Performance task · Senior Manager, Arts Education Partnerships · GPSN

The kick-off meeting starts before anyone enters the room

GPSN × the Snap Foundation × an LAUSD high school, launching a one-year arts expansion. Rather than a standalone agenda, this submission plays the launch forward as it would actually happen: the email choreography that builds the meeting, the strategy notes behind each move, a 90-minute agenda with its sequencing logic, the prep materials, and what I'd do with more time.

Prepared by Jose Garcia August 2026 Built in the task's 2-hour window with Claude Code · AI note
Overhead view of open paint buckets in many colors, a hand dipping a brush year one starts here!
01 · The read

Three parties, one room, and the newest person convening it

This meeting will likely be the first time some of these stakeholders have been in a room together, and the person bringing them together is the newest hire at the table. The temptation is to run it like a funder kick-off: a big deck, grant logistics, a deliverables timeline. But the school is the party whose year gets disrupted, whose teachers have watched outside initiatives come and go, and whose principal will decide early whether this partnership is theirs or something happening to them. And with a one-year grant, the kick-off has to do more than make a good first impression: the year moves quickly, and momentum needs to start here. So everything below is built around three objectives:

1
Meet as people before organizations
Council and the team shares do this. The school should feel a community of support becoming personally invested in their mission, not a monitor arriving.
2
Put the school's vision at the center
The school gets the longest structured share of the morning, framed as "so we understand how to best support you in that mission," with zero homework required of them.
3
Leave with raw material, not just rapport
Captured ideas and named next steps. A one-year clock means the kick-off has to produce the seed of the strategic arts plan, not just goodwill.
The concern underneath the design

We don't want the High School to feel they're being scrutinized, or that they've been handed extra work. We want them to feel they're receiving not just access to funding, but a community of support: one that wants to learn, hear, and become personally invested in the school's mission.

That concern shapes every email below: what gets asked of whom, in what order, and what never gets asked at all.

What follows is the coordination as it would actually run: two parallel email threads, one with the Snap Foundation and one with the school, converging into a single all-hands email with the agenda. Margin notes explain the intention behind each move. Names and dates are placeholders; assumptions are listed in section 8.

02 · Thread one · the Snap Foundation

An ask that honors their culture

The first move is choosing where this meeting lives and how it opens. Both choices are designed around the funder's own culture, and both come from time spent inside it: I ran the Snap Design Academy alongside Snap's philanthropy team for three years and watched it grow to four academies.

Note for reviewers · what Council is

Council is a circle practice Snap's CEO Evan Spiegel grew up with at Crossroads School in Santa Monica: roughly a dozen people in a circle, taking turns "speaking from the heart." Spiegel brought it into Snap before the company was even formally established. Inside Snap it's a real institution: thousands of Councils have been held company-wide, led by trained facilitators at Snap offices around the world, with a talking piece passed around the circle. The practice traces back to the Ojai Foundation, whose Center for Council program has trained facilitators across Los Angeles for decades.

So this isn't a quirky icebreaker request. It invites the funder to open the partnership with their own cultural practice, one their facilitators already run every week, and one I've personally watched work as an introduction with students and instructors.

Note for reviewers · why Snap's campus, not the school's library

We don't want this to be another meeting. We want an experience, something that evokes the feeling of starting something new. For school staff, a morning at Snap's Santa Monica campus is an event, not an obligation; for the funder, it positions them as opening their doors rather than inspecting a school. The school's turf gets its moment too: the first next step out of this meeting is a visit to the school (see the agenda's close).

Assumed replySnap responds: happy to host, offers a few morning dates, and Council is confirmed at 15 minutes. I reply with thanks: "I'll confirm the time with the High School and get back to you."
03 · Thread two · the High School

An invitation, never an inspection

Two emails to the school. The first is a short, warm introduction with the meeting as a gift: a hosted morning, their choice of date. The ask to share comes only in the second email, after the date is theirs, and it's framed so the school controls its own story with zero preparation required.

Note for reviewers · the order of asks

The school hears about this meeting as something being offered, a hosted morning at Snap with their pick of dates, before anything is asked of them. The funder was approached first precisely so that the school's first email contains a finished invitation, not a scheduling burden.

Note for reviewers · the deliberate omissions

No grant logistics, no deliverables, no "expectations" language. First contact sets tone; the tone here is we're excited, this is real, and it starts with getting to know each other.

Assumed replyThe school picks a date and time that works for their team.
Note for reviewers · an ask built to feel like airtime, not homework

The school gets the longest share of the morning, 20 minutes, but every mechanic removes burden: the prompt is a menu ("anything you'd like to include… or just ideas you have jotted down"), the slide is made for them rather than requested from them, visuals are optional, and the time box is stated so they can calibrate without guessing.

The framing sentence does the real work: "so we understand how to best support you in that mission." The school isn't reporting to the partnership; the partnership is orienting itself around the school.

04 · Thread one, closed

A quiet read on the funder

The confirmation back to Snap carries the same share-framing as the school's, but the intention behind it is different.

Note for reviewers · the strategy in "favorite initiatives"

Working with Snap in the past, the hardest thing to identify was how they defined success, which is why I've avoided framing anything as "success metrics" among the stakeholders so far. They've always been conservative about publicity and impact-messaging around their philanthropic programming. That's admirable; you know the intention is pure. But it's challenging as an organizer when you don't know how you're being measured.

Asking their team to share the initiatives they're proudest of, and what made those programs successful and lasting, turns their segment into a window: the room learns what this funder truly values, and GPSN can set internal goals around that, without a single awkward "how will you evaluate us?" conversation.

Note for reviewers · why Snap shares after the school

Sequencing does quiet work here too: because the school's vision is voiced first, the funder's examples land as in service of that vision, not as a template the school is expected to fit.

05 · Everyone together

The all-hands email · and the 90-minute agenda behind it

Both threads converge in one email to all three teams.

Note for reviewers · the shape of the morning

Ninety minutes, per the brief. The convener talks least: GPSN holds 20 minutes total (welcome + close), the school holds the single longest share, and a third of the morning, Council plus the closing activity, belongs to everyone at once.

The arc: listen → share → capture → commit. Council teaches the room to listen; the shares give each team its voice; the activity harvests what the listening produced; the close converts it into named next steps before anyone reaches the parking lot.

The agenda, item by item

9:00 AM9:3010:0010:30 AM
9:00–9:1515 min · Snap facilitator

Council

The room opens in a circle: Snap's own practice, led by their facilitator. Everyone speaks; everyone listens; nobody presents.

Why first: the room learns each other as people before roles, using the funder's own cultural practice, and it sets listening as the operating mode for everything that follows. (If a facilitator can't be staffed, I open with a simple circle share and the flow holds.)
9:15–9:2510 min · GPSN (me)

GPSN welcome

Who's in the room, the partnership in one sentence, and the year at a glance.

Why brief: GPSN's job this morning is to hold the room, not fill it. Ten minutes orients everyone and hands the floor to the school.
9:25–9:4520 min · the school

High School: your school, your vision

History they choose to tell, current programs, needs and trends they're seeing with students and families, and their vision: outcomes, programs, or ideas jotted down. Their slide and any visuals are prepared for them.

Why the longest share: the school's vision is voiced by the school itself. Everything after this, including the funder's own segment, lands in service of what was just said.
9:45–10:0015 min · Snap Foundation

Snap Foundation: favorite initiatives

The initiatives they're proudest of, and what made them successful and lasting.

Why this framing, why here: the room (and GPSN) learns how this quiet funder actually defines success, without an evaluation conversation. Placed after the school so their examples support the school's vision rather than template it.
10:00–10:2020 min · everyone

Before We Forget: the capture

Two rounds of sticky notes; every note read aloud. Full design in section 6.

Why now: forty minutes of listening has filled the room with ideas that will evaporate by lunch. This captures them while they're fresh, and produces the meeting's tangible output.
10:20–10:3010 min · GPSN (me)

Next steps & close

Same-day recap email with every sticky transcribed · first working session scheduled at the school within two weeks · each team confirms its day-to-day point person · I draft the year-one roadmap skeleton from today's capture.

Why owners and dates: a one-year grant can't afford a drifting September. And the next touchpoint moving to the school's campus completes the arc: their house after Snap's house.
before we forget: capture the ideas while they're fresh!
06 · The activity

"Before We Forget"

By 10:00 AM, everyone in the room has spent forty minutes listening, and listening generates ideas. This activity exists to catch them. In the room I'd frame it exactly like this: "As we've all been sitting here listening, I'm sure we've all had ideas come up: things we could do, inspiration from what we've heard. Before we forget those ideas, let's capture them." Two rounds, everyone writes, and I read every note aloud.

Round 1 · What you heard
"Something I heard from another team today that I'd love to see in this program…"
Round 2 · What you imagined
"An idea of my own that came up while I was listening…"

How it runs

  • Round 1 · heard. Each person writes one thing they heard from another organization that they'd love to see in the program. I collect and read each aloud.
  • Round 2 · imagined. Each person writes an idea of their own that surfaced while listening. Collected, read aloud again.
  • Roughly: 3 minutes writing + 6 minutes reading per round, 20 minutes with transitions, sized for a Council-scale room of 10–12.

The design choices underneath

  • Round 1 makes people quote each other. The first ideas voiced are cross-organizational appreciation: each team hears which of its own thoughts landed.
  • I read every note aloud. Each idea arrives in the neutral convener's voice, so no suggestion carries a job title, and quieter voices weigh the same as senior ones.
  • The stickies leave the room as raw material. They're transcribed into the same-day recap and seed the first working session's agenda; the strategic arts plan starts from the room's own words.
  • It closes the loop Council opened. The morning begins by practicing listening and ends by showing what the listening produced.
07 · Prep materials

Five things, each already promised

Every material below was committed to somewhere in the email threads; the prep list is simply the choreography kept honest. Nothing here is a 40-slide funder deck; each piece exists to remove burden from a partner or to make sure the morning's output survives the morning.

1 · The kick-off deck

Agenda, welcome, and an introduction slide for each team, holding any photos or slides they choose to send. Purpose: the school and Snap share without preparing anything; their visuals are staged for them. Promised in emails 3 & 4.

2 · The activity kit

Sticky notes, markers, and the two printed prompt cards for "Before We Forget." Purpose: the capture can't depend on improvisation; the prompts are worded in advance because the wording carries the design. Promised by the agenda.

3 · The logistics package

Calendar invites, address and parking one-pager, arrival details, day-of contact. Purpose: the convener sweats every detail so partners never have to. For school staff crossing town on a school day, friction is tone. Promised in emails 3, 4 & 5.

4 · A one-page partnership overview

The three parties, what the grant makes possible, the year at a glance, and who's who with contacts. Purpose: everyone leaves holding the same single page, the partnership's shared reference until the plan exists. Distributed in the room.

5 · The recap template

Pre-built before the meeting: summary, transcribed stickies, next steps with owners and dates. Purpose: the follow-up ships the same day; momentum is a deliverable, and the harvest becomes the first working document. Promised in the close.

Why so light

Five materials, one of them a template and one a parking memo. That's deliberate: the meeting's centerpiece is the school talking and the room listening. Materials exist to protect that, not to compete with it.

The deck, sketched

Six slides: title cards and holders, not content. The people are the content.

Year One Kick-off
GPSN × Snap Foundation × [High School]
Snap campus, Santa Monica · 9:00–10:30 AM
1
This morning
9:00 Council · 9:15 GPSN welcome · 9:25 [High School] · 9:45 Snap Foundation · 10:00 Before We Forget · 10:20 Next steps
2
Welcome: why we're here
  • The partnership in one sentence
  • Who's in the room
  • The year at a glance
    • 3
    [High School]: your school, your vision
    20 minutes · presented by the school team
    Their photos & slides drop in here
    4
    Snap Foundation: favorite initiatives
    15 minutes · the programs they're proudest of
    Their visuals drop in here
    5
    Before we forget → next steps
  • Round 1: something I heard…
  • Round 2: an idea of my own…
  • Next: recap today · working session at the school
    • 6
    08 · With more time

    And the questions I'd want answered first

    The threads above assume email-first contact, because that's what the task's timebox allows. With a real runway, most of this would happen before email 1, and the kick-off would start even further downfield.

    Research

    • The school's current arts offerings, staffing, and facilities: what exists before anything "expands."
    • The school's Prop 28 arts funding picture and any existing LAUSD arts plan, so the grant supplements a strategy instead of colliding with one.
    • The grant agreement itself: what's fixed (deliverables, reporting calendar, budget categories) versus genuinely open.

    Stakeholder outreach

    • Coffee with the principal before any joint room; the relationship shouldn't meet the partnership for the first time in public.
    • A 1:1 with the Snap Foundation program officer on how their team internally reviews the year.
    • Conversations with the school's arts teachers: what's real, what's dreamed about, what past initiatives left behind.
    • GPSN colleagues who scoped this grant: what was promised, to whom, in what words.

    Preparation

    • Walk the school's arts spaces and, if possible, sit in on a class; arriving at the kick-off having seen the school changes what I can say in the room.
    • A draft year-one calendar skeleton (grant milestones + the school's real calendar: testing windows, breaks, performances) ready to pressure-test at working session one.

    Open questions I'd want resolved before the meeting

    How will Snap actually review the year? The "favorite initiatives" segment reads this indirectly, but the real answer shapes every internal goal GPSN sets.
    What has already been promised? "Strategic arts expansion" has likely been described to the school, the funder, and GPSN's board in slightly different words. Those words need reconciling before they collide.
    Who is the school's day-to-day point person? The principal launches the partnership; someone else likely lives it. That person should be in the room, and known before it.
    What can and can't the grant fund? Staffing, stipends, equipment, transportation: the unglamorous categories decide what "expansion" can honestly mean.
    What does the school's arts staffing look like today? One teacher stretched thin and a five-person department need entirely different years.
    How do students and families get a voice? Not at the kick-off, but the year's plan needs a named moment where they enter, and it should be on the calendar early.

    Assumptions made in this submission

    09 · AI process note

    How this was built

    GPSN's brief invites candidates to use AI tools and note where and how. Here's exactly that.

    "I used Claude Code as my build partner: I wrote each email and the rationale for each section (the psychological considerations and intentions behind every decision), briefed the design direction, and connected Claude Code to my site to produce and publish this page within the task's two-hour window."

    What the AI did

    • Verified the Council background with published sources (Bloomberg's reporting on Council at Snap; the University of Michigan Center for Positive Organizations' facilitator training with Snap; the Ojai Foundation / Center for Council lineage).
    • Cleaned typos and tightened phrasing in the emails; voice untouched.
    • Built and published this page from my design brief: section structure, the two-thread layout, and the GPSN-palette styling.

    What stayed human

    • Every email, and every strategy note beside it.
    • The reading of both organizations (Snap's culture and quietness about impact, a school's wariness of outside initiatives) from lived experience running the Snap Design Academy and working alongside schools.
    • The activity design, the agenda's sequencing judgment, and the decision to submit the choreography rather than a standalone agenda.