Your beliefs are a statement of your values.
Your beliefs are a public/visible declaration of your expected outcomes.
Your beliefs must be precise and practical.
Your beliefs will guide the actions of all involved.
Your beliefs reflect the knowledge, philosophy, and actions of all.
Your beliefs are a key component of strategic planning.

Create a Mission Statement

Once you have clarified your beliefs, build on them to define your mission statement which is a statement of purpose and function.

Your mission statement draws on your belief statements.
Your mission statement must be future oriented and portray your organization as it will be, as if it already exists.
Your mission statement must focus on one common purpose.
Your mission statement must be specific to the organization, not generic.
Your mission statement must be a short statement, not more than one or two sentences.

Here is an example mission statement: "By providing quality education, we empower individuals to become caring, competent, responsible citizens who value education as a lifelong process."

Benefits of Visioning

The process and outcomes of visioning may seem vague and superfluous. The long-term benefits are substantial, however. Visioning:

Breaks you out of boundary thinking.
Provides continuity and avoids the stutter effect of planning fits and starts.
Identifies direction and purpose.
Alerts stakeholders to needed change.
Promotes interest and commitment.
Promotes laser-like focus.
Encourages openness to unique and creative solutions.
Encourages and builds confidence.
Builds loyalty through involvement (ownership).
Results in efficiency and productivity.

Vision Killers

As you engage in the visioning process, be alert to the following vision killers:

Tradition
Fear of ridicule
Stereotypes of people, conditions, roles and governing councils
Complacency of some stakeholders
Fatigued leaders
Short-term thinking
"Naysayers"

Belief Brainstorming – notes were transcribed as accurately & succinctly as possible from individual’s statements and group discussion and confirmed as we went.

Begin each statement with “I believe…” or “I believe in…”

Humans need touch

Humans need permission before touch

Humans need nurturing

Humans need gratuitous sex

We are leading to something greater / telepathic connection

We can change the world

We can heal each other and the universe through our bodies

Comfort is important

We have provided a space for people to learn to ask for what they want and learn to say no

Increasing awareness around body and connection

Communication in verbal/physical/mental/spiritual/telepathic form

Safe space for those suffering from isolation and a place for them to connect with community

Pajamas

Spreading unconditional love thru touch

Awareness of judgment

Freedom

Intelligence of the heart – it’s attraction and it’s power to dissipate shame/blame/jealousy

Community

Synergy and the fact that we can’t do this individually

Integrity

Everyone has their own skills to contribute

Deeper democracy

Education

Sharing/spreading the message of love

Sexy lighting

Promotion of respect

FUN!!

Sex

Play/games/playfulness

Spirituality

Art

Compassion

We have something to offer the Burning Man community

Change is difficult

Imagination

Dust free socks

Safer sex/Sacred sexuality

Group sex

Emotional support

Eating together

Preparing food together

Food “play”

Owning and speaking our truth

Teasing and being teased

Unity in adversity

Beauty in my environment

Radical inclusivity

Friendship

Never taking any relationship below friendship

Collective

Respect

Cleaning up our messes

Personal responsibility for community

Extended community and promotion/building/creation/visualization/nurturing of it

The next new thing

Infectiousness (not of disease)

Raising the vibration

Snuggle raids

Puppy piles

Humor

Intimacy

Laughter

Individual support by community

Group process and facilitation

Expansion

Balance and moving back to it

Understanding

Compassion and trust

Orgasms

Concepts highlighted by Belief Brainstorm:

Community

Laughter

Smiles

Snuggles

Love

play

Communication

Conscious Awareness

Consolidated Values List:

Bliss

Community

Communication

Connection

Play

Intention

Body

We agreed to pass on creating a "vision statement" and use the 7 words in our Consolidated Values List as our vision statement. This decision was made due to time constraints and the fact that the group felt very comfortable and confident with the list. It was later agreed that next year we might want to take time to expand this list into an actual vision statement.

LT mission statement was divided into who/what/how as an example.

For review we then wrote out our current ST! mission statement :

Snuggletown! recognizes that we are all connected and is working to create a body-positive, touch positive community that facilitates and nurtures our connection with each other, provide opportunities to explore our passions and playfulness, and to facilitate healthy, caring, communal opportunities to meet our needs for affection.

It was agreed that the Mission Statement already felt very in line with our list of values so we agreed to jump straight to the revision process using this as our starting point.

We began by identifying the values we saw explicitly and implicitly already included as well as identifying what was missing.

Value concepts explicitly present (circled in green) :

connected

body

community

playfulness

communal

Value concepts implicitly present (circled in blue) :

touch

nurtures

explore

passions

healthy

caring

needs

affection

Value concepts missing:

Communication

Intention

Bliss (somewhat implicit though it felt weak)

Bob said he wasn’t sure what intention was and how it related so we had a short discussion on what “Intention” meant so we could properly include it in the mission statement:

Bob said his definition was "consciously focused on. . . w/ purpose"

Ellie said her definition was: “purposefully creating something significant. Intention is vital to communication. ST! at least has an intention to community.” She noted she wanted to use some phrase that communication was a central concept "communicate and explore."

We continued to edit.

People sang a song.

Jiro wanted to write a new song.

First main revision after significant marking up and discussion:

Snuggletown is creating a body and touch aware intentional community that recognizes we are all connected, nurtures communication and explores our passions and playfulness by supporting healthy, caring, communal opportunities for affection and bliss.

We continued editing and came up with the following second revision:

Robin spoke to the group and said she proposed the idea to rewrite the original statement, and no one listened to her. She did not like the hypocrisy of using the statement as a starting point because we had said initially we didn’t want to be held in the box of what we did last year. We agreed she had a point and also noted that the process of evaluating & enumerating our vision concepts was fundamental to getting to the revision process. It was also discussed that the process evolved as we went and discovered that the Vision concepts we identified felt fairly well encapsulated.

Bob observed we needed to address our mission statement to help everyone, foster community and remember that one of our beliefs was individual support by the community. Bob went to talk to Robin and she came back and talked about the original statement, and about being confined

We talked about the process and that reaffirming and working through the concepts was important even if we came back to where we started.

Ellie talked about now difficult the process is and how frustrating but rewarding working together is.

We did a final review of the mission statement and compared it to our Vision/Values list. We agreed that all items were sufficiently included (though Angel noted bliss still felt a little awkward but was ok.)

We agreed the statement was sound and that it was a sufficient final version.

We summarized our process / meeting flow:

meeting agenda / set direction

Brainstorming

Evolution

Discussions

We made $5 on Pizza to be donated to the Snuggletown! coffers.

We held a closing circle (noted we forgot the opening circle)