Governance and decision making
Catalyst is moving toward more equitable, network-led systems of governance and decision making. There are currently several experimental forums where this happens. We call them ‘circles’ or ‘working groups’.
The core team and stewards circle, is responsible for the strategic direction of Catalyst. They bring coherence and overview - weaving the work and insights from the other groups across the network.
The Initiative Leads circle is collectively responsible for ensuring continuation and momentum of key Catalyst services for the next 12 months, while we transition. They shape the budgets and priorities of the following Catalyst activities and services:
Support and training
- Catalyst core team - Comms, events and resources
- CAST - Design Hops, Coffee Connections
- DOT PROJECT & Shift - Beyond
- SCVO - DigiShift
- SIDE Labs - Digital Candle, Dovetail
- Third Sector Lab - The Curve
Collaborative network
- Catalyst core team - Partnerships and relationships, Open Projects, Catalyst Network Meetup
- CAST - Network learning, Digital inclusion convening
- Collaborative Future - Equity, diversity and inclusion
- DataKind - The Data Collective
- Reply - Tech for Good UK Network
- Zoe Amar & Nissa Ramsey - Sector research
Reuse infrastructure
- CAST - Service Recipes, Shared service elements
- Third Sector Lab - Open working
Catalyst’s comms, internal operations, finance and board-level governance are currently contributed by the team at CAST, its incubating organisation.
Other groups are time-bound, such as the Network Engagement Working Group, which brought cross-sector Catalyst contributors together in May-July 2021 to test decentralised sense-making and people self-organising as Catalyst. They explored key priorities as Catalyst evolves, how information flows through the network and important qualities for the dedicated team and stewards. Read what they did and achieved, and the key takeaways, which have directly shaped our most recent funding applications and planning.
Initiated and convened by: Freelancers Joe Roberson and Roz Sutton
Sessions facilitated by: Tess Cooper, Collaborative Future and Doug Belshaw, We Are Open.
Network Engagement Working Group members:
- Ben Holt, British Red Cross
- Beth Mukushi, SCVO
- Charlotte Newman, Carefree
- Dalia Abu Yassien, Comic Relief
- Deepum Bhatia, Henry Smith Charity
- Doug Belshaw, We Are Open
- Gregor Thomson, Founders & Coders
- Kate White, Superhighways
- Marie Wilson, Salford CVS
- Megan Gray, freelance
- Nana Parry, Tectonic
- Nathan Williams, ProMo-Cymru
- Stephen Hawkes, DEV Society
