suggestions for community level distributed leadership

1. Phase I- Building Support
Communication, Clarity, Cohesion

2. from Robert Powell, MKP USA Chairman
“As 2014 comes to a close and I reflect on the last year as the
Chairman of this organization I love, there is one word that rises to
the surface … support.”

3. Where are we?
• What’s needed is trust and a willingness to move from the
transitional stage and leadership to sustainable operations and
honored authority, and trusted leadership.
• We are working towards a system that is community-lead, where
authority is shared but not absent.

4. Developing community based leadership
requires:
• Clearly defined authority,
• Accessible Support,
• Continuity and autonomy across communities,
• Integrated constituencies, and
• Steady adaption of Holacracy (collaborative) principles during Area’s evolution

5. The Starting Point
Authority vs Leadership
Goal: Identify area leadership and authority. A brief introduction of Council and
Administration.

6. Steward Council – Area Leadership
• The Council composed of community leaders is a source of leadership
and authority within the community -- setting policies and defining
“what” must occur. Without question the Stewardship Council is the
image of leadership within the community.
• There is no single leader on the Council. The Steward is the voice and
“point man” of the Council.
• It’s important to note that area leadership comes from collective
community leadership and not from the Leader body. This is a crucial
distinction.

7. Administration as Operational Authority and
Accountability
• Currently, the administrative team is responsible for the entire area,
year-round. They serve as a single point of accountability, some are
liable, even legally. To ignore this, and impose detached leadership or
demands creates unsustainable workloads and possibly compromises
area resources and adherence to policy.
• Administrative input is crucial to Council decisions.

8. Administration
• Decision making, support, protection, performance, and adherence
are core administrator functions. Thus the administrative team and
the Area Administrator represent authority, while the Council
represents the leadership.
• The administrative body makes it possible for men to share resources
and gifts to strengthen and grow sustainable communities.

9. Proposed Administrative Structure
• Recommend that all project coordinators be included in the
administrative body for the purpose of sharing resources and efforts.
• Because these roles are not typically in contact with MKPUSA, they
gain contact through the administrative team.
• This arrangement allows for cross-training, creativity, and support.

10. Administrative team
• Proposed additional roles:
• Librarian –
• Deller to define functions, accountabilty, Role
• Database Manager – maintains data specific to men’s experience and interest
who desire to hold certain roles or functions within the community.
• Internal only
• Maybe kept with librarian.
• Can be Google Spreadsheet or will develop simple Access database.

11. Who are the decision makers?
• The decision makers are those men or teams of men who:
• Are the front line of an action
• have a clear commitment, mission, investment, ownership for a task
• Have the greatest level of executive functions: planning, organizing, listening,
supporting, presenting, protecting
• In a volunteer organization, the man with the responsibility may not be the
man with the most knowledge. The MAA Support Services Vgroup is available
to link the more experienced with the experienced for support, input, and
advice, in decision making.
• consider/adapt the following MKP USA resource

12. Recommendations
Recommended that the following information be kept with the librarian for all
operating teams, individuals, and constituencies.
• Identify leadership
• Decision-making authority (or process).
• Purpose and Mission
• Agreements

13. Building Our Tribes
Goal: Identify and define community in 2015 and on.

14. What does it mean to be a community?
• Communities are clusters of igroups: - why is this important?
• Communities must have support that promotes autonomy and growth.
• The new heart and vision of where we are going. (excepts from Dan
Baldwin).
• We form a tribe, for each other, for our families and partners.
• Reaching out to all the brothers, new and old. Welcoming new brothers. Community
events and trainings
• Doing mission projects together.
• We are far more than an NWTA – but how do we keep the importance of the NWTA
within our open circle system.
• Supporting igroups through trainings, wizards, PITS; Men who help strengthen
igroups. Or igroups making this intension

15. Community
• Our collective responsibility to make something happen in the world,
• We are more than igroups, we are communities; this allows us to
reach out to touch the community that we live in.
• Our enrollment success will indicate how successfully we are building
our community.

16. Getting from here to there
Goal: To identify the first step in building our communities … communication and
connection, and accessing support.

17. The MAA Support Services
Vgroup
Goal: To empower connection and building through support, mentorship, and
guidance. To facilitate area-wide transparency and communication.
“Continue to trust the hearts and minds of good men .. And to trust the
process”

18. Library – Best
Practices
The Hero’s Journey of
Growing community
MAA Support
V-group
Ad-hoc committee
Implements in
community(ies)/
igroups.
Add to Social Media /Webpage
to enhance public interest
MOS
Young
Warriors
LKS
Elders
Leadership
Igroup(s)/Man/Community has
need or want
Individuals
Supported by
community-level
committee &
igroups
If needed, support
from Admin team.
Forms, resources,
signatures, web, &
policy alignment.
And/
or
Community adds to calendar, notifies
council, makes announcements, handles
conflicts within igroup, or through
Steward Council.
Submits report of
best practices,
identifying,
champions
Hero
Support/input
Legend
If needed
Reports to
MKPUSA
Area-wide Database
Manager
And/
or

19. The vgroup is where the hero’s journey begins
• No longer must a man ask, “where do I go and who should I talk to?”
• The MAA Support Services Vgroup allows that man to access a wealth
of community wisdom, mentors, administrators, and community
members.
• It allows a man to choose the type of support he requires to take
action that would help him bless the community with new projects,
missions, trainings, and innovations.

20. The MAA Support Services Vgroup
• We are on a Hero’s journey into our SHARED future.
• The MAA Support Vgroup follows this principle: 1) what do you want 2) what
support do you need to take action. Men find support on the area level with
the MAA support Vgroup.
• The Mid-Atlantic Area support vgroup is that space where mentors,
administrators, mentees, and curious men can meet, connect, state their
wants and find support.

21. Area Website
Goal: Simplify, attract visitors, enhance community connections, increase
enrollment, improve constituency visibility.
http://midatlantic.mkpusa.org/

22. Website
• Made more appealing to non-MKP visitors to promote registration.
• Home page will be used as a blog of feature stories, testimonials, shared
wisdom by area men for instance:
• Art Paterson’s challenged warriors
• Poetry
• Lesson’s learned
• Stories of specific interest to initiated and uninitiated men.
• When it comes to enrollment, how easy is it to say to a possible initiate,
“Hey, check out this article on emotional intelligence, or read how a guy in
your situation changed his relationship with his step kids.”
• Notes:
-Special focus given to avoid posting material revealing NWTA details.
-May request content assistant

23. Website - Communities
• Make more intuitive for new brothers and public to navigate
community information. A large map is not very appealing to visitors.
• Request communities develop statements, descriptions, (be careful of
endorsements or associations.
• Explain the terms: public, undeclared, private. Explain to visitors the
meaning of “open”. Place a write-up about open circles on website.
Consider John Grote’s video production skills.
• Limit community role listing to 2-3 men. The long list of positions can
be distracting to visitors, and any initiated man can find this on
mkpconnect.org, or through the MAA Vgroup.

24. Website - Constituencies
• Assign a web page to each constituency. (Rename for public clarity)
• Show expansiveness and diversity of MAA community.
• Request mission and purpose to introduce New Brothers to the
community.
• Create visibility for constituency groups
• Encourage article submissions

25. Website – Announcements Page
• Area Announcements –Except the community calendars are
overlapped by area events. [Action – Fix]
• Leaders – There should not be a tab labeled “leaders” this is
misleading to visitors and meaningless in the context of our area
organization. Relabel “Leadership”
• Mid-Atlantic Council – should not have be available to public.
• Include PIT trainings along with other trainings. Make sure that PIT
trainings are listed on calendar along with, NWTA’s, Brother
Celebrations, etc. A full calendar helps grow community.

26. Website (task)
• The Mid-Atlantic Calendar is pulling international information [Action:
Change/update/fix]
• Contact – These contacts are too extensive and confusing for a pubic
presence. There should be 2-3 contacts at best on the public site and
a link for initiated men to log in to mkpconnect to get more
information.
• Payment Page and registration is can be simplified. This can be a
difficult decision and should be as seamless as possible.
• Website language -- geared toward public attention.
• Create Form for submitting stories.

27. Clashes and conflict
• Recommend that community coordinators step in when conflicts
involve can’t be handled on the igroup level.
• Take deep conflicts to the Council level. (future policies may develop
from this attention).
• Request Elders, LKS, develop and organize a system of peer-review
and conflict resolution.

28. Constituencies in Communities –
Some idea generators.
Goal: Visibility, Equality, Integration, Established value, Hopes, Outside of the
NWTA

29. Constituencies
• Constituencies are involved in integration not just on the community
or area level, but also the national level.

30. Wisdom & Spirit (Elders and LKS)
• Invite Elders/LKS to co-create, important elements along the hero's
journey of community building:
• Blessings of men and communities – blesses are crucial to peaceful expansion
• Rituals
• Life Changes
• Mentorship
• Grief work, etc.

31. Elders and LKS (continued)
• Elders teach and bless men in the roles of father, brother, son,
husband, partner, friend.
• Advancement of community depends upon the clear presence of the
elder community.

32. Leadership Body (Teaching, Enhancing)
• Now that we are developing community, and becoming more than
men sitting in circles, we require new tools. This is an invitation to
leadership to create processes that can purposefully support men
throughout life transitions … birth, death, transition, aging, marriage,
separation, etc.
• Many members of the leader body have the training to empower men
to step into leadership and to build confidence in processing. Now
that we have a growing number of open igroups it is even more
important that men develop confidence in facilitation.
• Mentoring men in these future roles is crucial to the sustainability of
our community and weekends.

33. Growing Community -- Initiation
• Ultimately our community grows through by initiating men. Our leaders in
this process are the members of the Leadership body. These members not
only lead in the initiation of men, they represent to the new brother what
the community represents. Therefore it is STRONGLY recommended that
leaders be blessed by representatives of the community before
certification, recertification, or advancement.
• Throughout a man’s MKP life, he will continually be trained, mentored, and
blessed by members of the leader body. As such, it is crucial that leaders
are continuously supported by community in addition to the other
constituencies.
• Through this process the community is asking: Does this leader represent
what our community stands for? Do we stand behind this leader? Has this
leader earned our trust? How can we support this man?

34. • In this way a new brother is not just initiated by a staff and members
of the leader body, he is initiated by a community.
• The following recommendations are therefore presented:
• A letter be presented inviting people from the community, at least 1-2 reps
for the area to attend and bless the leaders in the progression along the
leader track.
• The Community Representative has a vote as to how to support the leaders,
and assist that leader by honoring his qualities.
• The leaders are hotseated by the community before recertification; they have
evidence of support from their mentors.
• It must be mandatory that he be blessed before going up for recertification.

35. • If he cannot give satisfactory answers, as a representative as an LIT,
CLC, he will not blessed, he has the opportunity to work on those
things in order to move forward.
• The community must have a voice about what they would like to offer
in terms of support.
• This allows full involvement and full evaluation from all sources.
• Implementation of this process can be enhanced by the elders.
• This process insures that leader candidates always consider their
connection to community, self-inspection, healing, as a core part of
the leader track.

36. Young Warriors ( Relating, Relevance,
Sustainability)
• Seeing what older eyes may not see?
• Teaching, motivation, and support through change.

37. MOS ( Men of Service)
• Support with celebrations and events, caring
• Input in caring for men, setting boundaries,
• Sustenance
• A container of service on the NWTA
• An enhancement to leadership.
• Leader Servant Cooking School (suggested)
• Grief Work
• Exploration

38. Mentors
• There is no Hero’s journey without mentors
• Recommend mentor conversation, zoom meeting, teaching
• Support all men in learning mentor/mentee practices.
• Most men have no idea what a mentor is, or how to develop
relationships with them. This should be a focal point of community
building.

39. Growing Better Men – (Next)
Trainings, enrollment, operations