4. Ten questions on the future of infrastructure..

1.    Is infrastructure an organisation, or a collection of people with similar aims..? (eg a limited-liability-partnership of consultants delivering services under one roof) or are we enablers of socially minded activity – and how would this change how we operate..?

2.    How can we be business-like and yet more informally collaborative and open to new entrants into the market (as well as specialist infrastructure orgs delivered by front line groups)..?

3.    How will we create a new membership offer of association, at a time of falling universal formal membership..?

4.    How will we harness the potential of non-hierarchical models of collaboration between our front line orgs and infrastructure..? (such as taking a stake in successful ventures, selling shares, sharing successes and failures..?)

5.    How can we work with new hybrid organisational structures that go beyond trusteeship and association..?

6.    How will we manage increasing individualism in collaborative processes..? What opportunity does this offers for community action by mobilising the power of individual people to feel they can make a difference (the concept of “do something then group together”) instead of the typical model of “group then do”..?

7.    How will we manage an increase desire for community involvement with a declining desire for current methods of engagement (eg low response on consultations, forums, panels, trustees)..?

8.    What can infrastructure representation do to support the rise of user led organisations & BME organisations without the usual power imbalances and associated problems..? Do we have to accept this is how it is..?

9.    Is infrastructure for the voluntary sector or are we here for citizens of a place..? (in which case how will we interact with people who increasingly operate outside of the mainstream VCS and have no interest in political boundaries..?)

10. Who would be involved in an infrastructure platform long term..? Local authorities are starting to operate more like infrastructure, and there is a top-down desire for more community activity, if not ownership. (Julian Dobson has suggested a National Grid for Community Infrastructure). 


Thoughts..?