notes from the April 25 assembly!

[Bread Uprising Bakery]

Hi wonderful bakery supporters/participants/folks,

The bakery assembly on April 25th was amazing - thanks to everyone who
made it such a beautiful space.  For folks that weren't there, we've put
together notes & a summary of what happened.  See below for a summary, and
the file attached to this email for the full notes.  Also attached is a
"annual report" we put together for the assembly, with some highlights and
costs from the past season and our baselines/core principles the two of us
have been operating from.

Next steps: One of the decisions that came out of the assembly was that
some folks stepped up to be part of a council/team to make decisions and
next steps, so that the two of us are not moving everything forward by
ourselves.  If you were not at the assembly, you're still welcome to be a
part of this - please see the notes for details & let us know!

We are taking a couple week break from baking, but we'll be back at it
soon... look for details about how to sign up!

Love,
Noah & Tim

PS. Pictures from the assembly (thx Courtney, Manju, and others) are going
up soon on our blog at breaduprising.wordpress.com

-----
Bread Uprising Assembly!
Sunday, April 25th, 1-4pm
Terreiro de Arte e Cultura, Durham
Summary (full notes attached)

Purpose of the Assembly:
Basically, the bakers called folks together for this assembly because we
wanted to begin to open up a decision-making process about what the bakery
will be to everyone who has been involved so far, particularly around
vision and structure.  We planned an agenda with some flexibility and also
open time for folks to get to meet each other.

Agenda:
Open time for eating, hangin out, making pretend baked goods out of clay,
etc. (1-2pm)
Planned Discussion/Meeting (2-4pm)
I.	Opening & Introductions: agreements, baselines, why we are here
II.	Visioning: how we envision the bakery's purpose right now & in the
future
III.	Structure: worker co-ops, consumer co-ops/food sharing collectives,
food justice collectives, and more!!
IV.	Decision-making: how do we move forward & involve more folks in
decision-making?
V.	Closing

I: Opening & Introductions:
We introduced ourselves in a big circle, then got down to business!  Folks
shared what their goals were for this time together, we did some quick
group agreements, and, in honor of transparency, Tim & Noah shared the
baselines (or core principles) that they have been working from for the
past few months.  These were shared as starting points - values and
principles that currently ground us and that we can work from, but that
are not static or absolute.  Below are the goals that everyone shared,
followed by the baselines that Tim & Noah put together.

II. Vision:
We each took a few minutes to write or reflect on what our vision of/for
the bakery is.  This was framed in terms of bakery stories, or an
"elevator speech" - if you were explaining the bakery to someone in a
short amount of time, what would you say?  For folks that have been
talking about they bakery, what is the story - how have you been
explaining it to your families & friends?  Then, we shared what we'd
written and pulled out the themes - there was a lot of common ground! 
Then, we split into small groups to really try to pull out what the most
important pieces of the vision are (because the list was long!).  Below
are the themes that the facilitator recorded as folks shared, followed by
examples of what folks wrote, followed by some notes and reportbacks from
the small groups and some bumper sticker slogans that folks came up with!

III. Structure:
To open this section, Noah and Tim shared three "scenarios" or models that
they feel the bakery draws from, and talked about how the bakery could be
pulled on one of these directions, could become something that is a
combination of all of them, or something else entirely!  We did "straw
polls" of which models folks were feeling most, and talked about why -
what resonated with folks from the different models, what parts of each of
them would we want to draw on.  We talked about the economic crisis and
the importance of jobs, especially jobs for folks that are not able to get
work otherwise.  There was a strong desire in the room to share food with
each other, to be interdependent in that way - and to do it in a way that
promotes food justice by leaving no one behind.  Below are the scenarios
that Noah and Tim shared, followed by a few questions and notes from the
conversation.

IV. Decision-making
We very briefly discussed how to make decisions moving forward.  This came
in part from Tim and Noah wanting to expand the decision-making structure
so that it does not only center around them, so folks stepped up to be on
a decision-making team that the bakers can consult for big decisions and
that can help the group move forward in deciding on what bread uprising
will be.  A key theme in the discussion was trust - folks saying the
trusted the process even if they were not on the decision-making team, and
folks wanting & trusting Tim & Noah to make the decisions that they need
in order to make this work for them.  If you would like to join this team,
you're welcome.  Below are the people currently on the team, followed by
the next steps that Tim & Noah have taken since the assembly.

Volunteers for decision-making team:
Emily
Serena
John
Francesca
Annalena
Mikel
Kriti
Jagmeet
Tema
 
Post-assembly notes about next steps:
At the assembly, we shared that there were a couple of decisions we felt
needed to be made very soon, so that we can continue baking while the
whole group figures out what we want to create long-term.  Folks seemed
pretty comfortable with Tim & Noah making these decisions in whatever way
worked for them, as well as working with the folks that stepped up to
help.  So, here are the developments since the assembly:

1. We plan to continue baking in the subscription model, expanding to two
days a week (Mondays and Thursdays) and changing some things to make it
more sustainable.  We're going to be initiating a new 12-week subscription
later this month, hopefully baking for Vimala Rajendran's new restaurant,
and working with the folks that stepped up to figure out how to structure
and prioritize sign-ups for the subscription.

2. While we continue the day-to-day baking, we are super excited about
working with the folks that stepped up, to really flesh out where to go
from here in terms of the big visions that folks shared at the assembly. 
We'd like to do a bunch of this work in next 12 weeks, so that it can
begin to shift the way we structure the baking & the subscription.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: season 1 annual report.pdf
Type: application/download
Size: 93349 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/breaduprising-l/attachments/20100506/22a25c0e/attachment.bin>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Bread+Uprising+Assembly+Notes+4.25.10.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 78630 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/breaduprising-l/attachments/20100506/22a25c0e/attachment.pdf>