Last November, in beautiful Cuernavaca, the Mexican ATD-CTD facilitator community formally got together for the first time to conjure up a plan for a better world. Ask any Mexican facilitator and they would tell you that this first line alone would be enough to stop writing this note right now. So let me say it again, proudly, last November the Mexican ATD facilitator community got together to conjure up a plan for a better world…
First though, we had to decide what that meant. What is a plan? What is a vision? What is this better world we want? Ask a group of 20 facilitators these questions and you have a recipe for a long day of work ahead of you… no, not even… better make it two long days. And so we spent a whole weekend trying to figure out all this, and some other important questions. The gathering was intense, unique and thrilling, and the work done, though unfinished, filled us all with a profound and warm feeling of accomplishment and an increased sense of responsibility. Never has our duty been as clear as now, when we see all our potential as human beings and our strength as a community.
As we pushed through the Outcome Mapping process and struggled with the definition of our vision (you should have seen everyone in the room light up as we took half an hour to talk about how we see our world, our communities and each other in the future), our mission, our “boundary” partners and the changes in behavior we wish to see in them, our strategic partners, our strategies, and the structure that will help us make this plan a reality, we became aware of some of our biggest obstacles within the amazing synergy and collective strength, creativity and unyielding hope of this vibrant group.
We are proud to report, that from the beginning we all agreed that the Symposium is but a mere invitation, just the beginning of our work as change agents. Here lies our greatest challenge, the brave breakthrough from exposure to committed action. Fortunately, the diversity and experience in the group provides us with many beautiful and exciting paths to do just this. Our biggest feat will be to pull each other close to harness all that energy and talent. In doing so Mexican facilitators will stop nowhere. As long as they’re aligned with our purpose we will not discriminate among methodologies, philosophies, theories or tools.
During the first night, even after a whole day of hard work, we stayed up to identify 8 areas in which we want to develop: Training and Deepening, Follow up, Link-Up, Inter-Regional Communication, Administration and Finances, Fund Raising, Diffusion and Material Production. And so the Mexican “Cambiando el sueño” council was born; to do the hard work that is needed, to coordinate the fast growing community of facilitators (85 in only a year and a half) and ATD communities (5 established) The whole team met again in Puebla on January 23rd to define our concrete action plans. Happily, the intensity with which we take on the challenges we face as a young but spirited community has not weaned. The challenges themselves, the construction of a just, sustainable and thriving human presence in the planet has not changed either, however, our ability to think, work and create as a team has… be ready to hear more from us in March as we prepare for our third planning reunion and our fifth facilitator training.
From Mexico, and wishing you were here…
