CHEER Planning Session #1

 Thank you to Ray, Margaret, Gus and Matt for attending the first planning session for CHEER yesterday. The next session is Monday, 12/13 from 1 to 3 pm in the Community Room (#2) at the Russell Library. All are invited/encouraged to attend.

 The following is a summary of our work and decisions; as a recap for the attendees and to keep everyone on the CHEER email list informed.

 It was emphasized that this is a new era for CHEER and we have the opportunity to craft the team and effort based on our values. The session started with some self-reflection:

1.       We reviewed those tasks that we each like to do and dislike.

2.       We offered insight into each of our own sense of purpose, personality and people we most like to be with.

 Together, we identified traits that we value in our teammates:

-       - Confidence, concern for people & planet, loyalty, dependability, proactiveness, open-mindedness, encouraging, truthfulness, good work ethic, teachable, knowledgeable, humble, open to debate, open to brainstorming, willing to work, able to get to the point efficiently, flexible, cheerful, problem solver, easy to get along with. I’m adding one more that I thought of this morning: Generosity of spirit.

 We briefly discussed what and where CHEER has been. A copy of the pamphlet was provided. We discussed a one-pager also provided summarizing the three grants on which we are working (attached).

Together, we brainstormed: “What would wild success look like in 5 years?”

-         - Having CHEER adopted state-wide

-          - Widespread knowledge of CHEER

-          - CHEER as a stand-alone program or entity, or affiliated with a related non-profit

-          - Making me superfluous

I invite the other attendees to respond with their own thoughts – these are just the notes I took on my sheet.

 We then worked together to write a C.R.A.Z.Y goal for change! (This where it got even more fun and exciting):

1.       What’s your challenge? Create awareness, communicate benefits, convince people to participate

2.       Is your goal radical? Having anybody and everybody in Middletown promoting CHEER.

3.       How does our goal align? It is consistent with CHEER’s original mission and serves the grants accordingly.

4.       How will you celebrate your wild success? CHEER Festival, music, food, clowns, electric cars, fireworks. Highly visual collaboration/partnership with an org like Habitat for Humanity.

5.       What would change just by trying to reach this goal? A greater sense of community in Middletown. Improved social, environmental, energy, climate justice.

Wait for it…..!! We ended by working on a vision statement that will form the basis for our 2022 Mission Statement, to be created next week. Here is the one I wrote down however, all of the participants agreed to email their statements (all were rather long, but it’s just for working purposes). We will then collaboratively, via email, work on combining all the statements. (If you wish to be part of this process, let me know. We will do this in a separate email thread that does not include the entire TO: field of this email.)

“CHEER envisions a future where everybody and anybody in Middletown is promoting CHEER, and attending a CHEER festival that celebrates the healing of our planet and the community spirit that arises from our work to create awareness, communicate benefits and convince our neighborhoods to participate in CHEER’s program of energy efficiency and renewable energy.”