A Basic Guide for Initiating Local Community Dialogues Purpose: To initiate community inquiry and dialogue, establish a compelling vision of what might be possible, and begin to articulate aims and objectives. Who could take part: This can be done at any level in the local community, from as small a unit as one yoga class, to all yoga center staff and participants, ashram members, or all stakeholders in your local community. A “stakeholder” is anyone who has an interest in the community, and can include, for example, yoga teachers, yoga students, ashram residents, Sat Nam Rasayan teachers and students, long term community members, etc. Process: Begin with tuning in (note: “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo” is only to be used for yoga classes and yoga practice; it is not to be used to tune into meetings): For meetings, tune in with: Ad Guray Nameh, Jugad Guray Nameh, Sat Guray Nameh, Siri Guru Devay Nameh (three times) Meditation: Of your choice, suggest 11 to 31 minutes A “check-in:” No particular subject, this is just an opportunity for community members to share how they are doing/feeling. The question is simple: “How are you doing?” Basic rules for all parts of this process: · All comments are made speaking for oneself · There are no comments referring to other people’s comments. · No advice is offered Size considerations: This process will work for any size group, from 10 through more than 1,000. The optimal maximum size for a check-in group is 15 – 20. Larger sizes are possible, but it needs to be understood that a group of 30 people will generally take at least an hour, which can sometimes become tedious. If the group is larger than twenty, we recommend breaking into two or more check-in groups. One has to decide between the desirability of everyone being able to hear how everyone is doing, how much time one has, and keeping the process energy/momentum up. The major reason for check-ins is to provide a place for everyone to share their feelings, and feel heard. Identify Positive Core of the Community Part one: to be done in dyads (groups of two). Participants interview one another, taking sufficient notes to be able to report (in the next part) what the partner said: 1. Tell partner about a peak experience in being a part of your yogic community, a time when you felt most alive, most engaged, when you felt good about yourself, your spiritual practice, and the community. 2. Without being humble, what do you most value about yourself, and the way you live your life? 3. What unique skills and gifts do you (could you) bring to this community? 4. What are the core factors that give life to this community, when is it at its best? Part two: 1. Dyads join with others to form into groups of four to eight (whichever would most likely result in groups being of the same size) 2. Each person introduces their partner and shares highlights from the interviews, focusing on great stories they heard, along with inspiring best practices and ideas 3. Determine (and record) the factors that contributed to: · High point experiences · Giving robust life to the community Part three: In the small groups, participants are asked: “If you had a magic wand, and could have any three wishes granted to heighten the health and vitality of this community, what would they be?” Each group should have a facilitator and a note-taker. Participants may be given time to write down their three wishes, before stating them to the group. There are no “wrong” wishes, and wishes are not criticized. The group listens to each person, and a list is made of the top 3 to 5 wishes shared by the group. One way to select the top wishes is to make a list of all the wishes, give all participants 3 votes, and then choose the wishes with the most votes. The small groups can take time to discuss the wishes and the future of the community The top three to five wishes are then shared with the larger group, which may also take time to discuss the wishes and the future of the community. The larger group would then go through the same process as the smaller groups to select its collective top three to five wishes. Next steps: The group creates teams around each of the selected wishes to begin to discuss how to manifest them in subsequent meetings. Please save materials and notes for future use. Note: The Office of Community Development is available as a resource for help in setting up your meeting. Please get in touch with Panch Nishan Kaur Khalsa, PanchNishanKaur@sikhdharma.org for any assistance you may need in setting up your meeting or with meeting process, and after your meeting, for support and materials for follow up activities.