Dear Friend of FCE,

The Board of Directors writes to share news of a significant change in FCE. As you likely know, we have been through difficult times of late. This announcement is, we hope, a step toward better ones.

Let's begin with a review of the past year, when the board faced head-on the most difficult issues facing FCE. We saw that the organization was no longer serving our constituents well. Revenue and program attendance were in decline, some of our most dedicated facilitators and friends dropped off, and we were not having the worldwide impact our mission calls us to. Most significantly, when community building spread it seemed to do so in spite of rather than because of our organization.

We made several decisions, starting in November, 2000, that led to the departure of the executive director and program coordinator, and to the requirement that our programs break-even financially or be canceled. A transition team was then formed to help the office, support scheduled programs, and evaluate where things stood. The board also established six positive criteria for guiding FCE's future:

1. What we do must always address important, real needs - the needs described in our founding dream.

2. In order to do that work, we require an organizational structure that is consistent with community-building values. We not only believe in our ideals, but also should have an organization that embodies them.

3. We must be volunteer led and staff supported. We want to be a community of many leaders, not a community led by a few.

4. We must have an organization that each of us could ask others to contribute to.

5. We must articulate demonstrable outcomes from our work. If FCE is to be accountable to a larger community, it must in part be through observable results.

6. Our operations must be sustainable over the long term. No short-term fiscal approach can provide adequate foundation for the long-term aims of this work.

Knowing FCE was not meeting these criteria, the board, at its June, 2001 meeting, asked a team of committed FCE members to undertake a strategic planning process. At the board meeting in late October, we reviewed the results of months of intense work by that team, as well as ideas submitted by other members of the FCE community. There were nine proposals in all, received from people from three countries.

Reviewing these proposals, the board put community-building values to work-a risky and at times painful journey. In so doing, we concluded that although each of the proposals contained valuable ideas, none of them, nor any combination of them, simultaneously addressed the above criteria and enabled the work to move forward in the manner we believe necessary. We concluded unanimously that the FCE organization would continue to be a barrier to progress rather than a catalyst.

This decision was not taken lightly or without tears. FCE has touched many people and the work has touched many more lives over the past fifteen plus years. But we feel that to hold on to the status quo keeps the work of community building-our work and your work--from truly growing.

We want to make clear that, gathered at the Board meeting in Christ Church, in New York City were people who had been with FCE since it was established and know its history intimately. Among the Board are members who have facilitated scores of community-building circles, who've consulted personally with Scott Peck about FCE's status and future, and who've provided the bulk of the funds that have kept FCE going since Peck's retirement.

Our intent is to liberate community building, and invite the community of community builders to create the next phase of this work's growth. We believe we cannot facilitate that process directly, but must create space for creative energy and the Spirit to bring all FCE's constituents into community. Accordingly, the board of directors announces three steps.

First, next summer we will inactivate FCE for a period of at least one year thereafter. The Board of Directors will at that time cease any formal activity and its corporate status put in some form of passive governance. During that period, no workshops or programs may be offered under FCE's name or auspices. In some respects, this is a protective measure to prevent misuse of FCE's name and authority. In other respects, it is simply a way to put a stop to current activity and open the way to fresh possibilities.

Second, we will sponsor a gathering (in summer, 2002) to enlist all FCE's constituents in creating the next wave of community building. We will together celebrate FCE's history and mourn its passing. The gathering will provide a forum in which to begin community building's future. We believe it imperative that whatever the future of the work might be, that it arise fresh not from the corporate board, but from the dreams and commitment of a movement of community builders.

Third, we want to ensure that FCE's programs - such as the Community Facilitation Program (CFP), Community-Building Workshops (CBWs), and Community Building Skills Seminars (CBSS) -become even more available than they are now. Accordingly, all training materials and intellectual property associated with these events will become the commonwealth of community builders. Therefore, pending legal advice (to ensure this action creates no improper liability), we will place these works in the public domain, available to any community builder, anywhere in the world.

Thus, anyone with the passion to build community will be able to use CFP manuals to train community builders or make use of other FCE materials to build community in organizations. Naturally, users cannot re-copyright these materials as if they were the original author or source. Nor can they promote themselves as working for FCE. There will be no restrictions on who can facilitate community building. And there will be no specific differentiation between FCE versus non-FCE facilitators.

It is our hope that this helps to spread the work and ignite the passion of people to take community building into their own locales. To that end, FCE's current web site will continue to be available through 2002, and perhaps thereafter, and will have added to it an on-line discussion forum to help connect the community of community builders. It will include a listing of community-building facilitators and downloads of public-domain community-building materials. Provided this change to public-domain status clears the legal assessment we are now conducting, this forum will be available by the end of the year.

The plan is to close FCE's office in Seattle by December 31 or shortly thereafter and to handle mail, phone calls, and such until summer when the Board and the corporation will be deactivated.

We'd like to publicly express our deep gratitude to Larry Pennings and Jan Wessman at the FCE office for their diligent and graceful work in the face of such uncertainty during these past months.

The board itself has become smaller and will focus on the details of this change in the next months. At its recent meeting, board members Steve Bauman, and Wally Weitz completed their terms, and they will not be replaced. Furthermore, at year's end, board members Gay Hapgood and Mark Hurst have also elected to retire. We thank them all for their dedication, hard work, and discernment as to the right time to step aside. Board member Michael Schmidt now joins Bonnie Poindexter as co-chair, replacing Gay, for the remainder of the board's tenure.

We hope you'll join us at next summer's gathering as we mourn our endings, tell our stories (both good and bad), and together pursue the hope of bright future for the worldwide community-building movement. You'll hear more about this event in the coming months. Should you have ideas about the meeting that you would like to contribute, please e-mail those to Bonnie, who is coordinating the planning for the meeting.

We'll follow-up on this letter with a Q&A to provide operational details about all of the above. You will find the Q and A on the FCE web site, or receive it by e-mail if that is how you received this letter. In the interim, should you need more information, ask any board member. Thanks for your support for FCE, your efforts and love over years past, and your continued commitment to community building.

Yours in community,

Francine Anzalone-Byrd [email protected]
Eve Berry [email protected]
Bill Bushnell [email protected]
Sydney Duncan [email protected]
Richard Kleiner [email protected]
Kyle Lehning [email protected]
Phil Mirvis [email protected]
Bonnie Poindexter [email protected]
Michael Schmidt [email protected]
(The FCE Board of Directors)