• Transparency
• Funding
• Honesty
• Persistence
• Talking from the heart - knowing facts won't shift people
• Passion
• There's a lot of us
• Our values
• New young energy
• Wisdom of long haulers
• Talk about privilege and oppression and intersections
• Allow for creativity, diversity
• We get paid
• Seeing inter-connection of issues
• Recognize challenges facing everyday people

• No unified vision
• Funding drives our work
• Not enough funds
• Preach to choir; don't reach out to broader audience
• Sacrifice our health
• Don't build what we want to see
• Jaded, hard to trust
• Defensive
• Bureaucracy
• No one showed up to DNC actions
• Homogenous groups
• Anti-war; immigrant rights
• Fragmentation; my issue is most important
• How to involve people beyond marches
• Spend energy on bandaiding - system not changing it
• No pipeline for people to get involved
• Professionalized our work
• Lack of connection to history - role models
• Lack of diversity - concentration
• Don't understand money realities; people need to work; volunteering is hard
• Willing to take money at expense of 'walking our walk'
• Replicating systems we are trying to change
• Reactive not proactive
• Not looking at long haul
• Infighting
• Struggles w/ privilege/oppression
• Need more fun!

Don't celebrate successes

• Lots of people spending less time, permanently
• UN of non-profits - we collaborate on issues, events, getting info out, etc.
• Strategies for long-term, coordinated, systemic plan
• Our work is a part of our lives & our lives are part of our work in a sustainable/healthy way
• Lots of people who are different
• Help people move along continuum, not exclusive. Provide a "pipeline" of leadership development for young people.
• Engage in on-going dialogue w/ people who disagree w/ us
• Resources to do our work the way we want to
• Flush out our values in a clear way
• Compassionate space to be angry - but in a way that doesn't take it out on others or adversely impact our work
• Emotionally and physically healthy people
• Emotional skill building - resources, training, commitment to this.
• We recognize our differences, AND we lead with the areas where we agree
• Dynamic development of new leadership
• Less jargon
• Realistic timelines (25-30 year plans for deep change)
• Strategies aligned with values and see future trends
• Coming from place of love and hope
• Plan for commitment for reconciliation - plan and build values together
• Get rid of labels
• Inclusive - all welcome
• Do we really want to include everyone, even people who are hateful?
• "Water the seeds of kindness in people," rather than coming from and reinforcing fear, blame, scapegoating.
• If when we come from love, compassion and watering the seeks of kindness, some are still not able to join us in this place, then we set boundaries?
• Be conscious, vocal & truth-telling about oppression
• A positive vision that unites us
• Reach broad audiences
• We model the world we want to see in every aspect of our work - our work creates the structures we want to see from the ground up.
• People can afford to show up
• Idenitfy, nurture, mentor young leaders, creating paths of leadership that are open
• CELEBRATE!
• Actively discuss differences of opinion and seek consensus, collaboration
• Organizational and movement view people as 'whole people"
• Multiracial, multi-issue movement
• Movement is efficient
• Movement is self-organizing
• Think beyond borders, natione-state state mentality (this isn't just about the wellbeing of Americans but the well-being of everyone)
• Our work attracts funding as it is - we drive funders, rather than being driven by them
• Proactive - modeling what we what to see - introducing policies/structure/systems that promote our vision
• Grassroots
• We have a large, engaged constituency
• We're doing the work to create a large constituency
• Open to new models
• Document our history and use it to educate ourselves

Movement as global connected

• After election: come together for long-term planning. Can we stay connected?
• Reconnect w/ this vision of our Movement and people who share it - regularly
• Invite other to help create this vision - for the movement & society
• Commit to long-term strategizing meetings.
• check out Larimer lounge?
• Get to know each others personal stories; create communities
• Sharing our personal demons
• Recreate the way we work so that it accommodates families and whole self
• Boards don't work! Find alternative structures
• Accept no money from foundations
  • Supported by individuals ?
  • System of taxing corporations to fund human needs, civil society and activism?
• Highlight our positive work, successes
• Study: what has worked
  • In U.S. and around world
  • Take into account context, look at what would and wouldn't work now, learn from past and use it to find ways of working that will work in current context
• Stop reacting - what if we put our energy in our positive priorities?
  • Amendment 46 - what would happen if we didn't react to this? Affirmative Action was always meant to be a band-aid - what if we started focusing on social and economic equality rather than this?
  • Voter Registration efforts - do they model the society we wish to create? is it funneling people into a system that's broken?
• Stop trying to mend broken systems and start new ones
• Offer an alternative to voting, etc.
• Cells of energy that converge
• Talk to my next door neighbor! - engage neighborhoods in visioning?
• Start locally, then successful local efforts can converge
• Also start w/ ourselves
• Let's convene these conversations everywhere! These conversations themselves are transformative, and people probably need to experience this process - and help create the vision - before trying something new.
• Call Obama Campaign - we have organizations that will be here on Nov 5 - what can folks do? We need your lists!
• Join together to launch Visioning Campaign on November 5 - Inauguration? ideas for titles:
  • McCain wins: Change Lives On! Bring Change to Washington!
  • Obama wins: You are the change. Create it Now.

Let's convene more of these conversations so others can experience this process, and then all come together.