Why Attend the Gathering?
  • Learn via 26 workshops and 7 post-courses facilitated by skilled practitioners of participatory methods.  Expand your toolbox and learn fresh ways to use ToP methods.
  • Connect with colleagues from across the U.S. and from around the world.  Expand your network of peers and mentors.
  • Participate during full-group plenary sessions and experience ToP methods in a new way.
  • Innovate by participating in the Social Impact Sessions, shaping the future of ToP
  • Explore the San Francisco Bay Area, including Oakland, Berkeley, Sonoma, Napa, San Francisco and Livermore
  • Contribute to the network's legacy of more than 50 years of global community and organization development work
Waves of Change
The 2020 ToP Network Annual Gathering theme, "Waves of Change," is a metaphor for the dynamic times in which we live and the questions we each face today.
​What does it mean to be alive at this moment?
What role must I play in order to live a life of meaning, purpose and value?
We recognize that we stand at a moment of change.  
Social change, like a wave, emerges, peaks and recedes.  We are not the first generation to live during dynamic times.  The abolitionist movement, the women’s suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and the environmental movement are all examples of large scale, significant change. 
What is the rising wave of change that is calling us to action today?

We recognize our role as change-makers.  
Like the change agents who came before us, we are faced with questions: What is mine to do individually?  What is ours to do collectively?   ToP methods were shaped by individuals who responded to the moral issues of their time with a sense of urgency, seeking to understand the transformative role of culture within society and enliven culture as a force for positive change. 
How are we being called to creatively influence change today?

We recognize our role as facilitators of change.   
Processes of social change often engender conflict between those who want to preserve the past and those who want to change the future.  We stand in the center in order to facilitate a transition, both honoring the past and building consensus for a new future. 
How are we holding space in the midst of the tension today?

​Like a wave, nothing in life is permanent and static.  Instead, we face life as it is, and decide what action we are personally responsible to take.

Our hope is the 2020 ToP Network Annual Gathering is an opportunity for you to grapple with some of these questions alongside colleagues similarly committed to participation, collaboration, and transformation.