Howdy Partner: Examining the Partnership-First Model

12:21AM Nov 2, 2022

Speakers:

Mellina Stoney

Keywords:

partner

partnership

brigade

chat

questions

community

hear

ideas

technology

cfa

network

love

creating

people

qualitative research

motivation

unmute

impact

denver

melina

thought it was me as being locked in but it's not. Yay you're there and I can't leave now right yeah. up Hello and can you all hear me hello hello I can't see anyone I wonder if that's because this is a webinar in that

meeting can can you all hear me okay thank you thank you that um

are okay we don't have reactions and I can't see anyone

that's fine Yes I think so

feedback thank you thank you for that. I think I'll be okay um I would just like to to be able to chat with you all are you all able to to speak and Can you unmute yourselves and talk

back can you do that

I see thank you that stand by

my apologies Um Yes,

I am just chatting with my team. I would love to hear you all I would definitely love to see you all. But I can't at the moment because this is a webinar I'm not sure what the default settings are. So I am chatting with my team to figure that out. But Hello everyone. If you can just in the chat let me know that you are here and ready to talk partnership

thank you all. Hello. Howdy. That's the That's the title. I'm working with halili to everyone. Yes, yeah, let me know. Um, what community are you? Are you from Are you representing? I am currently in St. Louis, but I am from Denver. Best hello from Utah.

Wow. from Boston. Hello, everyone.

Burlington Vermont I bet that is just gorgeous right now. I bet it looks like a Hallmark movie out there so lucky Nicholas Okay, let me just check with slacks thank you yes this is my I'm wearing my my lucky dress Nicholas because I am a little nervous. So I thought that the cat collar would bring me some good luck thank you okay just give me one more minute so I can figure out how I can see everyone I can literally see them typing right now give me one more minute

please

Okay, well while

thank you thank you for that Nicholas. He says of all the places to be nervous for gay Congress is not it. This is my very first brigade Congress. So I think that's, I think that's it. It's just the jitters of just being new. But I will go ahead and get started. Let me start sharing my screen

see? Any? Okay, you

should be able to see Oh, actually,

I for

one second. I haven't

turned the sound on. Okay. Melina, can you hear me? It's just, I can. Okay, so we're gonna try to manually give everyone permission to talk, just make sure you press stay muted. And hopefully that'll let you folks talk. So sorry for the technical

difficulties. No, no

worries. Can you repeat that? I didn't catch all of it. Hello, I can hear you. Okay, I'm gonna try to manually give everyone permission to talk. So everyone will get a notification that you can either stay muted or unmute, but you can stay muted for now and then you should have the ability to unmute when it's time to talk let me try that Thank you. Thank you Jess. Okay, let me go ahead oh no my Okay, I think my keynote just wait on

me oh boy.

Sorry, we have the power to unmute now. Yeah.

Great chat amongst yourselves because my keynote just quit working to get it back now. So sorry for technical difficulties Everyone

okay there we go.

Okay, you all should be able to see my keynotes

Okay,

I think I think we're good. Um, I won't be able to see your responses in the chat. Because I'm working with one laptop as opposed to my regular three monitors, but just please just give me a holler. Give me a shout. And um, and I will be glad to pause and answer any questions. I will also be asking you all questions as well. So let's actually hold on, I got the chat. We're good on the chat. Okay, I'm gonna start. Um, hello, howdy, howdy, partner. That is the title of my presentation. Because I wanted, I wanted a chance to introduce myself. I started at C FA in June, I believe, so very new to the company. I'm relatively new to the network. I joined in March. And so I just wanted to introduce myself and get to know you all and, and again, just ask, um, ask questions about your experiences around partnerships and some of your attitudes and ideas around them. So before we do that, I would like to because I can see you in the chat and you can also unmute yourself, so that's great. In one word, how would you describe your week? Um, I guess a word for me would be hectic. Um, yeah, it's been it's been a hectic week for me just getting everything ready to come out to St. Louis. This stuff. Yeah, how about you all?

Nice,

busy and productive. I'm pleading. Yeah, yes, Chaos is a ladder. Yes, i plus one on the on the anxiety. Yes.

Any anyone else?

Going once, going twice. Okay. Um,

alright. So to introduce myself, Hello, again. My name is Melina. I use pronouns she her and I am a San Francisco native. I'm sorry, San Francisco native. And I'm basically I grew up in San Francisco. I live there from when I was three until I graduated high school. And then I went to college, to an HBCU Clark Atlanta University. It's an Atlanta, um, I had a great time there. And now I currently am a Denver rights. I live in Denver. I love it. I love exploring Colorado, I love the whole culture out there. And I was a member of coach for Denver, I was also a I'm a co captain of that brigade. And it was a great experience, I had a wonderful time. And it's it's one of the things that like that experience is really I believe is what kind of shapes my my thinking around this role. You know, I find myself feeling accountable to this to this network, you know, and I really view myself as being a part of this network. And so yeah, code for Denver, shout out to them. Some of the things that I love, I love roller skates, love trails. And my son, my cat, his name was Meelo. And let's see things that I know for sure about partnership, I want to start there. And I want to acknowledge a few things about partnership, one of the things is partnership takes time. I know that to be a fact. And also partnership is a tool, as well. And it is a skill and not a science. So what I mean by that partnership is a tool when we talk about delivering impact through partnership, partnership is is the way that we do that. Right. And, and like most tools, like it just makes things easier. You know, like it's a lot that our goals will be a lot easier when we partner with someone else. And as far as it being a skill and not a science. It takes practice, you know, like there are guidelines, maybe some some social practices and norms, but that's about it. You know, the way to really get good at partnership is by trying, you know, and trying again, and it's a it's a skill, meaning that it just takes practice. Now, what do I want to know? Which is why I am glad that you all are here. What I want to know is what does it take to be partnership first. And what I mean by that is I understand that I understand that we have a directive to deliver impact through partnership, but I really want to know, what does that mean for you, as a member of this network? What does it take? What? What challenges do we face as we as we move to, to prioritizing partnership? And then also how can I best support the network and its partners, I really want to be of service, like I said, I feel accountable to, to this network and to its partners who are also part of the network. And I also like, I just see you all as my partner. And so number one, like I want to know how I can help and how I can best support you all. So um, I will be asking a question

in your current

role, okay. As a member of this network, whatever your job is, what do you struggle with the most? You could put it in the chat, or you can just unmute yourself and let me know. But I really want to know, what do you struggle with the most? Doesn't have to be about partnership. Just in general. What's What's one thing or a couple of things that makes your job? A struggle are a little difficult.

Getting started? Yes.

Promoting promoting change. I see. Time Time is definitely yes. Not having enough time. I definitely feel that Dan. Yes. focus and attention. Lots of rabbit holes out there. I agree with you surely, I'm Paul promoting promoting change? Do you mind if I ask you to expound on that a little bit? If you're if you're comfortable?

Okay, if you're not. Okay. All right. Um, oh, I

see. Yes. Getting management to change. Yeah, that is, that is a struggle I can, I can definitely see how that's how that's a struggle for for really, it takes, it takes a long time to to make change, especially with like a network as big as ours. Like, it's like, you know, how long it takes to steer a really big ship? It's just, it just feels that way sometimes. So I definitely I definitely understand that. Okay, so thank you all for for sharing. And again, if you want to share again, just unmute yourself, interrupt me, I really don't mind. Okay. So I want to do a little bit of revisioning review, because that's why I'm here. So about I think over a year ago at this point, speaking of how long it takes to change, I'm about a year ago, and I think it took like months, at least at least six to eight months. I'm sure it was before my time. But I just remember hearing that a lot of people put in a lot of work to reimagine what it means to be a network, what is our role in this world? How do we affect change? What are some of the the changes that we need to make? And some of the suggestions are here, and you see, the second one, we're going from a technology first approach to a partnership first approach. And again, that is also like in there in the three prong approach. It's, it's, it's right there. Number two, deliver impact through partnership. I, when I was doing my research on revisioning, I really got the sense that that partnership was was important. But but it but from the comments that I saw, it felt like a lot of support was needed. It felt like a lot of us didn't know where to start, didn't really know how to do it didn't know, you know, the right I guess the right ways of approaching it. And so I'm really grateful to have this role as a senior partners, partnerships manager. So I can help us do that. I took a little one sentence from my job description, to which is to cultivate and deeper relationships between volunteers and partners across the network. That's literally why I'm here. I am here to help us cultivate relationships. I'm helping us. I'm here to help us, deepen them, strengthening them, between each other and between our partners so that we can deliver impact. And then some of the things that I'm excited to do in this role, of course deliver impact through partnership. And I am excited about developing tools for Are for our volunteers, and staff as well to engage in partnership and relationship building some of the tools that I've been able to do so far, you know, created a couple of one pagers, and also, you know, just chatting through email outreach, outreach drafts. And I've also created a resource library for the ACP challenges. So it's one of the things that I actually really liked to do. I like to make tools for people. I also want to learn more about our partners, of course, I don't really know a lot about who it is that we're partnering with. And I really want to, I really want to get to get to know who our partners are. Because I'm he is one that he is I'm I'm interested in seeing what their motivations are, and seeing you know, what their landscape is looking like, what are their challenges as well, because when we're talking about being partnerships centered, that means centering their needs, and in order for me to do that, I would like to know more about them. And also, I'm excited to create spaces for volunteers and partners to connect and collaborate and learn from each other. I see that now as a, like a community of practice that I'll be developing, but any other spaces are ways to communicate and collaborate. I am 100%, open to hearing your ideas. Okay,

so my next question is, what part of cultivating partnerships is the most difficult for you? Now, we talked about overall struggles, you know, witness in our in our jobs in our roles in this network. But when we talk when we're thinking about partnerships from outreach, you know, even researching, figuring out who to talk to that first email that first meeting, like which part is the most difficult, maybe maintenance? Partnership, maintenance is another thing. So yes, let me know in the chat, or you can unmute yourself. In Me responses yet.

Okay, maybe, maybe nothing's difficult.

I see. Thank you, Dan. Translating high level needs and ideas into yes into projects. That's, that's interesting. I would like to talk more, I want to talk to you more about that. What do you mean by high level ideas in needs? Then if you can let me know in the chat?

I can also talk to you can hear me Oh, thank you. Yeah, I think sometimes we get leads from organizations that have heard about us, and they might come in with, you know, ideas, they're not technical people. They have needs, but they don't necessarily know how to, like understand the process and translating that into, like, usually, you know, they're thinking about some sort of like app or technology that can help help them with their need. And, you know, kind of like that translation between what they're used to their domain into the technical and everything in between, I think is one challenge that we face.

And which, which brigade, are you representing?

Code for Sacramento and Oakland, Fresno? I see. Okay.

Thank you. Um, any one else? Feel free to unmute yourselves as I read these chats? Yes. Christina and building a partnership teams that 100% is I feel that struggle. Working with partners who are unfamiliar with the way technology is developed. I can I can see that. Stephen balancing asking for and getting time from the Oh, okay. Stephen, would you would you mind expanding on that a little bit of balancing asking for any time from the partner versus being in their way? What does that mean?

They come to us for help. But they have to get some skin in the game. They have to give us X hours a week for themselves or their staff. We can get the requirements to find what they want. So that's that's kind of a tax on their time. And the more time you get from them, the better for us. But it's taking them away from their day to day Hey, John. I can kind of attention. Yeah,

I can I can see that, that also a partner with a full slate Yeah, that that can yeah, that's, that's definitely a struggle because um, yeah, I think Hold on, let me get the name the book going back to what Steven said, reaching out to a partner and not hearing back from them you're kind of you're in that space of should I reach out again? You know, should I just let them come to me? You know, I get that thank you for thank you for sharing everyone. Okay, so for me, my struggle is I focus a lot on like on the how, you know, like, whenever someone tells me to do something, I either ask why or how, like, I'm just the way my brain works like I need to, I need to know what the motivation is. So when I see deliver impact through partnership, immediately, I thought how you know, and I stared at this definition for a really long time, because I was trying to figure out what it is that they were the people who did who worked on revisioning, what it is that they were trying to, to get us to do. So I see partner with local organizations and community groups to identify their needs, and to also provide technology support, the longer I stared at it, the more like it turns into these three steps. And it's the same word, but for some reason, when I put the numbers one, two, and three in front of them, it just it just like, it just made more sense to me. So step one, to deliver impact through partnership partner with local and national organizations, of course, right? Step two, you identify the needs of underserved communities. And step three, provide technology support. That's what it means to be partnership. First, literally, we start with the partner, and then we identify their needs, and then we provide technology. So then what does that look like? Um, so partnering with local and national organizations, again, why?

The why is because they are subject matter experts, you know, who knows our communities better than the people who are actively working in those communities, you know, like, these are the people who basically have have first hand knowledge of of what's going on of what's going on what the needs are of these of our underserved community members. And they also know the best way to engage with with with members of our communities, because they know them. And by us, knowing our partners better, we get to know the community better. Another Why is to build impact together. Again, we're talking scaling impact, we're talking, catalyzing impact, basically, just the more that the more partners we have the the more spread out our impact can be. Another way is to build trust with our communities. Like I said, you know, when we partner with local organizations, that's us partnering with members of the community, and then that helps build trust, you know. And lastly, of course, more tools or resources, our partners are really smart. They have a lot of resources and connections, and they have a lot of like innovative ways of looking at things. Um, oh, sorry, I see a question, but I can't get to it. I'm sorry. Can you drop it in the chat for me? If it's for me? Okay. And then the orange, just unmute yourself. Sorry. So then we're going to the house, and a couple of ideas that I've had definitely open to more ideas in the chat. Or you can unmute yourself. So how, of course by reaching out, right. And I know what's hard, and I know it's awkward. And I too, have stared at an email for longer than I need it to trying to figure out how to do it. Using C, how do we choose which partners we should invest our limited time and building? That's a great question, Dan. Um, so the way that I do that, is I start with myself, what do I want? It's like any other relationship, honestly, what do I want in life? What do I want? For my organization? What are my motivations? You know, as a coach for America, we're all about building human centered technology. So of course, I'm going to find a partner who was also about that, or another motivation that I that I may have is to or ACP and broadband, for example, I'm going to Google ACP broadband, common Denver, and just to see who's out there who's making noise in that space. That's how I approach it. But of course, plenty of other ways to go about it. Those are just my top two. If anyone else has ideas, let us know in the chat. Okay, so again, how I covered reaching out also, another how that I like to partner with my partners, is by amplifying their messaging, you know, a lot of my meetings that I, that I end, I say, Do you have any events that you would like me to promote? Do you have a

cause that you would like me to share with my, with my organization. And the third thing is to live is winning a hand again, I go back to my motivations, I go back to a space, let's say, I'm interested in helping people experiencing food insecurity, I'm going to Google food insecurity in my city, and see if there's any events going on. But I can help with, you know, see if there's any townhalls happening, but I can, I can get in on and just listen to people. And then also, uh, how is staying consistent, consistent? staying consistent? That is my, that's my life hack for, for avoiding awkwardness, you know, because that, of course, that first interaction is awkward, because you haven't spoken to to your partner at all. But if you stay consistent with them, if you keep that communication going, even if it's been a while between events, just hey, how are you just checking in, you know, like, just keeping that consistent contact? Um, I found that that's, that's a great way to just get rid of all that awkwardness. Because the next time Yes, Christina Simba means because the next time that I reach out to you, and I'm asking for a favor, it's not that awkward, because I already asked you, you know, how your day was two weeks ago. So it's staying consistent. Again, I can't stress that enough. Okay, step two, is to identify the needs of underserved communities. Why would we want to do that? Because it holds us accountable. It does. Like I said, I see myself as a partner, to this network. And the more I know about your needs, that helps me figure out my why, you know, I add your needs to my motivation, that's what keeps the tech on track, and it keeps me focused, you also identify their needs, because it gives us a deeper understanding of, of the landscape that's going on, you know, it gives us a deeper understanding of, of just what's been happening in that community, you know, and, and also, because it helps us do no harm. I know, we're not doctors, but I really think that anyone who is in any kind of position to serve, we should make sure that we are not doing more harm than at all, basically no harm, okay. And one of the ways to mitigate that is to just ask, like to understand what those needs are. So we know that we're not stepping on any toes, and we're not hurting anyone. And then lastly, because it makes for better technology, you know, like it makes our technology more accessible, it makes it makes it work, work better, when we understand the needs of our community, the technology works better for them. So then we don't have to save time, we don't have to go back to the drawing board, we got our community input in this technology is for them. So how can we do that, of course, I'm going to tell you to partner with the community. That's the number one way I feel to identify the needs of the community is to partner with them. Another way I mentioned before joining a community meeting, you know, joining a town hall, you know, being being in that community, you'll you'll get a sense of what those needs are. And you'll probably see you know, fliers around you know, promoting something, go to that and hear hear them talk about what their challenges are, and what their what their hopes are. And then ask questions I like, I will maybe I don't like it but I don't mind when people talk to me like on five because I want to understand and I want to to be of service and it takes it takes some humility. I'm not gonna lie. It takes humility to do that, but it's so important. And then lastly, a little bit of qualitative research and now There's an asterix there, because there's a difference between asking questions and conducting research, qualitative research, it's, it's structured, it's a practice. And it's something that people go to college for. And so I put an asterix there, because I want you all to be careful with qualitative research, because the quality of that data is a direct reflection of the skills and the competencies of the researcher. So if you want some really good data, when you're conducting your qualitative research, you might want to partner with a researcher, I know a couple, but when in doubt, give a shout. All right. So I'm going to pause there, if anyone has any questions or ideas, I'm going to pause for the cause.

Okay. So lastly, provide human centered technology. Now. I did not go to computer school. So I can't tell you all of the ways to provide technology support to our communities, I will leave that to my friends mica and Gabrielle in the project's branch, feel free to reach out to them for that. But I do want to focus again, on the human centered aspect of that technology. And I really want us to think about in every step, that we're creating our tech, I really want us to keep our partners top of mind again, partnership first, because the technology is for them after all. And so I would like for as much research to go as we can to go into our tech. And I saw this video from Mr. Steve Jobs, right here. And I'm gonna give you a little background in the video. But first, I chose this because I just feel like he says it so eloquently. Like, I know that we are a nonprofit organization. You know, Apple isn't a business to make profits, but it's the same, you know, it's the same. It's the same process, I'll say, so a little background on this video, a gentleman this is in 1997. So, um, Apple was, I believe this is when they were facing bankruptcy. And Steve Jobs had just left the company. And then I think like a few months later, he came back. And so this is him. I think this is one of his first meetings since he came back. And again, Apple not doing great. And a gentleman asked he's he asked Steve Jobs a question. He says, What happened to open doc? My guess is that open doc was like a really cool app that he liked. He says, What happened to open doc, why did you discontinue it? You know, and also what the heck have you been doing for these past seven months? Like where have you been? And so I really want you all to hear Steve Jobs's response. Yes. Okay, so it's good. That was the gentleman. Can you all were you able to hear that as it went up?

Or just things when you're trying to affect change? Is that people like this gentleman are right. In some areas. So sorry. Sorry about that. Yes.

Again, y'all can hear it. Right.

Change is that people like this gentleman. All right. In some areas, I'm sure that there are some things open doc does probably even more than I'm not familiar with that nothing else out there does. And I'm sure that you can make some demos, maybe a small commercial app that demonstrates those things. The hardest thing is watch, how does that fit in to a cohesive, larger vision that's going to allow you to sell $8 billion $10 billion of product a year. And one of the things I've always found is that you've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it and I've made this mistake, probably more than anybody else in this room. And I've got the scar tissue to prove it. And I know that it's the case. And as we have tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple it started with what incredible benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer? Not? Not starting with, let's sit down with the engineers, and and figure out what awesome technology we have? And then how are we going to market that. And I think that's the right path to take.

Okay, you have to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. Now, of course, again, he's talking customers, I'm talking, you know, humans, human lives and experiences. And of course, he's talking a profit, and I'm talking about impact, a billion impacts that we can hope to make. But the, again, the motivation and the in the value is the same, you know, we can we can create apps, I know, we can't, we're really smart, we can do that. But if we're talking about impact, we have to consider our partners, we have to consider the needs of our community. I broke my own rule. When I first started, I, I came in right in the middle of of impact spreads. And part of my job as partnerships manager is to help the brigades that are participating in this program, it's my job to help them with their partners, you know, help guide them help coach them whatever issues that arise partnership wise, I am there to, to help talk them through it. But I've noticed that a lot of our a lot of the brigades in this program didn't have any partners, they have some really cool apps, some really cool projects going on, but they didn't have a partner, and a lot of them were coming to me asking, how can we shop this to a partner? Now in my head, I'm thinking, well, they don't have any partners, I have to go get them one. So I created the scoping squad, you know, it's a, it was a small group of brigades that were participating in impact spreads. And I gathered them together under my wings and said, boom scoping squad. And, and you know, and now, we're going to find you a partner. I didn't ask why. I didn't ask what's going on, I just boom, gave him a product. And what happens? Nothing, you know, because the product that I created, it wasn't addressing any needs, because I didn't ask, and I really feel like I, you know, may have let some people down in that, you know, and so just please, okay, if you're not going to listen to Steve Jobs, listen to me, you know, or vice versa, and not listening to me Listen to Steve Jobs, consider, consider your partner first, I promise, it's going to save you a lot of time. It's going to help you mitigate doing any harm, and it's going to make the product better. So a question that I should have asked ahead of time. But I would love to hear from you all, in order to prioritize partnership, because I understand we're making a shift from technology first, to partnership first, but in order to do that, what resources could you use more of how can I help? How can I help make that transition better? Or easier? How can I support you all in that? I will pause for answers. In the I can't see if anyone's typing. So I'm just going to wait for a chat to pop up or for someone to unmute themselves. Maybe give it a minute.

Mm hmm. conduct surveys, yes. Should you can call you asking for me to conduct a survey or would you like help in conducting surveys?

Cuz I can do both? Oh, I'm assuming you're typing. Yes. So yeah, conducting conducting surveys. I can I can do that. I can actually.

I can send out a survey with all of these questions. If you If you'd like to get a to get a better idea, and any anyone else, what resources I like that strategic communication skills, I like that, I can certainly help with that. Yes, playbooks tools, cheat sheets. Oh, around finding and cultivating partners. I can do that. Okay, thank you all. Thank you for for the input. Let's see a scheduling tool. Okay, I have a Calendly. I can I can help with that. Huh. I can help with researching local orgs. Okay, thank you. Thank you all for that for your inputs. Let's see. Hmm. Okay. Dan, that's great. Some examples of successful partnerships. Yeah, Paul, but I didn't see what Stephen said. Oh, yes. practical tools. Yes. From Matthew more materials from CFA about what to expect when you partner with a local brigade. Matthew, I like that. I like it, because it again, it considers the partners experience, you know, CFA, I, from what I've learned, it's a lot. And it's a lot of context. And so for any new any new partner to come in, I agree, we should have some some materials to help them some some onboarding, if you will. Okay, Paul, thank you identify conventions or groups that partners attend. That's a great idea. I can I can do that. Mm hmm. Templates. Yeah, thank you, Alison. Ideas. I like it. Okay, um, so I want to have some time for us to, to get into breakout. So let's go into what's next? Well, for me, um, I will be creating a partnership service branch. And actually hold on one second, because I added a slide. And it's not there anymore. So that means I have to go find it. One second. There it is. Okay. Sorry about that, everyone.

Okay, this is the slide that I want to show. Okay, so the next thing that I'll be doing is creating a partnership, service community of practice. If you were just in songs, presentation earlier, you will see that I stole this directly from her presentation, thank you so much Sung, a community of practice as a group, us a group of us, we're building community with each other, we're learning and we are working to improve a specific practice. In this case, partnership. I said it earlier, I am really excited about creating spaces for us to learn and to discuss partnerships, and what it takes, you know, and if it has to be a support group, even like, that's fine as well. But I really want a space for us to come together and just learn from each other and to have our partners learn from us, and what that may look like what it may sorry. And what that may look like is in the first year, I want to conduct information sessions for our partners again, like I want to create a space for our partners to come in and learn about us and learn about who we are and what we do and why we do it. And I also want to develop tools, I love those suggestions. I love everything that the resources and the tools. I would love to help create those as part of this partner ship branch. And then outside of that, honestly, I I will like for this branch. How do I explain this? I want the branch to be a community and I don't know how, how else to explain it but like I really I like again, I like being a part of this network and networks in general. Like I like feeling like I'm a part of something bigger than myself. And that's how I want the partner service branch to feel you know, like I Want our partners to feel like they're every bit as part of this network as they are, I want you all to feel supported by me and CFA and each other, like, I just I want this to feel like a community. And so that is what's next for me. But in order for me to do that, I would love to get some input from you all. So I will be actually, I will be putting you all into breakout rooms. And here are some of the questions that I want you all to ponder. You know, when I want to ask, what is a partner centered environment look like? Going back to this branch? This is this is a partner environment. But what is it? What does it look like? What would it look like for us to to be more partner centric? Ultimately, no, what do you want our partners to know about us? That goes back into messaging and branding and outreach? You know, what, what do we how do we want to represent ourselves and our network to our potential partners? We'll love to hear ideas about that. And how do we do? How do we communicate with them? And also, again, what are our motivations? What Why are we here? You know, why? Why are we in this in civic tech? You know, I want to know that because again, that helps us helps me figure out who to reach out to who our partners are. So I am going to try to stop sharing. It did it. There it is. Okay. I'm sorry that I did it. I didn't notice your comment one second. They had a hard time distinguishing CFA nonprofit from CFA brigades. Okay, hold on, it looks like because of the webinar, we might not be able to do breakouts. That's okay. Going back to those questions, I'll just put the questions up. And we can discuss it here. If anyone is open to it, so standby, and I will share that slide again.

Okay, so here's the question. Let me know in the chat, or unmute yourself. Just any thoughts? We do. Oh, and gather? I didn't, Allison, that's a great idea. But I was not set up for that. I wouldn't I know how to do that. If anyone can unmute themselves and let us know. I am. I'm happy to meet you all and gather. Yeah, it was a great idea. Allison it is. But yeah, I don't I would not even know I would get us lost. I'm so sorry. So maybe we can just chat openly. As as a community, I would love to hear hear you all your thoughts? If you have it, feel free to unmute yourselves.

Can you all hear me? Oh, yeah, just hit me back at me really good. I think one of the things that it's felt like, with partnerships, to try to figure out how to be open about is just some examples of like what we could do, because sometimes I think they're sort of looking for, like, how can I actually utilize you guys, you know, so I liked the idea of starting with a relationship. But sometimes it helps to have a little bit of a, and here's some examples of of like, what you might be able to get from us. And I think also then communicating what we can't do, in some ways to like, I think our brigade is at a point where standing up a full fledged web app and maintaining it for you for like five years, is probably off the table. So I wouldn't want to you know, communicate that to partners and have them kind of be disappointed. So I think some of that, like expectation management, and a little bit of like, a dog and pony. Like, here's the parameters of some types of projects that we could actually deliver on and helping our brigade, like, figure out what those things could look like.

That's great. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. And your blade. Sorry, that was Alison from opens entities. Ellison Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's that that makes sense. And I and I think about that, and again, like in terms of onboarding, you know, our partners into our network, what is that? What are those materials look like? What's in that? And I think it's, I think it's great, you know, just here are some examples of the amazing work that we do and that we have done. And here's what we don't do. Yes, sorry. Let me check the chat.

Yes, Twin Cities. Okay, um, in me, anyone else? Or if you have any questions for me, I can answer questions as well, that this is a two sided partnership here are now,

um, I was just thinking one other like model and I feel like you might already be doing this for us a little bit is almost like a recipe for how to do an engagement event. You know, so for like the broadband signup action, right? Like, here's here's sort of a pattern that we think would be reproducible, in a bunch of different cities. Here's sort of a timeframe, we're thinking of doing it, you sort of just have to follow the recipe with some localization efforts, that helps us, you know, that sort of broader action with like a little bit of a recipe that we can kind of just take and reproduce is really cool.

Yeah, I agree. I'm thinking, Yes, that is something that I'm working on the the collective action that we're doing for ACP and broadband, I am working on a playbook of sorts of how to how to have that same impact on the local scale. And I'm also thinking about, I have to shout out Jennifer Miller and coach for the Carolinas, they have an amazing toolkits for, like their open meeting toolkit, and it's, it's great. It's great to follow, and it kind of has like the same. It's not partnership based. But that is an example of the type of toolkit that I can see myself creating for for the brigades as a whole. Oh, yes. Thank you, Christina. Thank you for joining us. Okay. Any any other questions or comments or answers concerns? Yeah, I can I can do that question for you all, where should I? What's the best place to get these tools to you? I know we have discourse. We have Google. We have notion. If I say there's a toolkit available, where would you expect to find it? Shout out to code for Austin's tech canvas.

Thank you.

Yeah, I tell me, let me know, the work that you're doing. I would I would love to amplify that. slack in this course. Okay, cool. That's where I that's where I am. I'm always on Slack and discourse. Awesome. Okay, well, if there are no more questions,

monthly emails, which

by if I haven't a monthly monthly update, what's hot? What's happening in partnerships? I can do that. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Allison. So this is the closing of my presentation. And I would love love to keep the conversation going. Here are all the ways to find me that you can find me Molina Stoney on Slack, that's also a link to my calendar. If you type in that link. You automatically be able to book with me directly. If you want to have a one on one chat. If you want me to coach you through a partnership issue or struggle that you're having, or honestly, if you want me to just review an email, I can do that as well. You can email it to me or again, just meet up with me on Calendly. And then here's a you can also find me on discourse, we have a building partner relationships discourse, as well. And I believe that that's where this presentation will be again, so that we can continue the conversation. And if there's any thing any ideas that you have any resources that you can think of drop it in the in the partnership discourse, and upvote it so that we can so we can get those needs met. And again, I will pause for questions if you all have any. But if not, thank you. And that's it. That's it. Thank you all. Thank you, Steven. Thank you for coming. Great. I'm glad I'm here for you all like I really I really am. If you don't have a partner yet, you've got a friend in me. So just reach out. Thank you all. Okay. I will stop sharing. And I will get us all out of here. Thank you. Bye