November 16 2011

Early on, we thought that we would learn CIVINT by osmosis, and we didn't practice it well until we started asking questions about how CIVINT looks. It was important to start practicing and teaching it to ourselves as a self-organized learning community.

Outlines of tools for facilitating group communication would be useful.

We felt a lot more comfortable around each other after we all ate lunch together at the CAB. It also helped that we had something that we all enjoy, cats. Playing a game could also aid in breaking the ice for new groups. Dominion (a card game) could be a base upon which we could make a game - maybe with pattern cards.

Other games and activities that demonstrate non-zero sumness:

• Star Power (activity)
• Jigsaw groupgs (classroom structuring)
• Pandemic (board game)

While we were trying to figure out projects to do, we were asking ourselves "How do you get to know each other and behave in a civically intelligent way?" It turns out that we were doing it all along.

We reached a point in the program that we all didn't know what to do. We all discussed something that we each would like to contribute, and we gave each other pointers on how to go about resolving roadblocks.

Ellen's presentation provided us with a valuable tool to use when coming to an organization in order to collaborate. It helps to be prepared to ask what an organization's goals and needs are, as well as being able to express what you can bring to them and under what circumstances that you can provide it.