Mtn. Review Special Edition Late Summer 2020 | Page 4

MTN. VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Workshop
The MVHA’s winter 2020 membership meeting served as a workshop where members came together to generate ideas for the future of the organization. The MVHA Board
worked with professional mediator Michael Kasperzak to plan the workshop and its interactive exercises. The workshop took place on February 16, 2020, at the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows lodge on Castro Street. Ten of the 11 MVHA board members attended, along with 12 members, a guest from the Sunnyvale Historical Society, and
workshop facilitator IdaRose Sylvester. Snapshots from the workshop are below, and ideas generated during the workshop are summarized on the next page.
Participants wrote on construction paper up to five ideas that answered the
workshop’s key question, “What Should the MVHA be doing to move us forward
over the coming decade?” Here, Allison Hicks (left) shares one of her ideas with
the group.
To help visualize themes, overlaps, and synergies, the ideas written by
participants on construction paper were adhered to a large “blue wall.” With
everyone’s input, workshop facilitator IdaRose Sylvester sorted participants’ ideas
into seven broad categories.
Workshop participants broke-out into small groups, one for each of the seven
categories, to further flesh-out ideas and propose discrete projects. Here,
Candace Bowers writes down her group’s ideas with input from Martha Wallace
(left), David Salinero (right), and Gil Lane (foreground).
Each small group then took turns sharing ideas for their top projects and
shared initial thoughts about project goals, measures of success, strengths the
MVHA can leverage, obstacles we might face, and suggested next steps. Here,
Margarete Minar (left) and Lisa Garcia share their group’s ideas.
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