SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

As the national network grew, maintaining this with a very small staff became difficult and by 2009 the
national network was becoming less responsive to local networks and businesses and was losing its
way. After the 2009 national conference in Denver, a number of the local networks approached the
national board and voiced their dissatisfaction with the announced program direction. After listening to
that, the board dismissed all of he staff and evaluated how they could The get Meaning back of on Sufficiency track Economy as a support
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organization for grass-roots networks and businesses.
International Conference
Network Analysis
We are all familiar with
Figure
hierarchical
1: Typical
networks.
hierarchical
They are
network
often represented
representation
as in Figure 1.
Since I am going to be representing more complex networks, I would like to
help you visualize this typical network in the same format I will be using.
Figure 1: Typical hierarchical network representation
Since I am going to be representing more complex networks, I would like to help you visualize this
typical network in the same Figure format 2: Simplified I will be using. Hierarchical representation
of the US Chamber of Commerce
5
Figure 2: Simplified Hierarchical representation of the US Chamber of Commerce
These Figures show figure shows the same number of nodes as the final figure we will look at. None
of these figures These represent Figures actual show network figure data. shows They the are same representational number of nodes only. as the final figure
we will look at. None of these figures represent actual network data. They are
When representational BALLE first formed only. the network that was formed can be represented as in Figure 3. Nodes are
entities and edges are relationships. The strength of the relationship is represented by the thickness of
the line. When BALLE first formed the network that was formed can be represented as
in Figure 3. Nodes are entities and edges are relationships. The strength of the
In this relationship configuration, is represented the strongest by relationships the thickness are of the on line. the periphery within the local networks.
Interaction between the local networks was encouraged but the only real opportunity for that was at the
annual national conference. Consequently, these relationships were the weakest. All relationships here
were bi-directional. As the network grew, the relationship between the local networks and the national
office were weakening and the direction of the communication was becoming more strongly unidirectional
from the national office to the local networks. The local networks increasingly felt that they
were not being heard and not being supported. The national network was collapsing into a hierarchical
structure.