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ACI Restructuring Panel discussion the February 24th

Sunday February 24 at Caravane Café
4584 av. Papineau, Montréal H2H 1V3


Hello.

As requested by the Association de Contact Improvisation (ACI) :
Eryn Dace Trudell, Loïs Darie, Stéphanie Gaudreau, Manon Beaudoin have been working onthe restructuring of the organisation and functioning of the committees.

We have advanced, and at this point your further consultation and participation is requested and invited.
Pease see below letter to the Board and the different files.
A Facebook page has been created and a meeting has been organized for you to get involved and offer your feedback.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/comite.restructuration


The meeting is scheduled for Sunday February 24, after the Jam.

Place :
Caravane Café
4584 av. Papineau, Montréal H2H 1V3
Horaire :
2 :30pm : Arrival
3-6pm : meeting
18h30 à 22h : Potluck and party.

It will be a great pleasure to share with you !
See you soon,
Restructuration Comitee
restructuration@contactimpro.org

To The Board of Directors of The Association of Contact Improvisation

We are writing to the Board of Directors to propose restructuration of the global operations
of The Association of Contact Improvisation of Montreal.

This proposed new structure is the result of consultations with colleagues of ACI.
It involves :
1. Creating a Vision Committee or Advisory Board
2. Creating a new Support Role: Human Resources
3. Eliminating the current Committees (Teaching, Production) and replacing with them with Project Teams
(See list below of fundamental projects of ACI)

Since the beginning the association has had an operational structure based on Committees:
Production, Teaching, Communications and a Board of Directors and one accountant/administrator.

Gradually, over the last few years, we have seen disintegration in the effectiveness of this operational structure.
We have seen enormous responsibility being held by a few people.
We have seen a gradual decrease in the communities’ ability or willingness to volunteer time.
We have seen The Board of Directors having to navigate too many challenges, answer too many emails
and deal with too many personal conflicts.

This restructuration idea hopes to solve these problems and alleviate the workload of too few.
By restructuring the way projects are realized, the way communication is directed and by planning efficiently
and collaboratively with respect to the needs and desires of the community and the actual human resources available,
we can rekindle the spirit of lightness and generosity in the continuity of the association.

The new structure would involve creating a new body, which would act as a Vision Committee or Advisory Board.
This body would be composed of 3 elected members. Each member of this Board would fulfil a mandate of 3 years,
with one two years and another one four years at the beginning. The objective would be planning.

The role of the Vision Committee/ Advisory Board is (more precisions in the Comité Vision file):
To represent the ideas, desires and wishes of the members of the community.
To survey the community with regard to making decisions about potential projects.
To plan the collective future of the association
To serve as a link between the Board of Directors and the community
To suggest projects.
To evaluate projects that are proposed.

The qualifications to be on the advisory Board would include:
Experience within the community of Contact Improvisation (Montreal or other)
Experience in the organization of ACI
Experience teaching and studying Contact Improvisation
The ability to work collaboratively.

The new structure would eliminate the current committees and redistribute the tasks by activity or project.
The fundamental projects of ACI are:
Sunday Jam
Sunday Class
Annual Jam
Master teacher(s) accompanying Jam
Annual Summer Jam.

An example of that is the way that Valerie and Nicoletta have been realizing the Annual Jam in the past 5 years.
Originally Valerie and Nicoletta composed the Production Committee which included other activities as well as the Annual Jam. Gradually the other activities were eliminated and their role become focused only on the Annual Jam.
One could say then, that Nicoletta and Valerie became the Chiefs of Annual Jam Project Team,
rather than the Production committee.

By distributing the workload according to project we would eliminate the problem of individuals being overburdened
(because they would have chosen the project that interests them rather than be obliged).
Each project would hopefully consist of a team of at least two that would be responsible for actualizing that project
and one of them (Chief) would communicate with the Board of Directors and the Vision Committee.

The Board of Directors and the realization of the projects would be supported by :
Communications:
Newsletter, Web site, Database maintenance.
Human Resources:
New position. A person who would be appointed by Board of Directors or Vision Committee and would help find
the qualified people to act as Project teams or to fulfil tasks required.
Accounting/Administration:
( Money, Contracts,Studios)

Once the restructuration happens, and workload is more evenly distributed,
ACI can begin to work more efficiently can begin to gradually add projects,
such as weekend workshops, parent child classes, performances…etc.

If there is any part of this concept that needs more elaboration please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for your consideration.


Eryn Dace Trudell
Loïs Darie
Manon Beaudoin
Stéphanie Gaudreau

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Montreal (Quebec) Canada

info@contactimpro.org

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