#22 · Before the Assembly
How best to bring a group of people together, and lay foundations for their working together successfully? How to onboard not only facilitators and participants, but also scientists, information designers, and other contributors and “enablers”?
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Many different people contribute to making a climate assembly work. Participants, facilitators and an organisational team, are supported by scientists and other (invited) advisors or enablers including information designers and editors who create accessible and appealing materials. They shape spaces, tools, and media for the assembly and its interactions with communities of interest, including marginalised groups.
Before the assembly begins, it is important to ensure that all these different actors are aligned on the basic aspects of the CCA, such as its purpose and their respective roles. Ideally, the type, scope and timing of their contributions will have been defined and agreed upon through dialogue to avoid friction and conflict. This requires time, resources and personnel for onboarding. It is essential to plan and organise this early on because certain contributions require extensive preparation. For example, producing participant information materials necessitates close collaboration between scientists and designers to present complex issues in a comprehensible and inspiring manner.
Finding and contracting a combination of competent people who complement each other requires time and effort. However, the effort pays off: time to get to know each other, a shared purpose and trust make collaborations enjoyable and effective.
The Transition Ingredients Card(s) on “Coming Together as a Group” says: “Clear structures and processes that help your group to work enjoyably and effectively – and take time to get to know each other as people!”
During the onboarding process, it is essential to agree on expectancies, particularly with regard to time commitment, concrete goals, outputs and milestones. This is even more important for those, who do not get compensated for contributing, as is often the case for participants and for consulting scientists. Even if paid, anyone who joins a complex venture, where people with diverse backgrounds collaborate, should be involved in determining the most effective and sustainable way to work together. This includes defining roles and responsibilities, and the technicalities of the workflow. Onboarding Assembly Members
At the CCA in South Tyrol, onboarding its assembly members was connected to introducing them to people with expertise who would be accompanying them. They presented the topic they had brought to the assembly and were then available to the participants in a World-Café format, which allowed to ask in-depth questions, share perspectives etc.
Salmon, R. A., Rammell, S., Emeny, M. T., & Hartley, S. (2021). Citizens, Scientists, and Enablers: A Tripartite Model for Citizen Science Projects. Diversity, 13(7), 309. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13070309
Tosca, M. G., Galvin, A., Gilbert, I., Walls, K. L., Tyler, G. E., & Nastan, A. M. (2021). Reimagining futures: Collaborations between artists, designers, and scientists as a roadmap to help solve the climate crisis. Elem Sci Anth, 9(1), 00016.
