7th annual leadership convergence - registration introduction

7th Annual Leadership Convergence - Registration

Introduction

This year, the 7th Annual Leadership Convergence will continue our theme of Achieving Equity

Through Agriculture by hosting a collaborative space for farmer leaders to workshop projects, goals,

and dreams of actions you would like to take to build momentum for making equitable change in your

communities.

Knowing that social change work takes strong communities, and recognizing that it’s nearly

impossible to do this work alone, for Convergence 2021 we invite you to bring your change-making

community with you!

Convergence 2021 will be a week-long intensive workshopping space for a racial equity-related goal

or project that you are working on in your community. Each day will guide you and your team through

a series of inspiration and collaboration spaces intended to introduce you to questions and

frameworks that will help you best plan and take action on your work. By the end of the week you will

have a clear vision, strategy, and action plan for your project, as well as a community of farmers

nationwide who are doing similar work to support each other through the great undertakings you are

all setting out on.

Attendance at 2020 Convergence is not a requirement for registration to the 2021 Convergence, as

long as you come with a strong commitment to acting for racial equity in your community you are very

welcome to this space. If you would like to watch some of the recorded sessions from last year’s

event, part one of this theme, please email [email protected]

What kinds of projects can we bring to this space?

Convergence 2021 is designed to help you move forward a racial equity project in your community. A

project can be many different things, but it must have a tangible and time-bound goal.

Here are some examples of possible projects that could be workshopped at Convergence:

1. 2020 and 2021 have been absolutely exhausting years for farmers and anti-racist activists, your

group wants to spend your off-season (timebound) exploring resiliency and healing through

series of meet-ups and collective healing practices (tangible).

2. You and your co-farmers want to use winter 2021-2022 (timebound) to create documents

(tangible) that outline anti-racist on-farm hiring, training, and on-going practices.

3. Throughout 2022 (timebound), you will plan an event (tangible) that will bring together a

collective of QTPOC farmers to come into an energizing collective learning space.

4. Your chapter has made a commitment to expand BIPOC leadership in your network. You want to

spend the off-season this year (timebound) putting together a documented action plan (tangible)

to move this goal forward.

5. You are a new chapter or a chapter with new leadership and want to create documents and art

(tangible) that will define your identity and goals as a group so you can be better allies to the

movement for racial equity on the long-term.

6. You have an idea of how to get non-farming people in your community involved in advocacy for

changing your local food system to better meet the needs of your region (maybe a sliding scale

on your CSA? Or a movie night?) but you haven’t had the time to explore that idea more yet. (not

quite tangible and time-bound yet but we’ll help you get there!)

7. You are a group of friends, neighbors, and community members (or just yourself!) wanting

to make change, but you don’t know where to start. We’ll help you figure that out!


To complete the rest of the registration form please first let us know whether you are registering as an

individual or a team.

* 1. I am registering

with a community as a team

as an individual


Team Members

In order to both register your team, and make sure we know how to get in touch with you all, please

complete the following set of pages to register each of your team members, and then move on to

complete the rest of the form as a group to register your project.

We have limited Convergence registration to a maximum of five team members to ensure that we have

space for many teams, and also because we have found five to be a good number for practical-

decision making and strategic planning. We encourage you to have a broad community outside this

gathering to support your project beyond Convergence.

* 1. How many members of your community/project team will be attending Convergence?

2

3

4

5


Team Member 5: Demographic Questions + Contact Information

The National Young Farmers Coalition prioritizes racial equity. We collect demographic information on

the people we serve in order to look critically at our reach, improve the accessibility of our programs,

and act with urgency to redress any inequities. We never share individual information outside of

Young Farmers. Thank you for helping keep us accountable and for supporting a more just

agricultural future.

First Name

Last Name

1. What is your name?

2. What pronouns do you prefer?

Farm Name/Organization

Address

Address 2

City/Town

State/Province -- select state --

ZIP/Postal Code

Country

Email Address

Phone Number (please enter as

10 digits - no non-numeric

characters)

* 3. Please enter your contact information:

4. How do you identify? (select all that apply)

Farmer

Rancher

Farmworker

Aspiring Farmer or Rancher

Ally/Supporter

Other

5. What are your racial and ethnic identities? (please select all that apply)

Afro-Caribbean

African

Arab/Arab-American

Black/African American

Chicanx

Latinx/Hispanic

Indigenous/First Nation

Central Asian (e.g. Persian, Tajik, Uzbek)

East Asian

South Asian

Middle Eastern

North African

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

White/European descent

6. Do you identify as LGBTQIA+?

Yes

No

Other








First Name

Last Name




Address

Address 2

City/Town


ZIP/Postal Code

Country

Email Address



characters)



Farmer

Rancher

Farmworker


Ally/Supporter

Other


Afro-Caribbean

African

Arab/Arab-American


Chicanx

Latinx/Hispanic



East Asian

South Asian

Middle Eastern

North African




Yes

No

Other








First Name

Last Name




Address

Address 2

City/Town


ZIP/Postal Code

Country

Email Address



characters)



Farmer

Rancher

Farmworker


Ally/Supporter

Other


Afro-Caribbean

African

Arab/Arab-American


Chicanx

Latinx/Hispanic



East Asian

South Asian

Middle Eastern

North African




Yes

No

Other








First Name

Last Name




Address

Address 2

City/Town


ZIP/Postal Code

Country

Email Address



characters)



Farmer

Rancher

Farmworker


Ally/Supporter

Other


Afro-Caribbean

African

Arab/Arab-American


Chicanx

Latinx/Hispanic



East Asian

South Asian

Middle Eastern

North African




Yes

No

Other








First Name

Last Name




Address

Address 2

City/Town


ZIP/Postal Code

Country

Email Address



characters)



Farmer

Rancher

Farmworker


Ally/Supporter

Other


Afro-Caribbean

African

Arab/Arab-American


Chicanx

Latinx/Hispanic



East Asian

South Asian

Middle Eastern

North African




Yes

No

Other


Project Stage - Teams

* 1. Tell us about the stage your project is in:

We are coming with a project that is well planned and outlined but looking to expand our perspective.

We are coming with a project that is outlined but we need help making actionable steps.

We are coming with a dream but don’t know what the next step should be to making it happen.

We don’t have a project or goal in mind yet but we are passionate!


Project Registration - In Progress Project

* 1. Group Name/Project Title (this can be your chapter name, regional identifier, or project goal. Feel free to

be creative!)

* 2. Tell us about your project/goal? What are you working on? (250 words)

If you don’t have a project in mind, what are your areas of interest? Do you have ideas of things you want to

change or skills you want to build?

* 3. How will you measure the success of your project / how will you know when you are done with this

specific project? (250 words)

* 4. How does your project contribute to a larger movement for racial justice in agriculture?

Advocacy: we’re changing the balance of power at the

local, state, or national level.

Business services: USDA isn’t doing it for us, so we’re

helping ourselves.

Our farm as an example: we hope that our farm’s business

and structure can be an example for others.

Organizing and community-building: we’re connecting

people, building relationships, and supporting each other

Communications: we’re changing the facts and stories that

get told

Global Solidarity: racial equity beyond the US, borders are

a colonial construct anyways.

Policy: visionary structural change through government

Healing: it’s a central piece of racial justice work

Something totally different! (tell us about it!)

* 5. How do you define your level of confidence with racial equity: (select all that apply)

We’re BIPOC, we live it everyday. Anti-racism is in

everything we do.

We’re BIPOC, we live and fight oppression everyday, but

we'd still really appreciate spaces to grow our perspective

on more complex issues in anti-racism (intersectional

identities, cross-identity allyship, histories specific to certain

areas and communities etc.)

We’re BIPOC, we live oppression everyday, but we're not

super confident planning anti-racist action and would

welcome support

We're a group with mixed levels of confidence when it

comes to racial equity.

We’re white and have weaved allyship in everything we

think and do.

We’re white and feel like our allyship is strong in some

areas but feel much less confident in other areas of our

dreams and projects.

We have a lot of passion, but we still feel like we’ve got a lot

to learn and are not confident taking action.

* 6. Do you believe that your project is financially viable?

Funding? We’re really not at that part of planning yet. We

haven’t even considered funding yet and have no clue

where we’ll get money.

Even though we don’t have money yet we’re pretty sure we

know where to get the resources we need.

We’ve looked for money but have been unsuccessful in

raising enough funds to be financially viable.

We’ve been decently successful at raising funds and think

we’ll be able to continue as is.

We’ve been decently successful at raising funds and would

like to grow more.

We’re actually pretty successful financially-speaking and

would like to share this privilege.

* 7. What is your biggest funding question and/or challenge?

* 8. If you had to lay out five stages of a plan for your project right now, what would that plan outline look like?

Team Member 1

Team Member 2

Team Member 3

Team Member 4

Team Member 5

* 9. What strengths do you each bring to the table?

Name two-four skills, connections, personality traits that each member of your team contributes toward your

success.

* 10. Which of the following challenges do you feel in your work now? (please rank in order of most pressing to

least pressing with 1 being top priority)

´

Team dynamics

N/A

´

Funding

N/A

´

At a loss for next steps

N/A

´

Need legal support

N/A

´

Need other specialized consulting/support

N/A

´

Need more time

N/A

´

Business skills

N/A

´

Need to build our network beyond the project leadership

N/A

´

Need policy/advocacy support

N/A

* 11. If you had complimentary access to the following professionals/mentors and they were vetted anti-

racists, would you meet with them to support your project? (Rank the options by your need, with 1 being who

you have the most need for)

´

Strategic planning consultant

´

Conflict mediator

´

Leadership coach

´

Racial equity trainer and consultant

´

Ag and mental health crisis expert

´

Healer

´

Movement Elder / Mentor

´

Project management coach

´

Fundraising strategy expert

´

Grantwriter

´

Communications strategy expert

´

Graphic designer

´

Accounting (budgeting and financial reporting)

´

Ag loan officer (FSA)

´

Small business and individual loan officer

´

Business consultant

´

Lawyer

* 12. What would be your question to the professional you ranked #1?


Hybrid Events

We have a little funding available to support some groups to host an in person gathering during the

week of Convergence to move your project forward.

If you are interested in receiving a little financial support to have an in-person get together during the

week of Convergence, please read the following information, then answer the questions below:

- Funding can support your team to host a community event to spread the reach of engagement with

your project during the week of November 8-11, 2021.

- Funding is also available to support your team on a smaller scale if you would like some funding to

go toward collective meals, transportation, or other helpful items for making it possible to meet in

person during Convergence.

- Funding will be provided on a reimbursement basis after the event. If paying up front is a barrier for

your group's ability to plan a get together, please email either Faith ([email protected]) or

Katherine ([email protected]) from our organizing team and we will work with you to make

this funding available should your project be selected.

- One requirement of accepting this support for in-person events is that you send Young Farmers a

photo of the gathering and a 2-3 sentence blurb about the event. Images and blurbs help us to assess

the impact of these small funds. We might be interested in sharing information about your events out

but would never do so without talking to you first.

Please note:

- We may not be able to provide funding to everyone that applies, and we will be considering

geographic variation as well as COVID safety precautions as factors in our choices for funding

distribution.

- We will be prioritizing all or majority BIPOC teams for this funding opportunity.

- We will be prioritizing some of the funds for groups who seek to host community events that expand

the reach of your projects beyond Young Farmers

1. Would you like to apply for funding to support an in-person event for your community during this year's

Convergence week?

Yes

No

2. Tell us about your proposed event that you would use this funding to support (200 words maximum):

Food

Transportation Funds

Gathering Space

Rental/Compensation

Childcare

Getting the word out (e.g.

printing posters,

advertising in local paper,

etc)

Translation Services

Other costs (e.g. film rental

for screening, ramp for

ADA accessibility, etc.)

3. Please provide a rough budget outline of how you would spend support funds. Please round amounts to full

dollars:


Share your work with other folks attending!

Parts of Convergence will be very collaborative spaces for you to learn from and teach other folks

doing similar work. In our directory of projects for the week we encourage you to offer skills you’d like

to share, and things you are seeking to learn from others. Feel free to include any social media

handles.

1.

2.

3.

1. What are three things folks can ask you about or three skills you’d like to share with others:

1.

2.

3.

2. What are three things you’d like to learn about from others:

* 3. Submit a 1-2 sentence blurb about your project for other teams to read.

If you don't have a project yet, share about yourself or your dreams!

No file chosen

4. Submit a photo of yourself/yourselves!

Choose File Choose File

5. We're making a Convergence playlist! Do you have a song you'd like to add?

7th annual leadership convergence - registration introduction

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