Process minutes: 2007-06-13

Agenda:

Draft agenda
1.- checkins
2.- monkey review
3.- discussion with George re the Conflict Resolution Cmtee
4.- debrief from the Laird weekend
5.- write an agenda request for continuing the community meetings discussion?
6.- check in about ordering the two books Sarah suggested
7.- check in about a Member Resources request
8.- next meeting

Minutes:

Process cmtee meeting
6/13/07
7-8:30 pm, CH sitting room

Present: Jillian, Gail, Catherine, Pam, George (for the first part)

2. MONKEYS

Monkeys/Cooler/Freezer items from previous meetings:

FREEZER: bring this back for a future agenda (see minutes 9/14/05,
social expectations around parties and invitations.)

FREEZER: Process to request agenda time for discussion and brainstorm
about community meeting attendance.

MONKEY and COOLER: Process to ask minute takers to come to a process
meeting at the start of each work term to talk about the full minute
taker job description, and talk about the using names issue so they
are aware of some of nuances.

COOLER: Outreach to people not here to increase participation - I
think this came up around offering specific invitations to households
encouraging them to come. This might be something process could bring
to a community meeting, to increase awareness - committees should be
talking with folks who have strong opinions about an area or idea,
before the meeting, but also will want them to come to the meeting
itself, and a direct invitation can be very helpful.

COOLER: - the "knock on my door", do we need signals issue? Some
people use door shades, but some don't want door shades and some
don't want to worry about remembering to put it up or down. Maybe
the thing to do here is IF you have a system, tell people about it so
they know. Not that everyone needs to follow any particular thing.

COOLER: Jillian had said she'd bring the parking agreement up for
discussion after a year, that will be a year in June.

COOLER: Ask for agenda time for Refreshing Policy Moments.

COOLER:
- Discussion about how CRC members are chosen, is that working ok?

COOLER: Naming names in committee meeting minutes, reread current
guidelines, make sure they're ok for both committees and plenary

COOLER: guidelines about participation when you can't come to a
meeting - Process and INfoco have discussed previously, but not
brought anything to a community meeting. Infoco minutes have a draft
guideline.

COOLER: Another thought for the future - give people credit for being
in a facilitation guild and then that group decides who is
facilitating when - and over a year you may facilitate a lot or not a
lot but you get credit for attending the guild meetings and being at
debriefings... More flexible and would end the problems of someone
being assigned to a meeting with a topic they are vested in. (More
like the old days, of raising hands at the end of a meeting for who
will facilitate the next one!) If this season's assignments turns out
to be hard this may give us incentive to switch over to something
like this... Might be a good followup with Laird's training being
done. Might help keep a cohesive group of folks of all levels of
experience involved in facil, rather than just 8 at a time.

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MONKEYS from the previous meeting 5/9/2007

DONE: MONKEY: Gail will rewrite the Community Reporter job
description and get it to Dorothy.

DONE: MONKEY: Gail will post the facilitation and minute taking
assignments on the work board.

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah will send the Participation Survey out on email
again and will put another copy in people's mailboxes.

DONE: MONKEY: We'll all mention the Participation Survey to people as
we see them, encourage them to fill it out.

DONE: MONKEY: We need to type in/compile the surveys as we get them,
Jillian and Sarah will type them in, will get together after Monday.
Will start typing them in now. Maybe we can email them to Betty and
get her feedback on what we might want to do at the next community
meeting.

DONE: MONKEY: Gail will put surveys in Jillian's box as she gets them.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will ask Betty and Laird for their travel scheds.

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah may be available to pick up/drop off Betty and
Laird depending on when they're coming and going.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will make sure to have half and half, coffee,
granola, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt around her house for Betty and
Laird.

DONE: MONKEY: Catherine will work on getting minute takers - will put
something out on "talk" and then follow up directly with individuals
likely to be willing. Two 45-minute slots on Friday night, and three
1-hour slots each on Saturday and Sunday.

DONE: MONKEY: Thursday and Sunday dinner Jillian will sign Betty and
Laird up under her household.

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah will look into how to do the money for signing up
Betty and Laird for Thursday and Sunday meals - should come out of
the Process budget for the weekend.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will remind trainees to sign up for dinner at
GO that Thursday night if they want to. And also will give a heads-up
about GO community meeting times.

DONE: MONKEY: Catherine will make sure meal cleaning up happens on
Friday and Saturday.

DONE: MONKEY: We still need a honcho for making sure cleaning up
happens on Sunday.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will ask Elph about the rate for Zing cold cuts
and cheese for Friday lunch for trainees.

DONE: MONKEY: Catherine will pick Jim Sweeton's brain about ordering
from Star's for FRiday dinner, she may be willing to order it, and
can probably pick up the order.

DONE: MONKEY: Catherine will ask Keith about grilling for Saturday - he will!

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah will shop for Saturday lunch (see list below in minutes)

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah will ask Deb Alspector to make a big bowl of
coleslaw for Saturday.

DONE: MONKEY: We still need to find someone (Jillian did it) who will
run out and buy bagels and cream cheese on Sunday morning for Sunday
lunch (to be reimbursed by Process)

DONE: MONKEY: Sarah will ask Lisa about making a quiche in a glass
pan or two for Sunday lunch.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian ask Elph about making coffee both days

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will send out emails about Sunday potluck

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will email Meals about writing up the various
meals into the calendar.

DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will look at our budget for the weekend again,
subtract childcare money and see how much we have left.

-----------------------

MONKEYS from this meeting, 6/13/07

MONKEY: Gail will check in with Dorothy about the Community Reporter
job description, see if she has any questions.

MONKEY: George will contact Jay and Becky and set up a first CRC meeting.

MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Rachel, how did the childcare go
during the Laird weekend? Did she hear anything back from parents
about it?

MONKEY: Catherine will present on Monday.

MONKEY: Jillian will tweak the community meeting brainstorm list, and
email it to talk, and bring copies of it on Monday.

MONKEY: Jillian will check library listings for the two books Sarah suggested.

------------------------


3. CHECK-IN WITH GEORGE ABOUT CRC

George came as a CRC member, Becky and Jay could not come.

George feels getting together as CRC would be a good thing. And when
they meet they can talk about ways to raise the profile of CRC.
George: - its a job that needs some chemistry, so time together in
person would be helpful.

A note on the general bulletin board might be good, for who is on it,
and also that crc at gocoho.org goes only to the current members of CRC
- there are no "listeners".

Mary King and Jim Sweeton might be good resources to ask about how
its gone in the past.

Main thing I think is being an available, neutral, caring person who
can help people have courage to work thru stuff and not just leave it
under the carpet.

MONKEY: George will contact Jay and Becky and set up a first meeting.

Let Process cmtee know how we can support you.



4. DEBRIEF ON LAIRD WEEKEND
Logistics and content

Logistically seemed to go fine, thanks everyone for all the tasks
that were done so well! Food before our meetings seemed to be quite
well received, as always. People seemed to enjoy the coffee available
from the new coffeemaker, as well. And the good childcare coverage.

MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Rachel, how did the childcare go?
Did she hear anything back from parents about it?

And on the whole people seemed to like the content too.

I thought Laird's recap was good.

What have folks heard?

It seemed like a lot of energy at the beginning, and on Sunday less.

Perhaps some people wanted more content. Others loved the format.

Establishing the "cooperative and curious attitude", seemed to be
really good to people.

One person realized they were happy, thought things were fine at GO,
and didn't want to go to a meeting and talk.

I think the whole thing is full of contradictions. People want the
connections, that come from small groups and other things, and they
want short meetings. Those are hard to fit together.

"What is the business of Great Oak?" I liked this question. What do
we expect out of our meetings?

A couple people thought Laird's report was condescending,
patronizing. Maybe starting with the attendance thing might have
turned people off!

I thought how to change committee structure was not really in his
report - eg, asking is a specific committee still needed, or could
some combine with a work crew or something. There was an ad hoc group
formed to continue the committee discussion.




5. COMMUNITY MEETING AGENDA ITEM FOR MONDAY

In March the community brainstormed a list of ideas for community
meetings, and Process was tasked with bringing the list back to a
community meeting. So, we should do that on Monday. Do we want to
structure that item at all, ask a particular question? Not sure that
the best way to go about it is.

Could ask:

"This is the list from the brainstorm in March. Where do we want to
go next with this?"
or
"We've heard a desire to change community meetings and were asked to
bring back this brainstorm, what are people's thoughts now?" And see
what people think?

We could also say, that there are many things on this list that can
be done by facilitators and presenters in our regular meetings, if it
fits well for the topic, and that people seem to be interested in
trying to vary the formats. In fact when people submit agenda items
to Infoco if they have a format they would like to use they could
suggest it then (eg, this item would be good for small groups, or a
talking stick, or whatever).

And, should add that there are other items on the list that are
completely different (such as, doing community service together, or,
a check-in heart circle where everyone just shares what is "up" for
them personally). How can we create the space for them to happen, if
people want them to, and if there are people who want to step forward
and lead/create them?

During the community design/creation process, I liked the idea of
envisioning a future, having a sense of hope about something, that
we're building toward something, was inspiring. Dreaming about what
the future could be, what our goals are. More inspiring things than
how can we get the bathrooms cleaned.

Rod and Melisa just went to a workshop on strategic
planning/envisioning, they want to present to the community, sounds
like it might fit right into that.

Sunward has I think three kinds of community meetings. They have a
monthly 3-hour community meeting where they bring proposals. They
have a monthly 3 hour "conversation" meeting, where they send out a
topic ahead of time that will be discussed. Its only very lightly
facilitated, to hear people's thoughts on something, kindof
pre-proposal generally. And they also have a "heart circle", I think
it was once a month on Sunday evenings, where the purpose was for
people to share what was going on for them in their personal lives,
just to connect with eachother.

Small conversations like from Open Space seem like a great way for
people to test out ideas, see if others are interested.

Specific suggestion for the list, move "Goals" section to the Bottom,
and add, "facilitated discussions of proposals for consensus
decision" - getting business done.

MONKEY: Catherine will present on Monday
MONKEY: Jillian will tweak the list, and email it to talk, and bring
copies of it on Monday.


6. BOOKS

Sarah emailed about 2 interesting sounding books (on one Open Space,
one on large group activities). We have a total of $300 for member
resources for the year, for books and for reimbursing people for
classes etc. Maybe we could check the public library and see if they
have them?

MONKEY: Jillian will check libraries for these.



7. REIMBURSEMENT REQUEST

There a recent reimbursement request that was different from the
original email discussion about it. MONKEY: Jillian will check in
with the person about it.


8. NEXT MEETING

4th Sunday, Process with Infoco - June 24, 7-8pm

2nd Wednesday, Process - July 11, 7-8pm.