3. Brainstorm:
Start big! Explore the possibilities: what is your biggest wildest craziest greatest hope or dream? What would be the most wonderful thing you could do? What are just some ideas to start: spit them out! Write down every suggestion anyone tells you. Keep your mind open and widen your horizons, also this is good for letting the ideas flow freer without any pressure upon them to be the final decision. Narrow them down and think what is possible later, but start big – don’t let reality get in the way. As the saying goes: Ideals are stars, we may not always be able to reach them but we can navigate by them. Brainstorming starts early, so there is no pressure, there is time to ponder. Time to get inspired!
Questions may be:
- theme?
- ways to take the spirit of this event into childcare
- ways to create points of all-ages interaction
- ways to more equitably distribute the work
- invite input from conference, ask them to reach out to their communities
- activities and plans
- people might already start taking on responsibilities for certain tasks at this point, or even earlier
Take notes! Bake a cake! Serve snacks and punch. Decorate with inspiring slogans. Invite folks to your envisioning community meeting. Have a question to brainstorm on.
For instance:
"What is queer centered, femme fabulous, gender explosive, anti-racist childcare and children's programming?"
- was the question we asked ourselves and others in preparation for planning childcare for Femme Con 2012.
P.S. Here are some of the responses:
Subverting/smashing patriarchy
many models of care – not eurocentric
Expanding notions of beauty
Proud
Respect
Communication: teaching, helping, showing
Solve problems for self – by words and actions, even if that means asking for help
Independence/interdependence
Empower
Femme-inist
Respecting differences
Anti- oppressive, Anti-authoritarian, Anti-capitalist (consumer)
No mother blaming
Everyone takes care of the children – communal
Creative with resources/making something from little/fabulosity
Assessable for all
Holding Space
Fiercely Protective
Active resistance against injustice
Then we went onwards to concretely brainstorming ideas in bubbles - of practices and workshops stemming from these ideals.
Collective Vision Tree
Questions may be:
- theme?
- ways to take the spirit of this event into childcare
- ways to create points of all-ages interaction
- ways to more equitably distribute the work
- invite input from conference, ask them to reach out to their communities
- activities and plans
- people might already start taking on responsibilities for certain tasks at this point, or even earlier
Take notes! Bake a cake! Serve snacks and punch. Decorate with inspiring slogans. Invite folks to your envisioning community meeting. Have a question to brainstorm on.
For instance:
"What is queer centered, femme fabulous, gender explosive, anti-racist childcare and children's programming?"
- was the question we asked ourselves and others in preparation for planning childcare for Femme Con 2012.
P.S. Here are some of the responses:
Subverting/smashing patriarchy
many models of care – not eurocentric
Expanding notions of beauty
Proud
Respect
Communication: teaching, helping, showing
Solve problems for self – by words and actions, even if that means asking for help
Independence/interdependence
Empower
Femme-inist
Respecting differences
Anti- oppressive, Anti-authoritarian, Anti-capitalist (consumer)
No mother blaming
Everyone takes care of the children – communal
Creative with resources/making something from little/fabulosity
Assessable for all
Holding Space
Fiercely Protective
Active resistance against injustice
Then we went onwards to concretely brainstorming ideas in bubbles - of practices and workshops stemming from these ideals.
Collective Vision Tree
on to next section --> 4. Organize!