Developing A Regenerative Futures Fund #13: Good Hosting, Floating and Anchoring
It’s a funny thing being seconded, it’s my first time and there is an element of feeling untethered, floating around in some way. For me and what I was trying to achieve with Regenerative Futures Fund whist seconded from WHALE Arts to EVOC really required this type of set up. I’m convinced that it would be difficult to develop something so emergent, complex, relational and experimental in a standard organisational structure. Hosting is something I think about regularly, what does good hosting look like? What kind of host is needed at which stage? I have a lovely mentor David Adams who I chatted this over with recently and we ended up talking about hosting things like hosting guests at your house, and hosting lodgers and what does being a good host look like in that context and what might the parallels be between domestic hosting and organisational hosting? There is something that strikes me about the core requirements of safety, security, warmth, kindness and building a foundation of trust but also about independence, freedom and maybe also knowing when it’s time to leave.
I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a brilliant experience and I realise how fortunate I am to have had the support of many who have shifted how they work usually in small to big ways, to accommodate this ideas. This all started with the team and board at the very special place that is WHALE Arts where I was Chief Executive for over 6 years. They agreed to second me to EVOC for a year after I proposed the idea of exploring the possibilities around creating Regenerative Futures Fund. Integral to this also are the funders who were up for listening my proposal and agreed to contribute financially to this experiment in a flexible way and to also join a learning group from day one. EVOC then agreed to host and offered much support, encouragement and access to networks in the city. And then everyone saying yes (twice!) to an extension which meant I ended up untethered but very happy for almost two years.
This unique experience has now led me to saying farewell to WHALE Arts and joining the team at Foundation Scotland where I have been employed since July. They are hosting Regenerative Futures Fund to move into its launch phase, we are operationalising the project — this is a different kind of hosting to the development phase which I’d love to write more about. We are now and tantalisingly close to the £6m phase one target which once reached (soon, I hope!) we launch the programme.
Feeling anchored and excited about the next part which is to get this thing — an kernel of an idea that formed while I cycled my bike along the canal to Wester Hailes — which has been shaped by SO MANY people over the last two years — up and running!
We now have a website if you’d like to read more.
The Summary Operational Plan is here and a learning report on the development of the fund is here
And some of our open working (more historical stuff to add in) is here
The aim of this blog was to write and publish it in 30 mins — mission accomplished at 29:12 🎉
Oh and for no other reason than I love swimming outdoors (and it slightly links to the theme of floating and anchoring) for anyone who read my last blog, I managed to hit my 42 swims by my 43rd birthday, now trying to do 43 although our rubbish summer has not helped me much, but here is my fave swim of this year at Pittenweem Tidal Pool
