Hello BD_Collective community!
It’s been about two months since the first meeting of the Working Group for our new Community Benefit Society (CBS), so here’s an update on what the working group members have been doing.
Each meeting has started with a challenge: switching gears and finding the headspace for meaningful conversation, while other responsibilities tug at us. But that’s just the beginning. We’re diving into something big, making sense of everything we’ve learned so far. Every past conversation, every shared experience — we’re sifting through it all to help guide us to what the CBS membership is meant to be.
Defining Purpose: What is the CBS and Who is it For?
Before we got into specifics of membership, we discussed the bigger question of what the CBS needed to do and be for three categories of stakeholders:
- VCFSE member organisations of the CBS
- Local people and communities
- Wider organisational stakeholders in the B&D ecosystem (e.g. LBBD, NHS, public services, etc).
Based on what transpired, we created an interim vision statement that we’ll revisit throughout this development period. It will remind us of the big picture, and challenge us to consider how the CBS might evolve as we deepen our conversations:
The BD Collective CBS exists to support civil society, build kinship and unity in the VCFSE sector, and places people at the heart of our decisions.
Building on the VCFSE sector’s earlier calls for collaboration, funding partnerships, and sharing best practices, some important themes emerged around the CBS needing to be a space where:
- VCFSE colleagues feel safe and supported
- Members can see themselves as part of something bigger, perhaps even an authoritative body
- The CBS provides equity and community, especially for smaller organisations
This brought us to some big, structural questions. What principles should underpin our governance? How do we ensure transparency? Should we articulate shared values in a code of conduct? And how might those principles guide both our everyday interactions and decision-making?
We’re recognising the need to understand and honour the many interconnections between roles, responsibilities, and the way our networks evolve — especially as we build something intended to hold collective weight.
We also made progress in exploring our key themes more deeply, using a collaboration board to capture our discussions. You can see that here.
Deepening the Work: Creating Space for Real Dialogue
We’ve had helpful and wide-ranging discussions, which helped us realise the scale of what we’re trying to achieve. But short, fortnightly meetings in the middle of busy days didn’t give us the space to go deep, so we agreed a full day is needed.
We plan to:
- Have deep, sustained conversations where we can fully allow ourselves the focus and time to pick each others’ brains.
- Constructively challenge each other to agree on a set of principles for the future CBS membership and governance.
- Allow time for decompressing and creativity to flow after each deep dive discussion, before stepping into the next topic.
We will continue to keep you updated on these conversations – watch this space for more developments after our full day meeting in September. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to Amelie at amelie@bdcollective.co.uk if you have any questions or suggestions.
Until the next update! 🙂
CBS Working Group members
(Liliana, Emma, Anna, Nassaba, Matt, Geraud, Sam and Matt)
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