Hi, I love this proposal ❤️thanks for moving this forward. I like the survey approach so as to more precisely address Kiez Burn needs. I support this initiative and Im keen to help in some form if needed.

1. I believe we do need this!

2. I would like to go 🤗

3. I think in regards to budget it wouldn't be a problem as well as participants contributing if they can.

4. So as to make any different, I dont think so, but there are two things Id like to point out:

   • From my experience retreats and off-sites tend to be pretty full of activities of all kinds which I find very nourishing and useful, however, all these are group activities. We have breakfast, we do games, body exercises/workouts, sharing rounds, workshops etc, etc. For those who are rather introvert, this is very challenging and might find the overall experience a bit overwhelming; Usually, when we organize these retreats or offsite we tend to miss out on this detail and forget to schedule a "me time" where we encourage participants to take some time alone, go for a walk and have a moment of self-reflection and find a peace of mind without feeling we/They are missing out content or activities.

     I wonder if a time off could be added to the agenda, or at least, to the Survey (?) to see what participants would need to really make the most of an event like this.

   • I would add some content about best practices on how to express gratitude and thankfulness to show appreciation to other realizers/participants.

   Thanks once again for taking the initiative🙏

Very cool, yes I love this. I think it's a great use of the verein's resources.

• I am happy to assist in any way that I can. I have a few workshop ideas and useful tools for leadership I think, especially in self-regulation under stress.

• I would like to highlight that the kitchen situation last time was less than ideal. We had 2 volunteers working pretty much full time to feed everyone (and not everyone cleared up after themselves!). They could barely take part in any of the activities. It was a lot to ask of volunteers. Two potential solutions are;

  • We compensate them for their time. (Which in this case I think could be fair)

  • We have more kitchen helpers and distribute them around all the participants, taking shifts. That way everyone loses out on something, but everyone get's to take part in most activities.

  • Or we have a much bigger kitchen team, giving them more opportunity to take part in the other activates.

There is also plans for us to have a scavenger hunt around about that same time period. Hopefully we can allocate the rainy weekend to the leadership and the sunny weekend to the scavenger hunt :P

Thanks for initiating this. Looks great!

Heyyy, super happy if this is happening again and happy to offer my support in organising or facilitating depending on what is needed <3

I think this is a great way to bring more active people in the community and to the critical roles.

1. Do we need this?
   Yes! We are still a young community and event, with lots of new members since the last retreat. It was great for giving many folk the skills and confidence to take leadership roles in the events last year. Would be great to gift that opportunity to even more people.

2. Would you want to come and apply?
   Yes please. Also happy if you need help with some orga hands.
   

3. Is this money well spend and is this where we want to invest into?
   Personally aligns with my own understanding of prioritising building and growing the community in positive and constructive ways.
   

4. Would you do anything different?

   I don't think so. I probably wouldn't have made such an excellent Advice Process though so kudos to that! :D

1. Do we need this?
Absolutely! This was a very beneficial project the first time around, and this even more thought out approach seems great.

2. Would you want to come and apply?
Yes but. Should we send some of the people that attended the first leadership retreat, or favor community members that didn't have the chance to participate then, to enable their leadership as ours has been?

3. Is this money well spent and is this where we want to invest into?
Yes. Community empowerment and favoring the development of our dedicated members, I believe this is one of the core of our missions as an e.V.

4. Would you do anything different?
You seem to already have this aspect under control: making sure that we have varied speakers in terms of backgrounds/social categories. It seems that having a white cis male moderator predominantly leading the retreat last time had good and bad parts as you know.

1. Do we need this?
   Yes! Echoing points mentioned by Bee and Cairn.

2. Would you want to come and apply?
   Probably not, I personally cannot stomach another weekend spent learning currently and there's a 50% chance I cannot attend anyways. But I'd love to because the last time was such a valuable experience*, so it would depend.
   

3. Is this money well spend and is this where we want to invest into?
   Yes. We need more dedicated people who feel empowered to take on lead roles.
   

4. Would you do anything different?
   Nope. *Except for the dire request to not invite G. again. Any other kind of facilitator, please. Preferably with a somewhat more diverse background and a greater understanding and empathy for the challenges that actually block people in the process of taking on leadership roles.
   If the conclusion of the retreat is going to be "give less fucks about the thing that you give enough fucks about to make you spend your weekend as we do here" I am going to loose my marbles. Thanks.

Thank you for the initiative @Franzi , this is A M A Z I N G!

1. Yes, absolutely! without having participated at the last leadership retreat i would have probably not joined the board, so I would hope this gives more people confidence to take roles at the event or the verein (or just benefit of it in general on a personal level!)

2. I would love to, but would also give preference to people who have not been at the last leadership weekend. But I would like to support where I can.

3. definitely. Money well invested! If we dont have enough budget we could also ask a "contribute what you can" sliding scale for participants? And/or self reliance regarding food.

4. agree with all points mentioned already, especially "anti-social time" (I liked the quiet lunch!) & diversity in speakers (here I am personally pro payment! I know its against burn values, but then again we will only have speakers who can afford to work for free and that's not reality though..)

Would also add to kitchen, that the noise level has also to be taken in account (the room had really difficult noise travel in my opinion). Don't really have a solution for it though, except If everyone brings/prepares their own food in the lunchbreak

Hey @Kate @Mareike @Cairn (Clément) @Saskia thanks for your all your input and taking your time.

• silent lunch noted

• more individual time for whatever people wanna do aka processing time noted

• I can have a look and see if we can find a different accommodation - You are right, noise level were a general problem, also no break out groups

• in terms of facilitators: we got a bit mixed feedback last time in terms of quality and 'match to KB' -> thats why we decided the program will be less co-created this time

• the program we are running is a program that I run at organizations in my professional life, David and I worked for the same place (at different times) so he is also familiar with it (and offered to help facilitate)

• the program is based on research (explained above) coming from some of the leading institutes for organizational & leadership development, it starts with a survey which will be conducted with all guides/realizers/kkorgies/boardies etc, based on that we assess what will be a focus area(s) for this program (values/structure/relationship) and run workshops based on that

• I received a 'train the trainer' some years ago and have all the workshop material ready..we just need to plug n play

  • meaning the facilitation will be mostly between david and me (and Animal indicated that she would be up for it) - now, it will be different because it will be all workshops, no stage talks

• So, this was a long answer now :D

  • I hope this will help with better quality content

  • I am confident that this will really tailor to what KB needs now

  • This program will be completely different than the first one (no talks, just workshops, really 'you' in the driver seat, base on stronger needs assessment etc

  • This program is valuable for both groups - have been to the retreat, have not been

Does this answer some of your concerns/raised points?

I hope this answers a lot of questions <3

hey franzi,
wow, what a well organized and thought through proposal. thank you! I feel I have nothing additional to add but still wanted to react to this, even though I have nothing new to add.

1. Do we need this? I think this is super valuable and a great approach to help people grow and then also help the community and kiez burn grow.

1. Would you want to come and apply? If the dates suited me, probably yes. But also depending on the overall time investment (I spent (too) many weekends with seminars in the last year(s)).

2. Is this money well spend and is this where we want to invest into? See point 1.

3. Would you do anything different? Many valuably comments have been given. Maybe: Sometimes reading "diversity", and also selecting people on the grounds of diversity in the process sounds good, but it is unclear to me what it means (not abstract but concretely).

Hey,

thank you very much for this initiative! I also feel there is a lot of good feedback already which i can second (yes to the introvert/me time). I don't want to dedicate to being involved with the facilitation and planning but am happy to give further feedback.

1. i feel this is working towards a more sustainable, organized and overall professional structure which is what KB needs right now to get on tracks for the next years and to develop into a solid community.

2. I attended the last one and I am not opposed to joining again, depending on dates. I would need funding, but would also be happy to leave my spot to another interested person. I would love to find a great result from the experience which really strenghtens a core team and I would get involved in a reliable and progressive community.

3. money well spent!

4. This seems well planned. I liked the community experience more than the actual facilitated workshops last time. Personally I need less fun, games and rituals and more concrete work. In accordance with Saskia I was sceptic againist G.s start-up approach the last time. Since this will be different now I like the concept with distributed and themed workshops a lot. Should be coherent, straight, concrete, continuous work on the main question: how do we do things? That doesn't mean "all work, no play" but focussing on results the community can rely and build on.

   For me it always seems to come down to these questions:

   • how do we communicate? (easy, transparent, intuitive, open, clear...)

   • how are things organized? (teams, camps, leads, board, korg...)

   • what is the structure? (existing set of rules, experiences, facts, knowledge, vision...)

   So yes, I like the concentration on vision, structure and team. There are still struggles between the centralized and decentralized approach, however it is impossible to distinguish that. We need to manage to find a practicable hybrid solution which approches both, decentralized freedom for the crazyness, synergies and spontaneity and the centralized part for the critical, too big to fail, necessary areas which have huge implications and need a lot of experience, care or knowledge - and which generally seem necessary to carry bigger projects. There are a lot of very (!) capable persons around, we must not frustrate (aka burn out) them and enable a smooth involvement to ensure a safe and fun event in the future and digest the growth into a bigger and more complex community to overcome the childhood diseases of every collective work.

   Some thoughts on vision:

   • Do we want to grow beyond 1000 people? How big do we want to grow?

   • How do we enable other burns organized through the KB network throughout the year?

   • Do we want to become/have a permanent burn structure with a permanent space? (i.e. embassy)

   • How can we increase the positive impact of the burn community on our everyday life?

   • How can we increase networking opportunities? (business, event, social life, revolutionary activity)

   • Are we political? Do we get involved with social events and developments?

   • How can we improve on our collective work online?

   • Self reflection: how progressive, inclusive, tolerant, critical, hedonistic, sustainable are we?

   Considering the layout of the space, confined rooms would be better for a program with more workshops. The church atmosphere of huge ceilings was impressive and nice, but not exactly helpful for concentrated work, also because of acoustics. Since I won't look into other suitable spaces or think about what could make sense - could we rent a Berlin club or another closed institution and thus help them? - I just shut up.

   Thanks so much for the effort!

   take care, stay strong and safe & cheers to everone!

Hey Kiez Burn,

Happy New Year.. we have very exciting news for you! We will run a Leadership Program v2.0. We just finished the advice process and are super excited to get the ball rolling.

Kiez Burn's Leadership Program v2.0, happening from April 15th-18th (this is the Easter weekend) in Brandenburg.

During a long weekend offsite program (location: tbd) selected participants (based on this application) will go through a workshop-based Leadership program. The program is designed based on research from Amy Edmondson (psychological safety), we:work and insead. The program explores three core areas that any great team needs: Vision, Structure, Relationships.

The application form will be open for you until February 27th - 6pm. We aim to inform you if your application was successful by March 4th. https://forms.gle/Xww7K3SKe5Gm24pM6

If you have or have not been to the first one is not important. This edition is equally valuable for everyone and we are excited for you to come back.

All questions you might have will be answered here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16F3nwXmZeXXyUlnavK05whslp_0dT-Fkw5w-WfemwOs/edit?usp=sharing

You can find the full advice process here:

https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/Vpzaxb1S/proposal-seeking-advice-leadership-program-v2-0

We are really very excited about this <3

I'm in awe of this process. The suggested framework makes me super curious to attend in order to learn more about team building. Great job on outlining and drawing advice.

It seems I am a bit late to give timely input but also wouldn't know what to add.

I think kiezburn needs a new approach to how it works and the frameworks to reach decisions and govern conflict. Using novel methods seems the right fit for that.

Happy to help in the future if there's anything I can do to help.

Ps: maybe a small remark: all of this, and a little bit kiez burn in general, is a bit too serious. It might be interesting to have a look at nowhere and how they infuse humor in all they do, so to draw in more Engagement and make it more fun in general. Eg: their "frequently asked questions" is called "frequently ignored answers" or other small things.

thanks for your response. sorry for the long delay. That sounds all great. I guess I just struggle sometimes with the objective of diversity that yes, it is super important and should definately be on our agenda to try to have processes that value and foster diversity. and also, maybe most importantly, to reflect on biases in general as well as in selection processes. I also find it difficult to set fixed criteria for the election process along some diversity lines and also how to define them (eg cultural diversity, as this in itself is a word and concept with many meanings and can have very different emphasis). And at the same time to ensure a bias-free(d) selection. but also, I have not a concrete proposal, its more just some thoughts to that topic/ challenge I have in general. and also I do think there is a sensibility for the topic and I appreciate that a lot.

Thanks for the development, @Franzi 👏

1. Hell yeah!

2. Since I've never done anything like this before and have mostly been thrown in (voluntarily :)) at the deep end so far, I would really love to participate.

3. Yes, this is definitely a great investment in the future of our community.

4. I can't give any feedback on the last event, but support the idea of diverse speakers/workshop leaders/facilitators – as well as some free time.
   
   As @Mareike mentioned, it's a little against our principles, but especially in the case we have external speakers/workshop leaders/facilitators it would be understandable to give a little compensation (if requested) for their time and energy. After all, we pay for security and first aid at Kiez Burn as well....
   
   How about we collect more suggestions/ideas/offers for the program as part of the application form and create an agenda based on that or recruit more facilitators that match our interests?

Hey @Veroca R. Sala now here as well after our phone exchange <3 thanks a lot for all your thoughts, time and advice.

1. completely agreed, great input, noted!

2. yes that would be part of feedback.. but calling it feedback and gratitude sounds amazing!

Hey @Martin K :) Thank you for reading and sharing your feedback and advice!

I want to circle back with you on what you said about vision.

• 'Do we want to grow beyond 1000 people? How big do we want to grow?

• How do we enable other burns organized through the KB network throughout the year?

• Do we want to become/have a permanent burn structure with a permanent space? (i.e. embassy)

• How can we increase the positive impact of the burn community on our everyday life?

• How can we increase networking opportunities? (business, event, social life, revolutionary activity)

• Are we political? Do we get involved with social events and developments?"

In the way Kiez Burn works and the tools we use, all of this would be advice processes. I don't think that the leadership program should take such decisions . These are really important questions that we need to answer..but not in a central 'I am the boss' way but in a collective way where everyone can participate.

Hey Juli, thank you so much for your kind words and your appreciation.

to your point 3. well, I guess it depends who applies. Diversity preferences that we too into account last time are:

• Cultural diversity

• Age diversity

• Sex / Gender diversity

• Sexual orientation

• Disability

• First time burner vs more experienced (not a diversity marker but important for us to mix knowledge)

• Professional background (not a diversity marker but important for us to mix knowledge)

• Years of experience in event production (not a diversity marker but important for us to mix knowledge)

• We invited people from outside Kiez Burn and outside Burn universe (not a diversity marker but important for us to mix knowledge)

• Enabling low income (for accessibility)

Hope that gives some more clarity. Also, curious what you would look out for?

Hey @Professor Kaos Thank you for taking time to read my proposal <3

1. super happy to learn more about it.

2. 2. The kitchen volunteers were not part of the program. They came only to do kitchen and it was agreed with them before. Nonetheless , completely agree! Easier meals, radical self-breakfast, @Veroca R. Sala proposed for people only to use their own mugs aka less clean up, everyone cleans up etc. I ll make this part of the facilitation package that this needs to be managed better.

   With this changes I hope we find kitchen volunteers. I think paying people is really not in line with our values and principles. We dont pay anyone and I dont think this is where we should start

   If not, radical self reliance - as always. People will need to manage their own food then.

3. Yeah I ll coordinate with @Cairn (Clément) with dates