CBRC Invitation to CU Expo

[John Lutz]

Dear Friends in Community Based Research   We are looking forward to the Community Based Research Canada (CBRC) meeting at CU Expo (May 10th 1-3pm, Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, John Aird Centre  Wilfred Laurier University ) and would like to invite you to be part of that discussion to focus and reinvigorate the national organization dedicated to fostering community-university research in Canada.  If your organization sees itself as part of the movement to enhance community-university partnerships we hope to see you there. If you cannot attend we invite you to send your thoughts toto this Ning discussion.   CBRC was started with this declaration:   “This coalition of Canadian universities, research networks, and community organizations at CUexpo2008 in Victoria, British Columbia, is intended to enable and empower citizens across Canada to access, produce, and put into action knowledge that will make their communities more sustainable, fairer, safer, healthier, and prosperous.”   Since then, CBRC has created a website http://communityresearchcanada.ca/ (which needs some updating)  prepared some reports including “The Funding and Development of Community-University partnerships in Canada,”  October 2009, which seems to have shaped SSHRC’s partnership program ; supported two national meetings on community –university partnerships – Ottawa, June 2009 and Montreal, June 2010. CBRC has also been a foundation for the international Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research (GACER),  help support the Knowledge Commons and its NING, and has assembled a  proposal for a National Centre of Excellence in this field with 32 partners (November 2010). The CBRC database of people listed as members includes  approx 350 people from campuses, First Nations and community orgs across Canada. To keep moving forward it would seem a benefit to formalize the structure of CBRC so that organizations and possibly individuals can join the group and so we can have an effective executive represent the group.   I attach a starting point for a discussion about structure and membership.   Possible functions for CBRC over the next few years – for discussion at our meeting.  They might include:   -          Focus on overall advocacy, research, funding and policy support for community-campus partnerships and CBR movement in Canada -          Locate and support hosts for future CU Expos -          Hold an annual in-person meeting of academic funders, agencies and campus-community partnership groups and  interested individuals to exchange ideas on best practices, funding sources, successes and lessons learned -          Create a resource exchange and communications system  perhaps through the KC NING -          Support and link the related campus-community initiatives ongoing around tenure and promotion reform, service learning, knowledge mobilization -          Link to international networks like the Global Alliance for Community Engaged Research   Please RSVP to [e-mail] if you are able to attend the meeting and bring your thoughts about the goals and proposed membership structure.    Otherwise we welcome your input to this Ning discussion.  Input received by May 7th can be considered at our meeting.  If you know of other people or organizations who would be interested please extend this invitation.   Yours in community….. Budd Hall, Katherine Graham, Maeve Lydon, John Lutz

[John Lutz]

Possible Membership Structure for CBRC I suggest we create an ad hoc executive committee at the CBRC meeting in Waterloo on May 10th which would take direction from the meeting and emails from interested parties and create a membership structure, membership fees if decided, and invite people to join.  The ad hoc committee would organize a CBRC meeting next year and a mechanism by which members can elect an on-going executive. A possible structure that could be the starting point for discussion at our meeting in Waterloo: CBRC is primarily a network of organizational members including but not limited to, community social and not for profit organizations, independent research organizations, departments, faculties and centres from post-secondary institutions, branches and offices of government bodies, funding agencies active in the area and businesses involved in the social economy.   Normally, units from within large organisations like governments, universities or national community-oriented organisations  would be members so there can be more than one member from a given umbrella organisation .   Individuals can join CBRC as “individual members” Memberships will have to be renewed annually or in multi-year increments. To support the workings of CBRC including regular updating of a website and Facebook Page, meetings, publicity, and the activities of the organization there will be annual membership fees. Proposed fee structure:  Institutional Members: $100/year.  Institutional members have the right to vote and determine CBRC goals, directions, executive, attend CBRC events and to be kept informed of all CBRC and related news through email, facebook, twitter or other communication media. Individual Members:  free.  Individual members are non-voting but will be invited to CBRC events and kept informed of all CBRC and related news through email, facebook, twitter or other communication media. Proposed executive structure (at the end of the term of the ad hoc executive): There will be a chair, vice chair, treasurer, a recording secretary and a membership secretary.   These will be elected by the membership for three-year staggered terms.   They will be responsible for the regular operations of the organization, keeping a membership list, the resource sharing and communications, and the finances.

[Todd Barr]

Membership structure and fees are a good way to sustain basic operations. That said, I'm not sure why institutions/organizations would have more voting power than individuals. Why not allow individuals to pay to join as well? Eventually, the value-add for paying membership vs. non-paid membership will need to be articulated.

 

As for the various proposed activities - all very good ones. Beware that CU Expo is not just about CBR. Who will take these activities on? My suggestion is to put out a call to the listserv for individuals who are interested in taking on particular project (listed above or new ones) and have CBRC support those efforts to write funding proposals, etc. What kind support CBRC can offer will need to be articulated. This is the grassroots model we have adopted in CACSL and it is starting to show signs of working. On the other hand, maybe you want a more focused approach on particular actions, as voted on by members? No matter what the approach, people will, in the end, only gather around tangible projects. Also, the level of resources will determine speed of project implementation.

 

My two cents,

Todd Barr

[Sarena Seifer]

I'm sorry I won't be able to attend the CBRC meeting - we have a CCPH board meeting that whole day.  I think it's essential that the mission, values and intended outcomes of CBRC be clearly articulated and understood before moving forward.   These aren't clear to me.  For example, the declaration from 2008 referred to above speaks about "empowering citizens across Canada to access, produce, and put into action knowledge that will make their communities more sustainable, fairer, safer, healthier, and prosperous” but elsewhere the emphasis is on "community-university research" and elsewhere on "community-university partnerships."   I don't see these as entirely interchangeable terms and concepts. Once those are determined, I think decisions about governance structure, membership structure and fees, priority activities, etc will more naturally flow and be answered.  I'd recommend taking a look at John Carver's policy governance model (http://policygovernance.com) - the CCPH board follows it and I think it can work very well for a national organization. 

 

Thanks and looking forward to seeing many of you at CU Expo!

Sarena

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

http://ccph.info