NIO Chapter Description

Vision
Significantly contribute to ongoing sustainability action and learning in the Greater Orlando community with primary focus on business.
Mission
Regularly inspire and enable individuals to use the power of business to create a socially and environmentally sustainable Orlando with a bias towards action and learning.
Chapter Goals

• Inspire and enable the Greater Orlando economic community to improve their social and environmental impact through the power of business.
• Develop and support sustainability opportunities and a learning environment for members and the community to continuously increase their sustainability knowledge and sense of urgency.

How We Plan To Implement Our Goals
Membership

• Recruit and develop a diverse membership from the Orlando business community, including private and non-private sector people through community presentations and personal contact.
• Recruit local experts in various private industry segments, government departments, non-profits, and NGOs to ensure local connection, diverse input, and objectivity in a consultative role for the Chapter.
• Connect with local business leaders as the Chapter infrastructure and initial membership is in place.

Learning

• Provide, create when necessary, and present valuable sustainability information for members and the community that helps achieve our goals and supports member projects and initiatives.  This will be in the form of member meetings, workshops, presentations, events, sustainability action summaries, book summaries, member communication, our Web site, etc.  Tap into the volumes of learning resources Net Impact International provides and the wealth of proven successes on the Web and in books.

Action

• Actively promote the Net Impact ‘Impact At Work’ Program to inspire and enable members to take on sustainability projects on their jobs and/or within their companies.  The Chapter will enable member ‘Impact At Work’ projects through identifying low hanging fruits for any business, for specific industries with recipes (how to) for implementation and access to mentors and experts.
• Inspire and enable employees across Greater Orlando to find ways to integrate sustainability into their day jobs to create positive social and environmental change.
• Develop and continuously expand community awareness, understanding, and relevance of sustainability action and Net Impact Orlando, including access to learning resources for members and the community.
• Identify, investigate and target 2 areas in our community where we feel we can make the most positive impact in the shortest time to accelerate sustainability awareness and action, e.g., increase recycling and engage people to work sustainability on their jobs.
• Select a non-profit, charity to mentor for sustainability progress.

Chapter Success Measures

• Met conditions for launch (See Chapter Initiation and Launch Project Charter)
• Launch events participation or attendance; % Launch interest follow-ups
• # of Projects in Progress; Member Satisfaction; Web traffic growth month over month
• Met deliverables required to have basic Chapter infrastructure in place by mid-October, 2009

Who We Are

• With our understanding of current world reality and a sense of responsibility as Americans, we believe in a next big dream for America:
• America leads the world in sustainable living and business progress within 10 years.
• We are a local group of people that believe in responsible capitalism and the urgent need to move sustainable living and business.
• We believe that one person can make a difference.
• We actively promote diversity in our membership and community involvement, including all races, ethnic backgrounds, economic status, religious affiliation, political affiliation, sexual orientation, employed, unemployed, retired, government, for profit, not for profit and charity organizations, etc.  No discrimination is tolerated.  Mutual respect is expected.
• We welcome different perspectives because they make our team better and help us challenge our own mental models.  We invite positive conflict, but don’t tolerate obstructionism.
• We have a long term and ‘systems thinking’ view of the world, including considering the total cost of our actions from creation to retirement of a product or service.
• We understand that achieving sustainability is a journey not a destination.
• We seek out alliances and avoid duplication of work and/or focus of other local organizations and avoid reinventing the wheel.
• We are non-political/bi-partisan organization that does not take positions except in relation to sustainability issues based on membership agreement.
• We foster:
•  Open dialog, both individual learning and team interaction learning.
• An action and measurement focus with a science-based and common/universal principle foundation based on vetted research and analysis.
• Sustainability advocacy with Orlando businesses and are not an activist oriented group

Preferred Net Impact Orlando Sustainability Framework

• The Natural Step with the core centered on a renewal of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Key Resources for Chapter Development

• The Natural Step: Seeding A Quiet Revolution by K. Robert; Thinking in Systems: A Primer by D. Meadows; The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

Chapter Structure
Basic Chapter structure includes an Advisory Board, Executive Team, Paying and Non –paying Members, and Sponsors.

This Chapter Description is initial and will be updated as we have more of a core team to provide review and input.

APPENDICES/NOTES
NET IMPACT INTERNATIONAL (Net Impact Central)
Net Impact's mission is to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world. Our new strategic plan lays out five key priorities to achieve between today and the end of 2012 that will enable us to deliver on our mission.

Our WORLD CHANGE goals are to
1. Empower and enable current business leaders and professionals to improve the social and environmental impact and corporate responsibility of their organizations
2. Equip and inspire the next generation of business leaders by transforming business education to integrate social, environmental and corporate responsibility topics into the programs

In support of these two World Change goals, we have three foundational goals:
Membership
3. Grow our global network by attracting new members, and launching and supporting chapters
4. Provide outstanding value to all member segments, leading to better connections,  retention, education, engagement, and impact

Organization
5. Strengthen our brand, human capital, financial resources and technology to effectively achieve our world change and membership goals

Successful Chapters
Building A Successful Chapter requires attention to four core disciples:

• Continuous Development of Personal Mastery
• Continuous Validating and Updating of Mental Models
• Regular Verification of Shared Vision and its Alignment with Member Vision or Purpose
• Focus on Team Learning

Successful Chapters Are Characterized by:

• Participative and Reflective Openness
• Practicing Localness, providing genuine responsibility for actions
• Celebration of Success and Failure with a focus on learning from both
• The Chapter Advisory Board, Executive Team and Members serve a coaching role, are biased to a long term view and systems thinking.

Principles for a Successful Chapter

• Chapter vision, mission, goals, and strategies are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure alignment with members’ purpose and goals.
• Chapter code of conduct is regularly reviewed and understood with peer intervention to ensure team adherence.
• Regular, brief communication, electronic, telephone, and face-to-face, provides news, updates, learning opportunities, and member relationship building.
• Action is a priority and is visible, measured and reported with accountability.
• Regular reporting of progress and success metrics:
• Chapter
• Project
• Community
• Effective team interaction measures are measured and reported with action taken to improve team interaction and results.
• Recruitment of new members and support of existing members is characterized by:
• Welcoming and appreciation of
• All races, creeds, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, political positions, etc. for input and contribution.
• All professions and expertise
• Learning and sharing of learning is at the core of the Chapter’s and members’ purpose:
• Team interaction
• Sustainability
• Select Foundational Subject Matters
• Members are inspired and enabled to contribute with accountability to sustainability action in their jobs and companies or through chapter support and the community.

Net Impact Orlando Initial Chapter Structure Details

Initial Net Impact Chapter Structure Details
Advisory Board Partners (volunteer)

• 3 to 10 Members from local churches, businesses, local government and NGOs
• Initial Commitment may include:
• Quarterly reviews of chapter progress and results; hosted using a rotation among Advisory Board Partner locations
• Attend Net Impact Orlando Orientation session and 3 overview learning sessions on The Natural Step, Systems Thinking and another of personal choice
• One employee-led green project per partner or provide subject matter expertise to assist Net Impact Orlando member in their project development and execution
• $55 Net Impact Membership Dues and $25 Chapter Dues, plus in-kind support of some kind
• Agreement to be shown as Advisory Board Partner on Net Impact Orlando Web site and other Chapter communications and media releases

Executive Team (initially volunteer, then elected by membership)

• President/Chapter Leader, Debbie Deland
• Membership VP, Mack Lindsey
• Learning and Event VP, Mark Thomason
• Marketing VP, Bob Reed as interim expert
• Treasury VP
• VP Corporate Outreach/Professional Development
• Technology VP, Gabe LeBlanc
• Programs and Projects VP
• Local Policy Change and High School Mentor Program VP
• Various sustainability experts as consulting support

The initial view of the membership price structure is:

• Advisory Board Members per above
• Paying Chapter Members
• $55/year Net Impact Central and $25 Local Membership Fees
• Should be developing a project or working on a sustainability project at their work place or working chapter development projects, initiatives or support
• Non-paying members
• Unemployed members
• Should be developing a project or working on a sustainability project at their work place or doing community sustainability learning or working chapter development projects, initiatives or support
• At Risk High School juniors and seniors (later)
• Sponsors, upon 501(c)3 status (later)
• Funding sponsors especially for Chapter Marketing, events, workshops, and meeting space
• In-kind sponsors
• Businesses that support the sustainability projects or initiatives of their employees
• Most Chapter Events will have a small fee to cover event costs and build a modest fund to support Chapter activities.

We expect to have Chapter Bylaws, Chapter Code of Conduct and Team Learning Best Practices, as well as a Chapter Orientation Guide.

Ongoing chapter success measures will use some or all of the measures provided by Net Impact Central, and those that Net Impact Orlando members consider important.