Meeting Through PIE - News to our Community

As we do monthly, we met again as the circle of members who form PIE, created a few years ago to give us the chance to stay in touch from different regions, bring news and continue to weave this path forward together.

In our recent May meeting we opened with a word to describe how we were arriving – happy to be together, excited about the future even though it's not looking so good at present, hopeful, glad to be with each other in the circle, energized, peaceful, thankful and excited to be in like-minded company, grateful to be alive and achieving goals given all we face, glad for the power of being in this circle of sisters, optimistic for the full agenda in front of us. 

A particular gift was to have Lourdes meeting with us to bring news. We were invited to list stressful issues we were aware of, that we are facing or have faced, recognizing that in this work we do it is likely that we have faced setbacks in trying to reach our goals. We named the hurdles, how we have met challenges and invited contact with each other to find and offer support to each other. a great opening.

We welcomed Lourdes, who joined us in this meeting to bring an update on the building of a feedback loop to build on work the Team is doing, creating new proposals for our community, asking for feedback on this new connection method, for the best frequency or rhythm in adding new proposals, the right timing and what outcomes we might expect, what areas of feedback might be valuable and how best to ensure a good pathway for responses. One example was whether a member might not be feeling heard. What would be the steps? What needs improvement? The gift of hearing from community members. The importance of having an open way for this flow of information and for being in touch with each other. The importance of having a path to raise and resolve any problems and of having a channel for feedback. Lourdes described a plan to send out surveys for discovery and understanding what is working and what needs to be improved. This was an open invitation for any member to raise any issues and make sure that there is a solidly open path for both positive and negative feedback. She emphasized the value in communication for members to offer constructive feedback. She described work done by our Team in continuing to analyze and find solutions for any topics that need improvement. Our World Pulse Dashboard was given as an example, and the importance stressed of what community members offer as valuable in finding solutions and being able to experiment as we develop these communication channels within World Pulse.

A draft of FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) will be shared with this group with a hope for input of ideas and suggestions. We spoke of finding ways to identify what it is that we need to change and how to measure change to  continue to build what we have here in World Pulse - strengthening the feeling of belonging among members, strengthening voices, connections and paths to resources, as well as an effective way to follow and understand our impact, what each member is doing within this World Pulse Collective. 

We've recognized the importance of capacity building, finding resources, finding funding, with a goal of reaching as many new members as possible, to encourage telling stories and creating connections, questioning how it is that we do connect currently. There is a hope that we will reach our goal of 50% feeling connected and it is estimated that we are already at about 30%. We questioned how we make sure that we do not miss a new member and how we encourage expansion of all members to take part actively. A recent poll indicated that about 30% feel active and belonging. Our current goal is to increase that to at least 50%, knowing that members have different reasons for joining World Pulse as well as very different lived realities in time and circumstances affecting how we are able to take part.

We discussed unmet needs such as training, job opportunities, seed funding, ways for voices to have impact, creating ways to make connections without a feeling that the site is too much to navigate making sure that any messages and questions have an open path to receiving responses and addressing the problem that some members report sending a message but not hearing back because the recipient was either busy or not active. It was reported that in general members are active one time per year’s quarter, often because of being busy within our communities. 

We discussed how to pivot to expand through calls for stories, placing  information on Facebook and Instagram, creating pathways to share information more widely. We discussed how to strengthen our work with current partnerships, and the ongoing work of reaching people in communities who are connected to the same work we are doing here in World Pulse, connecting to make a scalable impact, and the importance of recognizing and celebrating the work being done across regions, across countries. It was suggested that there be more awards, in particular ensuring that different regions and all countries are recognized and included.

We spoke about the importance of the stories and of the nurturing of these stories. We spoke about ways to involve community members even more to take on roles, and the need to explore whether there might be financial support found for this work. We spoke of engaging NGO's and tech companies to share information and build connections, of using AI for social impact training, of needs women have in this area - suggesting support for an Impact Lab to bring in leaders within the tech area to find ways to increase collaboration to form connections between the business world and the nonprofit work. To encourage members who can become Change Funders. To find ways to bring in professionals and corporate teams to share knowledge with World Pulse and about World Pulse to corporations. We discussed the need for World Pulse to be recognized and present at the discussion tables at the UN. We discussed the importance of our focus on recruitment, encouragement, and safeguarding. We discussed the value in the communications between the Community and our Team to build a strategy in funding expansion and collaboration in decision-making. We recognized the ongoing need to keep our lines of communication and feedback strong.

We discussed the reason for this Pie Advisory Group and the power of engagement with the community. We asked how through PIE we can advance our work to achieve the goals of World Pulse, that we need concrete steps questioning ways we can contribute beyond our sub groups. We discussed how we are engaging with our community to let them know what we are as members of PIE and what PIE does. We questioned what we need at this point. Is this structure working? Is there a need for restructuring? We were reminded that PIE is not a decision-making body, that we are an advisory group, that we do have roles in decisions and driving strategies, that the board is where decisions are made, and that each has a role, Staff, Board, REG, PIE, and that we continue to build how we are operating with each other, PIE being able to recommend through decision-making as PIE, not being the same as decision-making by our Board. We raised the question of how we streamline a structure to advance what we create within PIE. 

How do we build on the value of processing how PIE/Staff/Board organize our collective work? What pipelines do we have for how we connect, share recommendations, stay connected on what is being discussed, on feedback, making space for what is possible, needed, urgent. We have identified our focus to be concretized in our next meeting, building a plan to be involved in the World Pulse overarching plan for advancement.

Our next meeting will also be exploring any financial updates and sharing of the ongoing impact work that is being done. We suggested discussion on any need to shift priorities, and also to explore our connections with Facebook, Instagram other pathways that can expand the knowledge of our work and the possibilities of our working together. We discussed the need of searching for the right people who have the right knowledge leaders, exploring issues we can connect with and create scaleable impact. We recognize the importance that World Pulse and the work being done here  be recognized, and that there is work needed to make sure that awards are given across regions and across countries, recognizing that there has been a focus on approximately nine countries at this point.

There was a suggestion that community members be encouraged to take on roles, and that as always we need to increase the financial support, engaging NGO's and tech companies and sharing information with each other.

There was a short discussion on using AI for social impact training, a call for looking closely at women's needs, and also the advantage of collaboration to bring in leaders within the tech community and the business world, strengthening connections with the nonprofit work being done, describing the importance of Change Funders, and the sharing of knowledge about World Pulse with other corporations, recognizing the value of connection, that we need each other and each other's knowledge to raise our voices collectively.

We responded to the question “What power is PIE shifting?”, discussing the importance of looking for solutions to things that are happening, building a strong line of communication and recognizing the importance of feedback. We discussed how we can advance the goals of World Pulse and how we need concrete steps for how we are contributing beyond sub groups. We questioned how we engage with our community, exploring what we do and can do as members of PIE, and what PIE does. We questioned whether we need to be in existence or whether we need to be restructured. We revisited that we do not have decision-making power as PIE, that we have a Team which makes proposals to our Board of Directors where there is decision-making. We recognized that staff, REG, Board and PIE all have roles that are efficient and effective. That PIE is able to recommend. That the decision-making that we make as PIE is not the same as the decision-making made by our Board. 

The question was posed: How do we streamline a structure to advance what we create within PIE? We recognized the value of processing, exploring how PIE/Staff/Board organize our collective work. How we build this pipeline, stay connected, share feedback, make space for what is possible/needed/urgent. How we identify our focus, suggesting we  concretize ideas in the next meeting, as well as look at financial updates and how impact work will be shared over this next year.

As always it was a meeting of brilliant and dedicated members grateful for and honouring the time to share news and ideas, and to plan deeply together.