Our Current Pilot Support

 Page status (temporary)

Samara sees many synergistic ways it can support regenerators with their regenerative organizations and initiatives such as SEEDS local adoption pilot projects. The focus is on bringing Ambassadors together to encourage knowledge sharing and mutually supporting each other and on disseminating relevant tools, resources and technologies in a structured way. Some of those offerings are in early-stage development (see The Blossoming and Fruiting of Samara), while others are already active now! 

Currently, the following supportive structures for the pioneers of SEEDS' first local adoption pilot are being tested:

1. Pilot Pods as communities of practice
2. Global Pilot Calls for knowledge sharing
3. Holding Space on the SEEDS Discord Server
4. Supporting pilots with tools, resources, and technologies

1. Pilot Pods as Communities of Practice

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly".^[1]

The purpose of pilot pods is for Ambassadors to be part of a community of practice around local adoption of Seeds and SEEDS. The pod serves as a sounding board for adoption strategies and for mutual help and support.

Pilot Pods consist of a (recommended) maximum of 3-4 Ambassadors working on Local Adoption Pilot Projects that are similar in characteristics*, challenges and opportunities. Ambassadors can join existing pods or form new ones with the help of the Local Adoption Pilot Database. The database lists existing Pilot Pods as well as Pilot Projects to help Ambassadors self-organize into Pilot Pods.

A suggested format is to meet weekly or biweekly using i.e. the format of a Case Clinic (Presencing Institute) or Mastermind Group Meeting. Each meeting, one Ambassador presents their case while the other pod members deeply listen and then collectively offer support / feedback / ideas to help this case. 

Pods will be encouraged to record their insights and define a lamp lighter to bring issues and learnings from the ground into the Global Pilot Sensing Calls.

Questions to further explore:

• How do we make the self-organization into pods an easy and joyful experience?
• What are the most important characteristics of pilot projects to consider when organizing into pods?
• How do we support and facilitate regular pod meetings? i.e. by learning from the "Meet Seedizens" experience to prompt Ambassadors to schedule pod meetings
• How can be we collect and share learnings from the pods to make this an easy and rewarding experience for the involved Ambassadors?
• How do we synthesize and process insights from pods in a meaningful way?

*shared characteristics may be: demographics, culture, time zone, 'verticals' (i.e. tourism, food system, etc.) 

2. Global Pilot Calls for Knowledge Sharing

Global Pilot Calls connect and share knowledge among Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots. 

Global Pilot Calls are coordinated through a facilitated community thread on the SEEDS Discord server in the Local Adoption Pilots channel. They take place weekly or bi-weekly and rotate between a speaker series (designed to introduce a variety of tools, resources and concepts within the SEEDS ecosystem relevant for Local Adoption Pilots) and sensing calls (bringing Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots together to share approaches, results, and lessons learned or raise concerns).

• Our first Speaker Series Call was hosted on April 7, 2021 with Steph from LocalScale (see below) and announced as an e-Townhall. Questions were collected in advance and during the call with Slido

April 7, 6pm UTC: Q&A session with Steph from LocalScale
Description: Market platforms for regenerative products and services (both locally and globally) where Seeds are a (preferred) payment option play a key role in Seeds adoption. LocalScale is developing such a platform and virtual farmers market. Steph will present LocalScale, followed by a Q&A session. See alpha version of the virtual farmers market.  

Topics for upcoming sessions (currently being voted on): 

The schedule of future Global Pilot Calls and facilitation structure is still being coordinated.

3. Holding Space on the SEEDS Discord Server

The #local-adoption-pilot channel on the SEEDS Discord Server serves as a place holder to gather and communicate with Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots. It is there that the information about pods and pilot calls are shared and questions around Local Adoption Pilots are being discussed. The channel is moderated and surveyed by Samarans.

Ambassadors that are designing campaign proposals to activate their communities or Ambassadors from the Ambassador Academy ready to launch a local adoption pilot are directed to this channel.

4. Tools, Resources and Technologies to support Pilot Projects 

Samara develops, collects, and disseminates the tools, resources, and technology that are most useful to ambassadors facilitating local pilots. As explained in Our Relationship with Hypha Movement Building, Samara is not the only entity serving ambassadors in this way. See below for a brief list of current offerings throughout the SEEDS ecosystem, including the (organization(s) involved). 

• Local Adoption Pilot Database (Samara): Collect and share data on pilot projects and associated ambassadors both to map pilot projects and for allowing for self-organization into Pilot Pods
• Stakeholder Mapping (Samara / MBC): providing frameworks and tools to map key stakeholders to launch a pilot project
• Value-flow Mapping (Samara / MBC): providing frameworks and tools to map the monetary and non-monetary value-flows within an ecosystem to understand how Seeds can help to foster a regenerative local economic system
• SEEDS Transaction and Governance Applications (Hypha): Passport, Lightwallet. 
• Co-op proposal Nursery (MBC): providing guidance, support and feedback to design high quality alliance proposals for aligned local organizations and campaign proposals to reward regenerative behaviors and distribute Seeds in the local community
• SEEDS Ambassador Academy (MBC): Core SEEDS training & community-building for those looking to actively grow the SEEDS movement and ecosystem. 

Looking towards the future, Samara is developing several promising packaged offerings that will be impactful for both SEEDS ambassadors involved in pilots, as well as individuals, groups, and communities that exist beyond the SEEDS ecosystem at the moment: 

See more on these offerings in Samara Starter Kits. 

Synthesizing and Sharing Learnings

To collect, synthesize and share learnings from the Ambassadors active on the ground in local adoption pilots in a meaningful and accessible way is key. The goal is to compile an evolving Pilot Wiki with

• Tools and Resources explained (recordings & notes from Speaker Series)
• Collection of further useful Tools and Resources for Local Adoption Pilots (see above)
• Best Practices, Approaches and Strategies

Frequently asked questions and requests have to be fed back also to Hypha to help further evolve and improve the tools and existing resources.

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[1]  "Introduction to communities of practice - A brief overview of the concept and its uses". Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved 18 April 2021.