How the group was formed

In 2010, Tom McMakin, Chief Executive Officer of Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE) asked Jackie McMakin if his company, PIE, could help the cause of Global Renaissance in Vermont.   The term, Global Renaissance, was used by Jackie in her booklet, Our Defining Moment:  A Call to Create the World We Truly Want. It refers to a flourishing global and earth community.  

Asked what he meant by the question, Tom described a process PIE uses to help executives share best practices through facilitated phone calls.   “What would we have to do to make this happen?” Jackie asked.   “Gather a group of leaders who would benefit by networking together to share ideas,” Tom replied.   Not having a clue as to who those people might be, Jackie turned to Fran Stoddard who had been interviewing key Vermonters over ten years for Vermont Public Television.   “The people who are doing amazing work but who don’t know each other well, if at all, are leaders of organizations doing development work overseas,” Fran suggested.

To test her suggestion, Fran contacted ten of these leaders and posed the opportunity to them:  we were offering four facilitated phone calls in a year preceded by the facilitator interviewing each participant for fifteen minutes about what was on the front burner for them then.   All ten said they would love to join.  Fran wanted to stay involved.  She gave Jackie the names of others to call.  

Sixteen of these leaders participated in the first phone call on Feb 9, 2011.  The calls continued for a year, facilitated by Tom McMakin.  Then members said, “We want to meet face to face.”  The first “face to face” conversation was held on Jan 8, 2012 at the Institute for Sustainable Communities with President George Hamilton presenting his organization’s experience with non-traditional partnerships.

The group has continued to meet twice a year to explore how we can be more effective in addressing pressing global questions.  Topics are chosen by members and teams form to  plan meetings.