What is a Catalyst Group?
Catalyst- One that causes an event or process
Overall Purpose
We seek to honor God by striving to improve our community through positive change based on Christian values and ethics. We serve, influence, and lead by providing vision and resources in synergy with others as we value our past and guide our future.
The Premise to a Catalyst Group
If a group of 12 to 15 equal people with a common interest will meet for 36 hours per year around a purpose in a structured program, they will achieve three significant cooperative successes in the first two years.
Catalyst Group
Groups of people with like interests who meet to learn together and from each other, share ideas, assist each other in the improvement of their leadership skills, and cooperate in the implementation of programs and ideas that exemplify God’s love, serve others and support the chosen mission
The Elements
Periodic meetings and communication including
A centered purpose around a vision, goal, or mission
Committed and qualified
Long term
An outpouring of ones self
Passion for the purpose
Many different possible interests
A collection of talent based on diverse perspectives
A coach or mentor
Commonality
Meeting rules or an agreed upon process
Confidentiality
Balanced participation
Participants
Entrepreneurs
Community leadership
Young emerging impact individuals
Volunteers
Values role models
Combination
Member criteria could include
Willing to be vessels of Gods will
Positive thinkers
Doers
A willingness to serve others and the community
Regular attenders
Values oriented thinkers
A vested community interest
Interested in the future
Seeking personal growth
Willing to teach
Understanding of the leadership culture
Must add diversity to the group
Strong character
Credible
No self serving initiative
Participation Rewards-Individual
Understanding the cumulative knowledge and experience of the group
Growth and continued effectiveness of participant
Build future leaders
Train future mentors
Education of participant
New voices of leadership
Mentoring
Coaching
Positive community change
Growing circles of influence
Propagation of the organization
Cooperation
Friendships
Participation Rewards-Organization
- Growth and continued effectiveness of the organization
- Lead others who need lead
- Propagation of the organization
- Further the purpose
- Education
- Coaching
- Positive Community Change
Improve community quality of life
Community service prevalence
Economic growth
Expanding community programs
Vision and build the future
Cooperation
God’s way of ensuring the right fit with participants
- Project failures
- Unbalanced participation
- Lack of trust or confidentiality
- Impatience
- Disengagement
- Wrong fit
- Personal Agenda
- Schedule conflict
Success Meeting Elements
- The group must develop a purpose statement that supports the Overall Purpose Statement
- Coaches or mentors must be organizers, repositories of information, and guardians of the purpose.
- Group size must be manageable.
- Members must share a common passion for the purpose.
- The meeting must include prayer for guidance, wisdom, and any other pertinent requests and thanksgiving
- A short leadership lesson based on Christian values should be included in the agenda
- Confidentiality must be adhered to when appropriate
- Participation must be balanced and respectful
- New ideas are more valued than critique. Consistent method of prioritization.
- Regular attendance
Implementation
1. Strategic
2. Identify resources
Divide and conquer
3. People
4. Documentation
Replication
Improvement
Historical learning
Feedback
Some thoughts about community leadership.
- Leaders model Christ’s example of leadership
- Leadership is dependent on character.
- Leadership is teaching, and often times involves asking for faith from those around the leader
- A leader isn’t always necessarily out in front. They may play an encouragement role.
- Leaders must understand first, and then serve, in order to lead.
- Leaders have similar traits not the least of which is listening.
- Leaders command respect.
History of Catalyst Groups
The Catalyst group is a spin off of another group that met for many years. That group was formed with the idea that committed people acting as humble servants to the community through their common beliefs and circle of influence could accomplish great things. Unknown and unsung they had some great successes. They got the east end of Shepherd of the Hills Expressway finished. They initiated the renaming of the Springfield- Branson regional airport…just to name a couple.
Built on that foundation a new group was formed, the Catalyst Group.
This new group of people was structured based on peer group research from as far away as South Africa. The outcomes, processes, membership, and facilitation were all guided by the research and adjusted based on personal growth and the specific situations. A mentoring aspect was added to the structure to facilitate personal growth in leadership.
The purpose guides the efforts. Meetings are held twice per month at lunch for an hour and a half. Mentors are responsible for organization, the repository of information, and keeping the group true to the purpose. Members have a common passion for the purpose and the discussion subjects which are picked by the group.
A model exists for the meetings. They are all begun with prayer. The leadership of each meeting is rotated, as is a short leadership lesson. Someone is always responsible for dessert. Participation is balanced and ideas are not critiqued until all ideas and discussion are on the table. We commonly use what is lovingly called the dot method of prioritizing issues and ideas.
How did we journey to the present?
Over the past 20 months, an initiative was developed along with the cooperation of the Keeter Center for Character education at the College of the Ozarks to survey the community of Stone and Taney county to determine what areas the community would like to see more time spent on in the future. The choices were Transportation, Healthcare, Housing and Community Design, Environment, Healthy families, Business/Economic Development, Employment, Education, Emergency Response and Preparedness, and Community Ministry.
These choices were the result of review of Springfields Vision 20/20 initiative. A Taney County Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis and the City of Branson’s Common Thread Project. Jerry Henry from the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation helped us design the survey. The survey was distributed through pastors and local churches in both Stone and Taney County. Almost 400 responses were tabulated.
Four items surfaced as clear winners of the community’s attention: Healthy Families, Education, Healthcare, and Employment.
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