The Advisory Collective

Purpose

We are committed to being ecosystem and movement led. The Community Nest will  weave together the collective knowledge, skills and learning of our network and should therefore be shaped  by the wisdom, needs and ambitions of our fiscally hosted groups. To aid us in this goal, we are assembling an Advisory Collective  formed by members  of our ecosystem.

Aim

The Advisory Collective’s expertise and insights will guide our stewardship of The Community Nest, to build a resilient and well-organised grassroots movement.

Objectives

The Advisory Collective will…

• Influence The Community Nest’s priorities through sharing insights and expertise.
• Provide feedback on the spaces, structures and design methods and approaches proposed for The Community Nest.
• Act as Community Nest Ambassadors in their everyday work and roles.

Responsibilities
Reciprocal learning

• Contribute to reciprocal learning through information exchange, shared reflection and constructive disagreement to support and challenge each other and The Community Nest team.
• Commit to naming power in the space.
• Enter into discussions with good intentions, respect and openness. 
• Hold patience for relationship building with other panel members and The Community Nest team.

Governance

• Hold the team accountable to not recreating or mimicking oppressive or harmful systems or experience for groups engaging with The Community Nest.
• The Advisory Collective will at first sit within the remit of The Community Nest, acting in an advisory capacity and later moving into a strategic function within the 5 year timeline outlined.
• Where the panel’s input is not taken forward, the team will explain why.

Membership
Attributes

• Strong commitment to Social Change Nest values and our purpose.
• Lived experience of the social issues The Community Nest groups are engaged in fighting. 
• We are particularly keen to receive applications from members of communities experiencing economic, environmental or social injustice, and people working for change as part of these communities. 
• We strongly encourage applications from: women and non-binary people, those from Global Majority backgrounds, and members of other marginalised groups.
• Where needed SCN can cover interpreters, personal carer, childcare and other costs to facilitate panel members’ participation.
• Advisory Collective members must be aged 18 or over.
• We welcome interest from stakeholders both within our fiscally hosted network and from our wider ecosystem but will reserve at least 60% of the membership to fiscally hosted community leaders. 
• For the first two years of the Advisory Collective, members must be based in the UK.

Cadence

• The Advisory Collective meets 4 times a year for 2.5 hour long meetings.
• One meeting a year will be held in-person, with the Social Change Nest covering board (where needed) and travel costs. 
• Meetings will be scheduled at times that work best for Advisory Collective members.

Honorariums

• An honorarium of £350 per day is available for Advisory Collective members as an acknowledgement of the time they put into preparing for and attending the Advisory Collective meetings. 
• The Community Nest’s Payment For Involvement Playbook defines its approach to honorariums.
• In the interest of transparency, all honorariums will be paid using the Open Collective platform. 
• The Social Change Nest is committed to supporting participants to accept payment without disrupting their social benefits where relevant.