Introductory Session

HubBrussels members interested in participating in the Micro-Success collaborative support group for social enterprise start-ups met on 15 December 2009 at the Hub in Brussels in the small conference room.

The purpose of the introductory session was to get to know each other, discuss expectations, and determine how and when to work together.

Six people were present – another 2 had expressed interest but could not attend. Each participant was asked to answer the following questions:

Bess

What are you trying to achieve? A project to sell natural food products that have a story AND a project for youth to encourage work/life/food balance

Where are you in the process? Writing the business plan

What has been your biggest challenge this year? Transitioning away from professional non-profit work to a position of not having an income stream, and having the time to focus on starting something new.

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? Acquire a piece of land, have finished 1st pilot training with kids for life/work balance project. 2 modules: for ages 17-20 and/or 20-24 (Christina suggested a possible connection with the Butterfly Project http://www.ned.com/group/butterf ly/)

Filip

What are you trying to achieve? prepare the population for peak oil challenges

Where are you in the process? Working with others on a concept for using renewable energy sources as a way of binding communities together. Also independently toying with an idea to connect youth with the elderly in a square foot garden project that could be carried out at rest homes.

What has been your biggest challenge this year? The group's community energy source concept is too broad and complex with regard to local systems building. The square foot garden project idea is more concrete but has not gone beyond the idea phase.

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? Narrow the group focus and get them committed to doing something concrete - perhaps specifically to do with facilitating the use of electric cars. Also hopes to establish pilot partnerships between schools and rest homes.

Geert

What are you trying to achieve? Facilitate a revolution in consciousness in Belgium as a franchise of Creative Counscious Intl; transition to coaching as a way of life; advance biz development & sales skills for people who have other backgrounds.

Where are you in the process? has developed promising connections with regard to coaching opportunities, and identified an associate who wants to help.

What has been your biggest challenge this year? Time management. He has a full-time job as an IT consultant, but will begin taking 1 day/week off in January to focus on developing this business.

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? construct a team who are equally enthusiastic about this work & committed to working as a consulting company

Martina

What are you trying to achieve? social & environmental awareness for children through developing and marketing green toy products. Every supplier in the value added chain to have a social purpose. Each product has a built in donation in the form of a locally produced product for children in a poorer country - info on that element to be packaged with each product sold in Europe.

Where are you in the process? Working with designers to develop products with green lifecycle. First product launch in Feb. Now working on final product packaging and marketing plan.

What has been your biggest challenge this year? hard to transition away from income earning CSR consulting work; deciding on best product marketing /sales strategy – direct sales only or thru shops?

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? launch first product and be generating income

Philippe

What are you trying to achieve? To spread idea of concise multilingual translation, in the context of concretely applying his ideas about the philosophy of language and cultural diversity

Where are you in the process? Developing an open source digital workbench for precise translation. Has established a non-profit association with 4-5 volunteers.

What has been your biggest challenge this year? Transitioning from academic world to professional. The project is too much culture for computer sciences, and too much computer sciences for culture. It's a non-profit instead of an enterprise so tricky to get financing.

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? successful applications for public / private funding.

Christina

What are you trying to achieve? facilitate increased collaboration in the global social change space, ultimately to include establishing viable systems through which south-south collaboration can more easily occur.

Where are you in the process? In the process of establishing a non-profit-making association in Belgium from which to initiate collaborative system building endeavors; working on website development at http://internet4change.com; establishing a joint venture with an identified partner to create a consolidated guide to online tools for the social change space; co-initiating an "unconference" for social entrepreneurs to discuss the future of online collaboration; rebuilding an online presence after a 1.5 year break from the social change space in cyberland; initiating pilot collaborative support groups for social entrepreneurs.

What has been your biggest challenge this year? Transitioning away from a previous project (including an international relocation); sifting through 7+ years of conceptualized possibilities to identify concrete new starting points and objectives for the future.

What do you want to achieve by June 2010? http://internet4change.com up and running with multi-author blog channels targeted at newcomers to the online social change space; internet4change guide compiled and up and running in collaboration with JV partner; a body of documented collaboration modeling experience.

Agreed group level of commitment

The group agreed to meet once each month.

For a period of 6 months, the group members agree to:

• show up to monthly meetings (or notify of non-attendance in advance)
• come to meetings prepared (possibly sending info to review ahead of time)
• maintain an attitude of listening without judging, giving everyone space and allowing things to emerge
• respect confidential issues
• share the cost of meeting space at HubBurssels
• be prepared to take on small tasks to help others

Meeting format

At the beginning of each meeting, each participant will have 5-10 minutes to share the following info prepared in advance:

• At least 1 success achieved in the past month
• 1 lesson learned to contribute to an ongoing collaborative list
• 3 project-related mini-goals to achieve in the next month
• New possibilities now open
• Things they need help with

The participants present at the introductory meeting decided that the group should be limited to 8-9 members max.

Meeting space will be rented for 2 hours.

Meeting notes will be documented online (in this space).

Complimentary online tools/opportunities

The majority of this group's participants are not accustomed to working in online environments.

While connecting online is not required for participation in this group, online tools and opportunities will be made available to the group as an optional, complimentary way of keeping in touch between face-to-face sessions, connecting with others beyond the group, and raising the visibility of their work.

1. http://ned.com offers group workspace and discussion possibilities. Discussion on the contents of this workspace page is invited over here. In Feb 2010 a new Micro-Success group space dedicated to social enterprise start-up collaboration will be established; Christina will offer basic training to Micro-Success Offline members on how to use the groupspace features.
2. http://internet4change.com will have a Micro-Success blog channel, where online and offline group members are invited to share their start-up stories in 1 or more blog posts over the course of the 6 month Micro-Success pilot. The site and each individual blog post will be promoted in online social media venues, offering an opportunity for heightened visibility to each participant.

Next meeting: 15 January, 10am-12pm @HubBrussels

using a process of eliminating when individual group members would NOT be able to meet, Friday morning was identified as the time with the highest likelihood that all members would be able to attend.

Hub Brussels members who are interested in joining the group should contact Christina Jordan here at ned.com or by email (address is listed in the hub members' directory).