Invitation from a Steward
~ Nancy Margulies

Ever sit at a World Café table and bask in the glow of a great
conversation? Ever find yourself accepting the thanks of colleagues or
community members who loved their Café experience, one you hosted?

These
emotional responses and the hope for the future they inspire are the
result of lots of volunteer efforts and contributions of funds from
David and Juanita. Now it’s time that we, the larger World Café
community, step in to further nurture this work and generate the funds
necessary to keep the Café phenomenon alive and growing.

This
means each of us should consider making the World Café Community
Foundation one of the recipients of our charitable donations. We should
approach clients, employers, community groups who benefit from the
World Café process and encourage them to make donations. It’s time.

We
can do this in a way that keeps us free from giving up our capacity to
evolve the process naturally, without constraints from any larger
institutions. We can nurture the whole living process by letting it be
known that the World Cafe Community Foundation was established to
ensure that we make the process and principles available to the growing
number of people who want to experience and host World Cafés.

I
like to think of this process as letting people know there is a need —
giving them that information, explaining the need and then letting them
decide upon how much and in what way they want to give back.

Often
people don’t realize that in order to maintain a web site, develop
materials, rent spaces, buy supplies, travel to conferences, the Café
community needs to spend money. Let’s make sure that those funds are
available and that we give every café participant an opportunity to
contribute to our ongoing success.