A Model for Organizing a CoP

Communities of Practice (CoP) offer both rich opportunities and challenges for our CPE work. Opportunities include networking, support, and consultation for educators around specific interests or clinical contexts. The challenges faced by some CoPs include figuring out how to organize and leadership succession. For the past four years, I have been in leadership with the East Central Community of Practice (ECCoP) as it’s Convener-Elect, and then Convener. In this brief essay, I am sharing with you how we have organized. I offer our example of how one CoP addressed these concerns.

The ECCoP is a successor to the old East Central Region (ECR). When ACPE transitioned away from the Regional structure, many CEs and CECs in our region wanted to maintain the relationships and collegiality that we so valued in the regional model. At the last ECR Gathering Cal Brand and Orin Newberry presented a one page Procedural Statement document to provide some structure and parameters for the new ECCoP. The Procedural Statement was adopted by the community, and it has guided our work for the past 4 years.

This procedural statement has three sections: 1. The Purpose section defines why the ECCoP exists, who our membership is, and what we will do as a CoP; 2. the Organization section lists the membership, leadership roles, and terms of service; 3. the Procedures section addresses administrative details such as record keeping and relationship to the large ACPE community.

For the past four years, this document has helped us to stay connected with each other; to offer continuing education; and to facilitate smooth transition in leadership. The ECCoP has two officers – The Convener and Convener-Elect. Each officer has a two year term, with the Convener-Elect then becoming Convener and a new Convener-Elect being chosen. We also have a Planning Team of 6 members who are elected to one-year terms. The Planning team works with the two officers to plan and promote the Fall and Spring Gatherings, and to identify and resource other options to support Community life. All of these leadership rolls are filled by members who volunteer and are then voted in by the ECCoP Membership at the end of the Spring Gathering.

We have now had our third successful leadership transition. When the CoP first formed, JoAnne Morris was our Convener, and I was the Convener-Elect. When JoAnne’s term was up, I became Convener, and Les Small Stokes became Convener-Elect. My term concluded with our Spring 2022 meeting and Les became Convener and Ben Iten became Convener-Elect.

The majority of our members come from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan – the geographical territory of the Old ECR. Because we are now a CoP, members who move away from the geographical territory and wish to maintain collegial relationships are able to do so. We also have members in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, and Texas.

The benefit of our Procedure Statement is that it gives us structure and provides for continuing leadership, while also being brief and easily adaptable to changing CoP needs. 

Mark Feldbush, DMin, BCC, is an ACPE Certified Educator and the Chaplain Education Coordinator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio. He can be reached at mark.feldbush@acpe.edu