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This document was approved by the ILC March 12, 2024 and accepted by the Board April 12, 2024. It supersedes the document “International Leadership Council Roles and Functions” which had been written by the ILC and approved by the Board in 2016.
THE FORMATION OF THE ILC
The International Leadership Council (ILC) was formed in 2014 to broaden who is at the center of direction setting at The International Focusing Institute, since the Board has specific roles and will not necessarily be reflective of the diversity of the Focusing community. Because the ILC had not existed before, we are still learning together how to make it work best. For the ILC and the Board to function well as the leadership of TIFI, along with the Executive Director, there must be mutual respect and a lot of communication.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BOARD AND THE ILC
The Board is the entity which has ultimate legal responsibility for TIFI as a registered US-based non-profit organization; as such, they must approve the budget and ensure fiscal responsibility, supervise the Executive Director, and report annually to the US tax authority (the Internal Revenue Service). The International Leadership Council is free of such legal responsibilities. The ILC works collaboratively with the Board to advise it on whatever issues seem most important and pressing to the Focusing community. The Executive Director attends meetings of both.
ILC’S RELATIONSHIP TO/WITH COORDINATORS
The ILC is an intentionally diverse group, with the goal of reflecting our international Focusing community. It works for the good of the whole of TIFI, the wider Focusing world, and the dissemination of Focusing. While the ILC is not a group that is exclusively for the Coordinators, it is clear that a special relationship has developed in an organic way between the Coordinators and the ILC. The Coordinators have begun looking to the ILC as a place that they, as a group, can help make their collective voices be heard within TIFI. The ILC provides periodic opportunities for Coordinators and Coordinators-in-Training to discuss issues of concern in a thorough process, using a constructive way of communicating and hearing each other. The ILC imagines these meetings taking a variety of forms, some being more structured and some being more informal.
ILC’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE BOARD AND THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The ILC works cooperatively with the Executive Director and the Board to look at important issues that need to be improved and/or clarified. The ILC takes a broad view, taking into account the many constituencies in the Focusing world. The ILC takes the whole into account and brings forward ideas to formulate and carry out the goals of The International Focusing Institute.
The Board may occasionally request the ILC to take on a certain issue or task, and the ILC can make such requests of the Board.
As part of being connected, there is currently an agreement that an ILC member will be a guest at the Board meeting every other month, and every other month a Board member will attend one of the two monthly ILC meetings. The ILC member who attends Board meetings rotates this position so that the Board has an opportunity to meet all of the members. When this person speaks in the Board meeting, they speak from their own opinion based on their understanding of what the ILC might think or do. However, if it hasn't been discussed with the ILC, they are just providing their personal input and do not speak for the ILC. If the Board wants an opinion from the ILC, the Board President will send an official request to the Prime Mover of the ILC. (The Prime Mover acts as a chairperson. This is a rotating position among members of the ILC.)
Like any other committee of TIFI, the ILC conducts itself within its mission as it sees fit. When it proposes significant policies that have broad implications, those policies must be approved by the Board.