Welcome to The Illuman Pulse, a new monthly newsletter for Illuman leaders. Each issue of The Pulse will include updates from Illuman's national governing and operations councils, from the Board and Wisdom Elders, to Chapter Development, Communications, and more.
A refrain I've often heard repeated in my time with Illuman is a desire for greater transparency and awareness of what is going in all the different corners of our organization. With 17 different leadership councils all working in their different spheres (not to mention almost two dozen local chapters and emerging regions), it's no wonder that the left-hand often doesn't always know what the right-hand is doing.
This newsletter aims to address that need by publishing regular summaries of what each council has been working on. These will be taken from the reports each council submits via the new Council Reporting Form. To be included, please designate a member to respond to that form after each meeting.
As the only Illuman man regularly present at almost all of these meetings, I see so many exciting things happening across this organization and in the lives of the men we serve. I am so grateful for the time and energy each one of you devotes to this important work. My hope is that, through this newsletter, you will likewise be both inspired and better equipped to help Illuman thrive all the more!
With Gratitude,
Mike Clawson
Illuman Administrator
P.S. - These reports will also be posted on the Council Leaders Corner of the Illuman website. The password to access this page is councils2022.
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- Board & Wisdom Elders Joint Meeting
- Board of Directors
- Chapter Development Council
- Governance Council
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- Program Council
- Reweaving Council
- Technology Council
- Virtual Council Guiding Circle
- Weavers Council
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Charters, responsibilities, and contacts for each of Illuman's Operations Councils can be found here.
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Board & Wisdom Elders Joint Meeting - August 15, 2022
Contact: board@illuman.org, wisdomelders@illuman.org
The Board and Wisdom Elders met jointly for 3 hours to take further steps in discerning our structure specific to the relationship between the Board and WE. This has been an ongoing conversation for years, but in earnest since Oracle 2021. We considered every single model we could imagine over multiple meetings, and, after much hard work, we have decided to move towards a "trustee" model, in which the Wisdom Elders become fiduciaries responsible for the whole of Illuman. The WE would remain the keepers of the flame, tending to mission, vision, values, ethos, and perhaps other TBD considerations, while empowering/delegating the board to implement. In this model the trustees/Wisdom Elders have authority and oversight over the board, who retain their fiduciary roles as well. Many reasons for this shift were named.
A fleshed out document with details will be worked on between now and November. Four men (2 Board Members/2 Wisdom Elders) have been named to curate this document tending to the details of what this new model would look like, with input from the rest of the Board/WE in the process. When we have something developed, we'll seek input from broader circles in leadership, and hope to make further decisions in November at an in-person joint Board/WE meeting on the Thursday morning of Soularize
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Board of Directors - August 25, 2022
Contact: board@illuman.org
The Board conducted the following business:
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Approved the Technology Council's proposed CRM and will absorb the costs of including any Chapters who wish to use it as well. A 2% processing fee (in addition to any credit card processing fees) will be assessed on any paid Chapter events that are run through the national platform in order to cover the additional financial services this will require.
- Reviewed nominations for Board Co-Chair and will proceed to interview the three remaining nominees.
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Reviewed and affirmed the Chapter Development Council's request for core support services, specifically in the areas of Information Technology, Risk Management, and Media, Promotion, and Public Relations. As a member of both the Board and the CDC, Jamey Bontrager-Singer will take the lead in working on these requests.
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Recommended that the Governance Council review Illuman's decision-making processes in dialogue with the Reweaving Council.
Updates on On-Going Initiatives
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Board/WE Alignment - The Board/WE supports the “Trustees Model” asking Mike Anderer, Jim Taylor, Ned Abenroth, and Steve Hicken to develop a more detailed implementation plan before Soularize.
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Fundraising - Ten men have agreed to assist Development Council in developing and supporting sustained relationships with current Illuman donors to help build this financial keystone effort.
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Soularize - Planning proceeds apace with program content being spearheaded by Terry Symens-Bucher, and logistics and marketing led by Mike Clawson. Total registrations are currently at 146 (as of 8/29), with 185 paid registrations being the number we need to hit to avoid significant financial penalties from the hotel.
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Reweaving - The Reweaving Council will meet for its fourth time on 8/31. Four men have volunteered to serve as the initial Reweaving Steering Committee. The RC is working on an articulation of its understanding of its charge. This will be shared with Illuman leadership.
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Nomination Process/Governance- The Governance Council meets 8/30 to finalize a proposal for Board review regarding nomination processes across Illuman.
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Chapter Development Council
Contact: cdc@illuman.org
July 20 Meeting
At our July meeting, the Chapter Development Council focused on the Convener Mentoring Program we have been developing over the past several months. It aims to provide mentoring for new Conveners from experienced current or past Conveners. The program is now ready to roll out for actual use/beta testing. As it is implemented, we will continue to gather feedback in order to improve and refine the program.
We also discussed developing additional resources for chapters, focusing specifically on creating a section on the Chapter Resources page of the website (password: conveners2022) with documents and videos for how-to conduct council, as well as providing an index of council prompts that could be shared with any Illuman council circle.
Lastly, we discussed Soularize and suggested we setup time for the CDC to meet face to face. We also suggested setting tables for the various Councils and/or Chapters to allow the men to know who we are.
August 3 & 17 Meetings
The primary topics covered at our August meetings included:
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Additional guidance for the Convener Mentoring program. Tim and Arturo are working on this. We have recruited 5 men with Convener experience to serve as mentors. Document introducing the program will be sent to Conveners soon and will be discussed during the September Convener call.
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Finalized a response to Board Chair Steve Hicken regarding infrastructure support and core services that may be centralized to alleviate administrative burdens on chapters. These include:
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Information Technology Services: Provide access to shared technology platforms by centralizing services related to websites, communications, and event registration. Also, the creation of a national membership database would be a great resource.
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Risk Management Services: Although Illuman national may be unable to provide blanket insurance coverage for individual chapters, it may be able to negotiate pricing and/or provide recommendations for a standard policy with national carriers. It can also provide guidelines on coverage and review insurance certificates to insure adequate coverage. Other services may include: risk management training and access to legal counsel.
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Media Promotional Services: Plan events/programs and provide tools to promote national interest and spark chapter growth. Generate promotional content like brochures, fliers, videos and other creative media that helps get the word out about Illuman (who we are and what we do). This can include merchandising products like hats and T-shirts.
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Continued work on how-to resources for Council practices. These will include introductory prompts which focus on getting to know each other and build trust before going deeper. Exploring making a video to demonstrate how to hold Council. This effort also includes reviewing the existing resources in Illuman files with improved organization.
- Made plans for the CDC to meet in-person on the Thursday afternoon of Soularize.
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Governance Council - August 2, 2022
Contact: governancecouncil@illuman.org
We briefly discussed our need for additional members on the Governance Council and suggested using a similar process to the one we recommended for the Board. We also want to check with other Councils regarding their own needs for additional members. The question was raised whether the GC should coordinate Council-member recruitment across Illuman or is it “every council for itself?” It was suggested that perhaps there could be one period each year when all Councils seek new members. We also discussed, whether anyone is monitoring council members terms, who is going off each council, and what expertise is needed for new members? Also, if we have a pool of nominations, who is responsible for coordinating this?
Our next meeting will focus on developing a proposal for a comprehensive nomination process to present to Illuman leadership.
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Program Council - August 11, 2022
Contact: programcouncil@illuman.org
The Program Council determined that to reduce costs, environmental impacts, and driving time from the airport, Oracle 2023 would be held in April at John Knox Ranch, located one hour from both Austin and San Antonio, Texas.
Planning continued for the Soularize 2022 program, focused on the Work that Reconnects led by Terry Symens-Bucher. Speakers for Fishbowl Councils on each of the four themes of WTR still need to be recruited, as do men to identify and coordinate council stokers. Still no word from the CAC whether Fr. Rohr will be able to participate. We may choose to livestream that portion of the event if he is, but, due to the nature of the WTR, it will not be possible to stream any other parts of the weekend.
To reduce costs and make Soularize 2023 more accessible to more men, John Ball and Mike Clawson are working to identify alternative venues for next year. The Council agreed that it would be acceptable to potentially move the event around to different parts of the country each year.
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Reweaving Council - July 27 & August 10, 2022
Contact: reweaving@illuman.org
The Reweaving Council held its second meeting on July 27 with 20 out of 24 in attendance. Topics and issues introduced and discussed include:
- Constellation of Themes (on p. 4 of the Book of Proceedings) as a possible organizational framework to approach the work of Reweaving and the BOP.
- The possibility of organizing this work into 4-6 "Vision" working groups.
- Sharing the interest areas and expertise RC members bring to the work, as well as priority interest in theme areas.
- Began discussing the administrative and project management needs of the Reweaving Council.
Given the fact that the RC is getting oriented to the scope of work, the focus is on orientation to the tasks at hand as well as sharing background and other pertinent information to council members. A subgroup "Steering Committee" met with the Reweaving Service Team (i.e. the steering team during the prior "Shepherds" stage of Reweaving) on 8/4 to plan the 8/10 meeting. That meeting on 8/10 focused primarily on identifying the two issues each RC member felt should be top priorities for the next several months.
Since then, most of the work to plan upcoming Reweaving Council meetings has shifted from the former Service Team to the new Steering Committee.
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Technology Council - August 17, 2022
Contact: IT@illuman.org
Discussed the proposal from software provider MemberLeap for a new Constituent/Member Management database and integrated website. The men present agreed to recommend this tool to the Illuman Board as a replacement for the various current software tools we currently utilize. It will include all of the features of our current software and also add a members database and other useful tools. It is also able to be shared with any chapters who wish to utilize it, centralizing many infrastructure and software needs and reducing costs and burden on chapters. It was decided that Administrator Mike Clawson would create a brief summary of the software proposal to be shared with both the Community of Conveners and Board of Directors.
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Virtual Council Guiding Circle
Contact: cc-team@illuman.org
July 6 Meeting
The Guiding Circle met to prepare prompts for the July 9th Virtual Council. The prompts in July will be focused on Friendship, drawn from Fr. Rohr, Joan Boyroshanko, The Mankind Project, and John O'Donohue. Prompts were approved by all participants.
July 20 Meeting
Prompts were developed continuing on the theme of Friendship, and how important we feel it may be on spiritual, or personal levels. Material on friendship was drawn from C.S.Lewis and John O'Donohue.
August 24 Meeting
Our council has started developing Virtual Council prompts focusing on issues and self awareness regarding loneliness and the value of companionship. Poems by John O'Donohue were included.
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Weaver Council - July 8, 2022
Contact: weavers@illuman.org
The Weaver Council met to consider modifications to the MROP in support effectiveness and with regard to cultural sensitivity and inclusivity. A majority of our time focused on the Taking Back Your Power Ritual and recent alterations to improve the safety of the container and the experience for the men. These modifications include:
- Effort made throughout the rites to prepare men to identify and name their core wound in the form of a personal offense in anticipation of the ritual.
- Sensitivity continues for considering the impact of the ritual on men of color given that the ritual is typically led by and involves predominately white men.
- Additional efforts are being made to ground the men prior to and during the ritual through prayer, instruction, and giving them the option to “step out” of the ritual if it doesn’t feel safe to help prevent re-traumatization and to promote the healing/transformation intended.
- The “feeder” is now instructed to speak calmly and compassionately to the man, to help him ground himself and determine his own readiness to enter, and to state his wounding phrase in a voice he’d like mirrored back to him. The gauntlet is directed to mirror accordingly.
- After each man goes through the gauntlet all are invited not only to breathe but to physically "shake it off."
We also discussed the harshness of the 5 hard lessons and how they may initially land adversely on men of color or oppressed populations. The decision was made to contextualize them prior to handing them out and then again during the introduction of the corollary Common Wonderful, emphasizing their cross-cultural origin (see Rohr's book, Adam's Return) and their intention to not work against a man but to help him grow into his manhood. In other rituals, the use of an X or 0 when marking a man, rather than a cross in every case, was discussed and validated as another way to welcome men from other faith traditions and cultural backgrounds. This and related practices have already been incorporated in various MROPs and have been received well.
Other Business and Action Steps:
- Weavers will follow up with the RIDE Council about the Five Hard Truths and touch base with the Chapter Development Council regarding weavers’ on-going discussions about the Initiator Program and its leadership.
- Consistent language is being crafted for the weavers to contextualize the 5 lessons prior to sending the men out for the day on the land.
- Weavers reaffirmed the Weaver selection process as articulated in the 2019 Pathways document: "New Weavers are being identified out of an apprentice process led by the Weaver Council and brought forward at the appropriate time by the Weavers for affirmation by the Wisdom Elders." (Pathways: A Guide to Illuman, p.13)
- Weavers agreed to hold council at some point to discuss the evolution of the Initiator Program in more depth. No date has yet been determined.
- Next regular Weaver Council is set for Friday, October 28 with intention to meet consistently every two to three months.
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Didn't see an update for your Council?
To ensure your Council is included in the September edition of The Illuman Pulse, please assign a member to write a short summary following your next meeting and submit it via the form below.
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“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
― Rob Siltanen (shared at the August Illuman Board Meeting)
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