Last fall at ALF Weekend 2014 we participated in a game where we wrote out what we did, what we have “juice” for, what we want to be doing, and what action we are taking to get there. We wrote these down then went around the room and spoke them out to our peers, then everyone would suggest additions. It was a super powerful process an

It’s a year later and prompted by @abbyo post and @ryanshollenberger post I’ve decided to update my ALF Accountability information. If any ALFs out there want to do the same I’ll leave instructions at the bottom of this post.

The following is taken from the Mapping ALF Accountabilities Doc, updates are sub bulleted, additions are italic, while subtractions are strike through. Note: Some of these bullet points were added by me, others were added by my fellow ALFs, that should explain the change in tense.

What I do

• Facilitate ALC in Everett
  • I finished facilitating Everett in April of 2015, read my debrief here
• Consult with Everett board
• Train other Everett ALFs (parents for now)
  • This didn’t ever happen, because there wasn’t a clear vision for the school we never could onboard more people and the parents didn’t have time/energy to become facilitators
• Manage/Administer ALC web sites
  • This has been going well.
• Administer Google Apps
  • Still doing this, over the summer we moved to a network account away from the NYC Google Apps account. Still need to get down clear procedures around this as well as:
  • Train new Google Apps admin
• Consult on Tech Questions / IT Support for network
  • Been doing quite a lot of this. You can schedule time with me via my office hours.
• Do designy things
  • I’ve been doing quite a few desiny things recently!
• Get things done without being a busybody
  • My work/life balance has been really good recently, I do spend a whole lot of time on ALC stuff, but I just love working on it!
• Bring experience of successes & failures from other social orgs and efforts
• Bring balance of cynicism, sarcasm & hopefulness
• Such a graceful fuck up!
  • The title of my Everett debrief is “The failure of Everett was a great success”, also check out my post about redefining failure
• Narrate destruction of wood this was tongue in cheek from the weekend in 2014
• Help the group move to creative space even on challenging issues
• Says yes when asked to play… with a seemingly infinite comfort-zone
  • Still saying yes!
• Offer support to kids in other ALCs
  • Now that’s I’ve stepped out of a facilitation role I haven’t been doing this as much, but am still available!
• Readily stepping into accountability
  • I’ve been doing a lot to create accountability structures
• Bringing “medium as the message” to doing important work in the world
  • I blog to inspire others to create shareable value!
• Makes us laugh, brings joy & lightness
• Builder of internet infrastructure for reaching humanity
• Watch and answer startup/membership emails
• Be available to new ALC members for Office Hours
• Create documentation to orient new ALFs and New Member ALCs
• Support and encourage other ALFs to step into higher levels of responsibility and take ownership over roles in the network
• Support other ALFs in their practice
• Share ALC with people and create promotional propaganda
  • Recently presented at the Communities Conference and did a session to support Endor
• Consulting with public schools!
• Continue to get better at the Ukulele!

What gives me Juice

• A loving and supportive community
• Interesting people
• Earth-shattering ideas
• ALC fits my theory of change
• Motivate others to document/share stuff
• When people use tools I built
  • Check out the awesome websites that are being created on the platform I created!
• Sharing knowledge and learning from others
• When I can receive emotional support
• Seeing others working effectively / achieving their goals
• Seeing people have realistic analysis of the world recognizing opportunities ahead
• Getting to do things outside of normal skill sets

What I Want to be Doing

• Support kids on other ALCs
  • It’s not that I don’t want to do this, but it’s less of a focus for me. I’d rather support ALFs who then support kids!
• Introducing new schools, indoctrinating them
  • I’m starting to do this!
• Recruiting facilitators, freeing prison teachers
  • Currently working on ALF membrane and ALF pipeline to achieve this goal!
• Want to be developing entrepreneurial aspiration of people and students in the network
• Connecting ALCs to other orgs, like intentional communities, homeschooling, counter cultural groups
  • I’ve started doing this! Just last month I visited the Communities Conference and presented ALC to a bunch of intentional communities with @bear
• Create docs around ALC methods that apply to other educational contexts
• Evangelizing for ALCs
• Create a worker-owner cooperative that provides Agile consulting services and employees ALFs

Next Actions

• Practicing ALFness in Everett success!
• Building Everett to build skills to do it again/more/consult success!
• Abnormal travel post-Everett, ingratiatingly
• Train another Everett ALF failure!
• Motivate Everett parents to engage more actively failure!
• Connect with indigenous groups & activists in Seattle area and share ALC failure!
• Connect past friends/connections to ALC
  • Getting the ALF pipeline worked out brings me closer to this goal
• Clearly define ALF integration workflow
• Create by-laws for ALF consulting coop
• Hire an intern to work on web development stuff
• Uplift more ALFs into network roles
• Support @sarataleff, @rochellehudson, @abram, and others in creating a vision for the ALC Network

Overall I see my role in this network to make it easy for people to accomplish what they want to do. Be that existing ALFs or people out in the world who want to create a better future for children. I feel that the more I define and document how we do things the easier it will be for people to engage with our network or create their own complementary networks.

It is through my work helping other people achieve their goals that I am fulfilled. Every time I see someone use a process or tool I’ve developed (or better, helped them develop) I am inspired to do more.

My time in this organization has been a great one, truly an upward spiral 😉

Just like the last time we did this, if you see anything I’ve missed please comment below.

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Write your own accountability post!

If you wish to participate please write a blog post with the tag:

alfaccountability

Answer the following questions:

• What I do: (for the network and in your local ALC community)
• Juice: What gives you juice (what about the community or your work powers you up?)
• Want: What do you want to do (in an ideal world)
• Action: What actions are you taking or will you take to do this

You can see everyone’s post on the network feed site (this is a thing!) under the alfaccountability tag:

http://feed.agilelearningcenters.org/tag/alfaccountability/