Board and Staff Retreat
Your Voice Matters For What Comes Next
This November, Finance New Orleans is bringing its board and staff together. The board meets on Thursday, November 19, and the staff team meets on Friday, November 20 and Monday, November 23. The goal is to align on the year ahead: what we’re working toward, how we work together to get there, and how each of us contributes to making New Orleans a better home.
Before the group meets in person, Finance New Orleans wants to hear from each participant individually. We’re working with mosAIc, a voice conversation tool that gathers each person’s perspective in their own words before a group comes together. Everyone attending, board and staff, is invited to a private conversation. Your conversation will help the retreat begin with real ideas from the people closest to the work.
About The mosAIc Processâ„¢
What This Is
mosAIc is a private conversation with an AI facilitator built just for Finance New Orleans. The facilitator is the digital version of the real Jonah Evans, who will be facilitating the November retreat sessions.
The questions adjust depending on whether you serve on staff or on the board:
- If you’re on staff, mosAIc will ask about what’s working in how the team works together, where things get stuck, how priorities turn into action, and what you need to do your best work.
- If you’re on the board, mosAIc will ask how you see the organization’s mission today, what you know about its current work, and how the board’s experience and networks could best support what comes next.
mosAIc listens, asks follow-up questions, and gives you room to think out loud. The conversation may feel unusual at first, but most people find they cover more ground than they would in a form. A small human team will listen to every response, and what you share will shape how the November sessions are designed.
Thank you for spending this time with us.
What This Is Not
This conversation is not a test. It is not a survey, and it is not a performance review.
There are no right answers. Specific stories and honest opinions are what make this useful.
What To Expect
Plan to call for 20 to 30 minutes if you’re on staff, or 15 to 20 minutes if you’re on the board. Do it in one sitting, in a place where you can speak freely without being overheard. You’ll be speaking with an AI facilitator, which can feel a little unusual the first time. It will ask you questions, listen, and follow up where something is worth going deeper on. You can join from your phone or computer. Headphones help.
If you think of anything after you hang up, you can call back anytime before Wednesday, November 11 and add to what you shared. After the opening welcome, just tell mosAIc your name, that you have called before, and that you want to share additional information. That way it won’t re-ask questions you’ve already answered.
Your Privacy, Simply Explained
Only three people on the mosAIc team listen to the full conversations: Jonah, Rachael, and Xavier. No one at Finance New Orleans, on staff or on the board, hears your recording or reads your full transcript.
What reaches Finance New Orleans is a summary of patterns across all participants, along with quotes in participants’ own words. No quote is ever attached to a name or role. Every conversation is anonymous.
Audio recordings are deleted after 30 days. Written transcripts are deleted within 30 to 60 days. Your conversation is never shared with third parties and is never used to train AI.
Quick Tips For A Successful Call
Speak Naturally
Talk the way you would to a person. Full sentences work better than short fragments.
Give It A Moment
Wait until the voice stops before you respond. Talking at the same time can confuse it.
Find A Quiet Space
Background noise affects how well it hears you. A closed door and headphones make a real difference.
You're In control
If a question doesn't land right, just say so. Tell it to rephrase or take the conversation somewhere else. It will follow your lead.
Bring Real Examples
Think about a time Finance New Orleans got something important done, or a time the work got stuck. Specific stories are more useful than general opinions.
Say What You Really Think
This conversation is a chance to be candid without your name attached. The issues that are hardest to raise in a full room are often the most important ones to share here.
When You're Ready, Begin The Conversation
(504 ) 499 - 5869
Questions before you start, and want to talk to a human being? Contact The mosAIc Team Here.
FAQ
A few things that help:
- Use Chrome on a laptop or desktop if you can — it gives the most stable connection.
- If you're on your phone, stay on either WiFi or cellular for the whole call — switching between them mid-conversation will drop it.
- Turn off any VPN before you start.
- Keep the browser tab you used to open this page open the whole time (including the site you navigated from) — closing it can end the call unexpectedly.
If you do get disconnected, click the link again to start a new call. The interviewer won't remember your previous conversation, so when it greets you, say something like:
"I was previously disconnected. My name is [your name] and the last question you asked me was about [topic]. Please take me back to that point in the conversation."
It will follow your lead from there.
Once conversations close on Wednesday, November 11, the mosAIc team spends about 48 hours reviewing every conversation and pulling out the patterns across the group. The result is a synthesis covering what’s working, where things get stuck, and what board and staff each need to move the organization’s goals forward. The synthesis uses quotes in participants’ own words, and no quote is ever attached to a name or role. The Finance New Orleans planning team and the facilitation team will use that synthesis to design the November 19 board session and the November 20 and 23 staff sessions. Audio recordings are deleted after 30 days, and transcripts are deleted within 30 to 60 days.
A form records an answer, but it rarely captures the reasons behind it. A private conversation gives you room to think, tell stories, and explain why you see things the way you do. Many people find that the conversation also helps them sort out their own thinking before the retreat begins.
Only the three members of the mosAIc team listen to full conversations. Finance New Orleans receives a synthesis of patterns and anonymous quotes, all scrubbed of any personally identifiable information.
Yes. Your data is encrypted, stored on a private server, and never shared with third parties. The platforms we use operate under commercial privacy terms that prohibit using your content to train AI models.
Starting over is easy. Click the link again to start a new conversation. mosAIc will not remember your earlier session. Let mosAIc finish its opening welcome. Then say that you are calling back to add to an earlier call, give your name again, and share the last question you answered. mosAIc will pick up the conversation from that point. Nothing is lost by starting fresh.
No preparation is required. It can help to spend a minute beforehand thinking about a few things:
- Staff: a time the work moved well, a time it got stuck, and one thing you’d change about how the team works together.
- Board: how you’d describe Finance New Orleans’ work to a neighbor, and where you could see yourself helping in the year ahead.
Yes. Call back any time before Wednesday, November 11. Give your name, say you are adding to an earlier conversation, and share what you remembered.
Connect your AirPods before tapping the call link, not after. If they're already in call mode when the session starts, the switch has already happened and it works fine.
You can get your AirPods into call mode by:
On iPhone: Go to Settings → Bluetooth → tap the ⓘ next to your AirPods → confirm they appear as Connected. Then tap the call link.
On Android: Go to Settings → Connected devices → Bluetooth → tap your AirPods → confirm they show as Active. Then tap the call link.
Already connected and still having trouble? Remove one AirPod and use your phone's built-in speaker and mic instead.
When the conversation is active you'll see a visual indicator on screen. If it looks frozen, refresh the page and start again.
The conversation: Your voice conversation is powered by ElevenLabs, a secure conversational AI platform. Your audio is processed to generate responses in real time, is not shared with third parties, and is governed by ElevenLabs' privacy policy and terms of use.
The synthesis: After your conversation, our team uses Anthropic's Claude, accessed through their commercial API, to help synthesize themes across all responses. Under commercial API terms, Anthropic does not use your data for model training. All content passed through for synthesis has already been stripped of identifying information.
Technical Troubleshooting
When the page loads, your browser will ask for permission to use your microphone. Select "Allow." If you missed that prompt, click the small camera or lock icon in your browser's address bar and enable microphone access, then refresh the page.
Check that your device volume is turned up and not muted. Headphones or earbuds tend to give the clearest experience.
This is usually a connection issue. Move closer to your wifi router if you can, close any other browser tabs or video calls running in the background, and try again.
Try opening it in a different browser. On iPhone, Safari works best. On Android, use Chrome. On a computer, Chrome or Edge are the most reliable choices.
Visit ElevenLabs' full troubleshooting guide for common issues including audio quality, connection problems, and browser compatibility.
Reach out to our team directly and we'll get it sorted before you begin.
mosAIcâ„¢ is a product of
Finance New Orleans