Internal doc: Reflections on our staff retreat
The other night, I came out of a wonderful onboarding session with some new members. From Singapore to the UK. From ex-Apple to current YC startup. And so much in between. It felt really nice.
I hope one day soon you’ll meet them or get to see their work. (PS — we’re thinking of putting up a section of the website that showcases all members who opt-in. Wouldn’t that be cool?)
You know what else was really nice? We just had a staff retreat in LA. Some things went great, some things we shouldn't do again, and I think we learned a lot.
I just sent out a big retreat reflection email to the staff, and then shared a slightly redacted version with our members. I think you'd like to read the very same doc we sent to our members, too.
Here is a link to the whole thing. I think it’s special and you would like it.
And, as a treat, just the first bit of it:
Q: What happened?
Since our last retreat, which was for fellows and staff back in May, we’ve grown a lot. An obvious way we’ve grown a lot is in our number of members. A more subtle way we’ve grown is in wisdom and organizational maturity. We’ve also just hired a lot of staff! Susana, Sean, Abby, and soon Maddie. This retreat was about getting to know each other and carrying forward the stories about who we are & what we’re about.
We also talked about members a lot, and how great they all are. This involved: post-its and chart paper, being out in the trees, Chinese food, hanging out in a bar, drinking so much coffee, and cooking ourselves a delicious feast. It wasn’t very fancy but it was very good to be in company with each other.
Here are some photos! And some video of us walking down the street in our new Integrity Institute hoodies.
Some — but not all — staff. We spent some time in an arboretum.
Also we spent a lot of time thinking, cooking, and using sticky notes indoors. We continued our tradition of renting out an airbnb/vrbo for our retreats.
From a happy hour with members and friends
SF and NY — take note
I’ll be in San Francisco in late February to speak at the Tech and Social Cohesion Conference. I’ll stick around a few days extra afterwards too. Let me know if you want to hang out. Members and other integrity workers — we’re throwing a happy hour on March 1st at 6pm for integrity people.
At the same time, on March 1st, our friends at All Tech is Human are throwing their own Tech & Democracy: A Better Tech Future Summit in new york city. While I won’t be there, we’ll have heavy representation of staff and I bet members too. Talha will be repping the Trust in Tech podcast in some official honored way. We don’t have a happy hour scheduled yet, but I’m sure something will be happening.
One last thing — Gonzalez v. Google
You may remember we wrote an amicus brief to the Supreme Court. We’re proud of it! And soon this will start heating up. You’ll hear more from us about this, very soon. (Here’s a teaser)
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for you today! Thanks to everyone who emailed me back last time. It really was good to hear from you — and even reconnect, or give you a little boost in some cases. Please don’t be a stranger, getting your email replies is a great joy to me.
- Sahar Massachi, cofounder and executive director