Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand (XRANZ) held it’s first digital hui in January 2019. The weekend hui started collaborative work on issues critical to our new group’s growth. Participants made decisions by consensus and volunteered to make them a reality.
In late December, the interim National Coordinators for XRANZ realised we were growing faster than anticipated. They decided the most active rebels needed to meet as soon as possible. A Digital Hui Project Working Group was formed with the responsibility for organising a successful hui.
The working group decided to use Zoom, a web-based conferencing tool, to allow broad participation at short notice and reduce costs. The structure of the hui was to combine focused group work with emergent participant led topics. Zoom’s chat function – (which allows feedback during sessions – and it’s small break out rooms, helped ensure everyone could participate. We used google docs to allow collaborative editing and structured engagement. Zoom and the format proved successful, with participants giving the hui a 9.3 out of 10.
Day 1
Day 1 started with a small group discussion around what our vision is. This allowed participants to get to know each other and establish common ground.
We spent the rest of the day discussing five key topics essential to our group’s success. The topics were: Values and principles, Goals, Global week of action, Organisation building, and long-term strategy.
Everyone had the opportunity to discuss each of the issues in small groups before discussing it as a whole group. Participants then chose an issue they wanted to dive deeper into. Each group then reported back and provided everyone a chance to feed back again.
Near the end of the day, participants identified the most important unresolved issues. These determined the topics for Day 2.
Day 2
Day two began with a rousing speech by Guardian journalist George Monbiot to reboot our Sunday brains.
We then broke into workshops to discuss the top three unresolved topics identified the day before. These were: decolonisation, NVDA strategy and tactics and outreach. Each group reported back and gave everyone a chance to engage.
Our final workshop was National Decision Making, which the whole group discussed.
To finish the hui, we identified all decisions and tasks discussed during the hui and called for volunteers to progress work in each area. Facilitators also created a list of key unresolved issues for future discussion.
Help us build the movement we need
The hui was just the beginning. Help build our movement by joining a working group to finish this critical work.
We would like to thank everyone for their participation in making the hui a success.
In solidarity,
Nikky, Rachael, Simon and Rowan
XRANZ Digital Hui Project Working Group