Inaugural Convening Committee Member Survey (Denim Tears)

A note from the Chair:

By now we've all had enough time to absorb the discussion that came out of our meeting with Tremaine Emory and his team at Denim Tears.

To recap, here's what we asked of them:

1. Have a series of mutual learning and sharing conversations (“Palaver Tree Sessions”) with representatives from various DF Member Organizations;

2. Design, in collaboration with DF members, and manufacture a Denim Tears product line—the “Descendants Forum x Denim Tears Founding Collection”—that celebrates and honors Descendants’ ancestral histories and visions for the future;

3. Make that product line available for purchase—with the Descendants Forum receiving a to-be-determined percentage of the resulting profits—in the lead-up to and at the DF’s Inaugural Convening.

In response, Tremaine asked one basic question: What story or stories would we like this product line to tell?

What I got from this response was that he either didn’t quite get or we hadn’t quite explained that the DF is about COLLABORATION, and that what we were proposing was that ALL DF member organizations be able to shape the collaboration with Denim Tears.

With that said, we need to begin shaping an appropriate strategy to discuss at our next Inaugural Convening Committee (ICC) meeting in October (an invite will be sent before the end of this month).

Your answers to the following brief survey will help shape and streamline the meeting agenda items so we are intentional and efficient with what we want to accomplish.