PSC 2007 directions

On December 7, 2006 the PSC planning group members met to discuss the 2007 direction for PSC. It was a time for reflection on the projects and progress we made in the past year and a chance to look to the future.

We spent a long time evaluating our strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats (SWOT) to help us map out a path for 2007. Our strengths lie in the content of the workshops, the welcoming andaffordable environment of our activities, and the diversity we enjoy inour networking, participants and volunteers. Our weaknesses include aneed for sharing the workload and risk taking, further organizationwithin the group. We would like to be able to pay the experiencedworkshop and organizational leaders that help make our programs asuccess. PSC has a great opportunity in the fact that there have beenmore than 175 people, from more than 10 countries, who have attendedour events and many of those who are interested in doing somethingfurther if we can find a way to channel that energy. The threat lies inasking the people who do provide so much for us now to continue to doit for free and risk burn out.

These discussions and evaluations led us to find a natural separation developing between the panels and the workshops. The targets, skills and time investment for each part of the project weredifferent. We determined it would be more effective to create twoteams, under the same organization, to create separate goals andprogramming for each group. The workshops would continue to be gearedfor participants currently working or aiming to work in nonprofit NGOs while separate programs, including panels and action days, would beaimed at a broad spectrum of individuals who want to be involved incommunity work. Both areas of activity would also be limited to half-day events and both groups aim to further develop professional formats.

The yet to be named teams, tentatively called the "SkillsBuilding" group and the "Community Action" group both need to develop teams of people to make these plans become reality in 2007. We need volunteers with skills in research, writing grant applications,sponsorship and network development, PR and outreach, event information gathering, websitemanagement, database updating, materials creation, translation andevent preparation and planning. Please join us and help further developthe 2007 schedule of events focused on our goals. If you are interested, please contact us at rose.ito@gmail.com,

We will hold 3 more meetings in January to assess interest, skills and availability and then get the ball rolling for the year.
January 15 (Mon) 7:30-9:00 pm
January 21 (Sun) 6:00-7:30 pm
January 27 (Sat) 10:30-12:00 noon
Please attend which ever one(s) fit your schedule. Locations will be determined in early January and will be posted here and sent to the PSC mailing lists.

We look forward to working with you and meeting our goals ofdeveloping skills for nonprofit workers and individual networking,education and action events.

Best wishes for a wonderful year end holiday!

The PSC Skills Build Team