2017 Year of Empowerment

2017 was a year to focus on empowering others. In a world where conversations seemed more and more divisive, empowerment is the kind of speaking and listening that creates new possibilities and causes things to happen that were not going to happen in the prevailing context. This way of speaking and listening gives us access to generating new possibilities and new openings for action that make a positive difference in our world.

• The third and final Five Day Residential Program for the Third Cohort of the School for Leadership was held in the spring of 2017. It was validating for both participants and School Builders to see the maturity with which the Cohort now works with the distinctions of the School.


• Each region gathered for their final Three Day Leadership Clinic in the autumn. At these gatherings they began to look at what they need to focus on to authentically declare that they have fulfilled on the promises of the School by the time they graduate in the spring of 2018.


• There were two international Dialogue Calls, one around the distinctions Speech Acts and around the distinctions of Listening. These two-and-a-half hour conference calls are an opportunity for the Cohort to come together to discuss and work more deeply on each distinction.


• Three Audio Offerings were offered during the year -- Coaching, Enrollment, and Community.


• The three Element Communities, Coaching, Faculty and Curriculum Support, and Management and Administration, continued to build and manage the School, creating stability and sustainability.


• The three Regional Liaisons deepened their relationship with their participants while supporting each region in functioning as a transformational community.


• 39 School Builders, many with more than one accountability inside the School or the Mastery Foundation, worked throughout the year to support the School and the members of the Third Cohort. These dedicated volunteers, along with those volunteering in other parts of the Mastery Foundation, tracked more than 6600 volunteer hours during the year.


• Sadly two cherished School Builders died in 2017. We will be forever grateful for the many contributions of Clinton McNair and Michael Johnston.


• School Builders met by conference call in January to launch the Year of Empowerment together.


• In July a smaller group of School Builder gathered near Baltimore to look at what is wanted and needed for the next five years. Our focus was on enrollment in the Fourth Cohort and ways we can expand the community of School Builders and the Mastery Foundation community, particularly in reaching out to younger supporters.