Community Involvement & The new Antioch College

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[ACAN] Community Involvement & The new Antioch College
Matthew Baya matt at baya.net
Thu Apr 8 11:40:20 EDT 2010I wrote the following a few weeks ago and sent it to some friends for feedback to make sure I wasn’t alone in feeling this way. I’ve been encouraged to share this wider so here goes;

I’m feeling very disconnected from the happenings in YS these days. If I’m any litmus test for other ‘remote’ alums then we may have a ‘problem’. Folks that were deeply and passionately involved in various efforts & volunteer projects over the past few years are no longer able to be involved in any manner beyond writing checks and reading the e-news. For me, at least, this isn’t enough to really make me ‘feel’ connected or part of what’s going on, and in chats with other folks I know I’m not alone in feeling left out. It’s like the train got derailed, we all rallied and helped push it back on the track and then it rolled away without us even though we wanted to climb on board.

I’ve been hesitant to write this note since I don’t want to appear critical of all the good work that’s been done or good people who I know are involved in doing things right now. I want to state up front that (a) I know enough to know that I have no clue about all the work that is taking place right now, and (b) I am deeply appreciative of all the good people pouring so much into helping Antioch these days.

One thing I learned from being in CG for many years is that it’s easy to criticize, it’s harder to offer solutions and get your hands dirty. So below I offer a few rough ideas that might provide possible solutions. I’d love to get my hands dirty if there’s a virtual garden I can participate in.

First off I want to further explain some factors that I’ve realized contribute to my feeling disconnected. The other evening I was thinking about this some more and I wanted to point out some things that have recently changed from my very remote point of view.

Before September 2009

(1) Adcil/Excil meetings – Whether it was the college before it closed or Nonstop, Adcil/Excil meetings were very public. Starting early on in the revival effort these meetings were live streamed, recorded & podcasted and minutes were posted on the web.
(2) Committees – The AB itself, as well as various AB committees and other project groups were meeting, posting agendas and minutes and draft documents. Even outside official channels others were drafting ideas and sharing them on the lists. There was a sense we were all working together on a bigger project.
(3) Web team – Several of us, myself included, were working together on various projects doing all we could to provide as much functionality as possible for various parts of the site. Even those not working directly hands-on could participate in discussions and brainstorming about future plans, etc. Again there was a sense that we were all working together.
(4) AU Board – Any minutes or documents from the AU board were posted and shared heavily. We knew when & where they were meeting and tried to arrange to have some folks attend to observe and help document the meetings.

After September 2009

(1) I assume there must be some kind of Adcil-like meetings happening in YS; why aren’t we giving them the same treatment as before September 2009? I’ve never heard of any meeting, minutes, shared documents, etc. We alumni have consistently asked for transparency; we need to know what’s going on in order to feel connected.
(2) Committees – The AB, CRF and its Executive Committee, have not published any new minutes since September 2009. The only sub-committee that publishes minutes is the Communications committee (and that may only be because I’m on that committee and pushing for this). Some committees, like communications have had various tasks they were previously involved with replaced by a college ‘Editorial Board’.
(3) Web – We have moved from a volunteer driven effort, with a number of people with a variety of skills involved, to one solely driven by staff, consultants and contractors. We’re paying people to do things volunteers have done, and are still willing to do.
(4) Board Pro Tem – Do they have public minutes? Agendas? I have no idea when they meet, what they’ve talked about, etc. I realize some of it is closed session but surely most of these meetings could be open & published. This is our new exciting alumni powered board; shouldn’t we be hyping and advertising their meetings and work?

Suggestions:

(1) Adcil – If there isn’t any kind of administrative council, then why not? Community Governance doesn’t just mean letting students participate, it means involving all constituents or ‘stakeholders’ in discussions and planning. IMHO, this means we should at least have a small body acting in this capacity with some staff & faculty (Morgan Fellows), maybe even an alumni representative seat on it. The minutes & agendas (and ideally recordings of meetings) could be shared among all those working in YS as well as alumni. Again, this would bring about a sense of shared work and responsibility,and help alumni feel like we’re all on the same team and we’re all helping steer.
(2) Committees – All AB & AB sub-committee meetings should be better publicized, including agendas, minutes, shared documents etc. There should be regular invites for others to be involved on the website, lists, e-newsletter etc. We should also have other college focused workgroups, advisory boards and teams; more on this below.
(3) Web – For the record, I am not saying that we could have done all that Pete & Lissie have done with the great new website with volunteer power alone so I recognize the need to move away from volunteer only. But at least from my point of view, we didn’t just move a little bit, we moved in a direction that minimizes alumni participation: I now have basically no role or ability to assist in the design or planning in any way. I also want to make it clear that I realize that giving volunteers any control of the main site would be risky and worrisome to some, but this is easily remedied by setting up a ‘prototype’ site where a number of folks can ‘play’ and test stuff out, and then when something is ready to be published those in charge who have ‘the keys’ could move it there.
(4) Board Pro Tem – Publish meeting schedule & location, agendas, minutes and recordings for all open session. Encourage alumni to attend, listen to the stream, keep up with the minutes. There should be a channel for feedback and idea sharing with the Board on topics they are discussing.

Broader effort – We need to keep the ‘home grown grassroots effort’ going. The fall chapter meetings where the Morgan Fellows asked for feedback and ideas were a great start but we can’t just call that ‘community’ and mark it done. We need to create channels for people to continue to be involved. Not that we need to let amorphous committees of various alums make any final decisions, but having different groups meeting via conference call, mailing lists, wiki shared documents etc. to brainstorm and draft proposals around different topics could make use of alumni expertise. We should be creating, and involving any alums who are interested in, various sub-committees, task groups, discussion groups, etc. around different key areas.

I see our alums in the various different stages:

* Alumni
* Informed Alumni
* Donor
* Chapter Member
* Committee/Advisory Board member
* Alumni Board Member
* Board Member
* ???

Our goal should be to advance alumni to the highest level of involvement they are willing to commit to. So if someone is a donor we should be reminding them about chapter meetings, once they start there we should invite them to be part of a committee they might be interested in. I guess Reunion attendance & work project involvement would be another part of this list, too. I’m sure smarter people than I who know about alumni & donor management have written books on this philosophy.

Ideas for possible committees/advisory boards/task groups:

* Acadmic Advisory Boards – Every Morgan Fellow &/or area of academic study should have an ‘advisory board’ of alums either with degrees in that area or who now work in that field. For example, I heard second hand there is, or at least there are plans for, a Science Advisory Board that will be helping create the Science curriculum. Why not make membership to this open to anyone interested, and publicize meeting times, minutes, draft papers? We could create a whole ‘Science – Under Construction’ part of the website where this can be worked on. It’s no secret we’re building a new college; why not use our website to let people see ‘under the hood’ and participate in the process, perhaps even invite faculty from other like-minded institutions to participate or review documents? A co-op advisory board makes sense, too.

* CG – What’s happening with CG? Could we open that up to be an open discussion group? We could recruit any alums interested in helping with ideas related to that part of our tripartite system. If nothing else we’re going to need to review the Leg Code & other associated documents to come up with some proposals on changes. While I recognize and respect that new students in Fall 2011 may want to change things, some processes need to be in place on day 1.

* Technology/Web – There’s no IT staff in YS right now, they are just hiring consultants (admittedly some very skilled ones). But where is the broader planning for IT infrastructure and budget planning coming from? We’re building things from scratch on many fronts and we have alumni who are experts in various areas who have offered to help. An IT advisory board could help on a number of fronts.

* Curriculum – Dan Shoemaker posted a great letter on Facebook and more recently to ACAN about the curriculum planning. How come there isn’t a whole committee of other academic professionals and interested alums discussing and brainstorming things?

* Buildings & Grounds  or perhaps Green/Eco Advisory Board?

These efforts and the combined publicity around them would help keep those that are willing to be more involved and instill a sense of ownership in what we build… and, in my opinion, that’s a huge part of fundraising. People have to ‘fall in love with Antioch’ again, they have to feel that illogical yet deep emotional connection with the ‘new’ college … and being involved in ‘building’ it, as opposed to sitting on the sidelines watching others build something, is important. I can’t speak for anyone else but I know I want to feel that ‘ownership’.

Again I want to reiterate that I know that folks in YS are working harder than I can imagine, and that people more passionate and informed about Antioch than I am are working for the college, and are members of the Board Pro Tem, Presidential Search and Alumni Board. I applaud all their efforts, I just wish we could do more to involve & leverage the skills from our larger community. We’re doing some great work, but I think we can do better.

For me, I don’t care so much what kind of curriculum we end up with, who the president is, etc, but I care deeply about how we get there.
We should walk the walk. The medium is the message. Antioch = Academics, Work AND Community. I think we’re missing out on the latter.

Thanks for listening.
-Matt ’92
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Matthew J. H. Baya
85 Guptill Farm Road, Ellsworth, ME 04605-4109
H: (207) 667-4892
e-mail: matt at baya.net    web: https://matt.baya.net/

I wrote the following on the ACAN mailing list, see http://saveantioch.org/pipermail/acan_saveantioch.org/2010-May/thread.html under the ‘ACAN transforming’ title (and the thread it came from) for the full context. Basically this was a followup to the note I posted above so I wanted to post it here for anyone interested.

-Matt
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Original Post Located Here: http://saveantioch.org/pipermail/acan_saveantioch.org/2010-May/012920.html

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matthew Baya <matt@baya.net>
Date: May 4, 2010 12:42:13 PM EDT
To: Antioch College Action Network Chat List <acan@saveantioch.org>
Subject: Re: [ACAN] ACAN Transforming

Apologies for generalizing all of YS. As you gathered I meant the college administration and other ‘powers that be’, not the YS community as a whole. I am frustrated because I wrote my note last month  ( http://saveantioch.org/pipermail/acan_saveantioch.org/2010-April/012825.html )  with a number of suggestions on possible changes that would help foster communication, community and a shared sense of ‘ownership’. I spent a long time on that note trying to make it constructive and helpful, and a number of folks wrote me regarding it saying it struck a chord with them and they appreciated it.

I didn’t expect it to change things but it would have been nice if those in charge and making decisions had at least read it and maybe sent a short response even if that was ‘Thanks’. So far I haven’t heard anything back I’m not trying to pick a fight with the college admin folks, the whole point of my note was to explain why I was feeling disconnected and, under the assumption I wasn’t alone, to suggest possible remedies. I’ve heard that we (ACAN.. and all the mailing lists in general I guess) are referred to as the ‘Vocal minority on the mailing lists’. Certainly we’re not a majority of the 17,000 alums but last I checked there were around 300 or so on these lists. That’s quite the chapter meeting if you look at it that way. Ignoring us because we’re vocal seems silly and petty and hey.. .aren’t Antiochians in general the vocal minority. You know the old quote, “Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ” — Margaret Mead.

I’d argue that we (ACAN/Saveantioch mailing list folks) are more involved, informed and likely to be active alumni, donating, recruiting others, attending chapter meetings/reunions than passive alumni that just know whatever they get in the mail. I’m rusty on my Bob Devine quotes but I think the term he used in his classes when talking about community organizing and community media was ‘opinion leaders’. I’d argue ACAN and other mailing list members, who take the time to read and respond (and have been since even before the closing announcement in 2007) represent many ‘opinion leaders’ and should not be ignored. That’s my biased take at least. For the record I don’t mean to imply that we should be given any more voice than any other alumni, just that it seems like we’ve been labeled and boxed and aren’t being listened to anymore because of some ruffled feathers over the past few years. I hope this isn’t the case and we can all work together, but as I mentioned above that involves that all parties involved take steps towards the middle.

I know some ideas that I mentioned in my note are happening (and I’m sure we’re happening before I wrote my note), for example I’ve heard the Science Advisory Board is actually meeting though apparently it’s by invitation only.  I don’t know if there are advisory boards for any other academic areas or who is organizing this, or how they are meeting (phone? online?), I just know they mentioned the Science one is active at the YS Town Hall meeting recording (which btw is GREAT quality, must be right off the sound board, special thanks to Michael Casselli for recording this. Listen at http://listen.antiochians.org/2010/04/22/yellow-springs-town-hall-meeting ). If anyone else knows anything about the advisory boards and how folks can get involved I’d love to hear it.

I’m tired of feeling like this is a fight. I don’t expect everyone to agree but why does this seem like it has to be adversarial as opposed to a team working together that occasionally needs to ‘agree to disagree’ on some things. I’m confused why we aren’t all working together and sharing ideas and information, there’s so much that alumni can give beyond $ right now if we’d just allow that (ok and to be fair, beyond just volunteering in person in YS, I know Julian has been working hard on that front). Certainly there’s more that many of us can do to help out with what’s happening right now, but working together has to come from all sides and well, I’m not feeling like that’s happening from the campus right now. I could be misinformed, but that’s part of my argument too.. not much information is being shared online, or rather by the time it’s shared it’s not a ‘discussion’ anymore.

Even in the concept presentation that they’ve been showing at chapters (which is finally online at http://antiochcollege.org/media/video/concept_presentation.html ) just got posted last week (Thank you Micah!) but versions of this have been shown at chapter meetings since January. I’ve heard the argument that the reason for not posting it online was because it was changing, but why not just date stamp it, put a ‘under construction’ label on it and share it? Why share info at chapter meetings and not broader? Why seek input and feedback at chapter meetings and not make an effort to do the same online for folks who can’t make it a major chapter meeting?

Also, in this concept presentation it mentions “Liberal Arts + Work = Lifelong Desire for Learning & Practice” (1 minute and 40 seconds in). Note the lack of mention of community governance in that equation. So have we ditched the former triad of Antioch academics where it was academics, work and community ? Why isn’t community governance and community involvement being mentioned at the ‘concept’ level? That’s the main point of my opinions these days, it seems like ‘community’ is being forgotten. Is ‘community’ part of the toxic culture they are trying to escape? Or is CG only for students on campus and not a broader philosophy of how to run an institution? I always assumed it was the latter. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been frustrated.

Frankly, I’m tired, and I’m getting close to giving up on trying to be involved and help. I’m close to stepping back into passive grumpy alumni status. My previous note, and this, are some of my last attempts at trying to be a productive, active and involved alum. If Antioch doesn’t want ACAN folks around, or just wants to hand pick the ones it deems worthy to be part of advisory boards etc. then I wish it luck, but it’s not an Antioch that I’ll feel part of and care about. I’d like to think that I, and others who are ‘on the fence’, are worth keeping around too. Antioch needs to make efforts to be more open about what’s happening, and ideally make some efforts for input and community involvement, imho.

Thanks for listening.
-Matt ’92

PS – I’m going to post my other note and this at antiochcollege.org/forum . The college is giving that URL at the end of it’s concept presentation, though it’s barely used at all. Perhaps if enough of us start using that we can get something going there (though personally i prefer the mailing lists)
—
Matthew J. H. Baya
85 Guptill Farm Road, Ellsworth, ME 04605-4109
H: (207) 667-4892
e-mail:
matt at baya.net    web: https://matt.baya.net/

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