Process: Infoco minutes: 2014-06-16

Agenda:

Infoco meeting
6/16/14
7 to 8pm, unit 18

Present: Susan, Amy, Alicia, Elph, Jillian, Mayana

Minutes:

Agenda
Infoco and facilitation in the coming work seasons

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MONKEYS from this meeting:

MONKEY: Susan is willing to be preassigned for a September alt meeting as
"leader" to come up with an idea but will partner with another facilitator
to make it happen.

MONKEY: Jillian will send out draft minutes and a draft revised mandate to
the group.

MONKEY: Jillian will propose a date for a summer infoco brunch gathering -
end of August was suggested.

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Tonite's purpose is to talk about Infoco and Facilitation, and how we want
to evolve the expectations and work hours. This last year or so the
debriefs have not happened much, and the monthly Infoco meetings have not
happened much. Everyone is so busy and the energy seems to have wound down
a bit. And we have not had very many challening meetings, either - not
necessarily a bad thing!

We read through the mandate from 2012 and then talked for an hour, here are
the main parts of our discussions:

• Making meeting debriefs optional - anyone, facilitator or participant,
can request that there be one but not assumed that there is always one.
Acknowledge that debriefs are very worthwhile, and, not every meeting needs
one.

• Making the whole-facilitation-group monthly meeting prep meetings
optional. The two facilitators for a meeting can do it on their own, or,
can ask for a special meeting with more people from the facilitation group
if they feel they need more input, more eyes on something. Like the idea of
support for a difficult meeting when it occurs.

• The idea of having the facilitators take on leading one alternative
meeting a season, on a topic they feel would be beneficial to the community
to take on - perhaps an issue that's been tiptoed around, or something more
sensitive than can usually be comfortable to have in a regular community
meeting, or perhaps just working on a skill etc. The alternative meeting
could even be a sharing circle, people just talk about what's up with them
on a topic. Sounds like its ok to back away from the monthly meeting but
keep a lot of the mandate intact. People want to re-energize in a different
way, annual gathering and keeping a more active eye on perhaps what should
the community be talking about. I think some facilitators will need help
with an idea for the alt meeting but then could run with helping make it
happen. We have a very defined way of operating in the business meetings
but this is outside the business meetings, more informal open setting. Make
it more acceptable to push against your own edges, talk about what you
don't usually talk about.

• The idea of do we need two tracks for facilitators - with higher and
lower expectations and work hours, or no? Decided to keep all hours the
same for now but re-evaluate how that's going later. We know that some will
volunteer to run alternative meetings and some will not. Want to encourage
people who are new to consider facilitating. We like the co-facilitating
model which helps encourage this. We currently get 8 hours a season.
Discussed how it can vary so much - sometimes hours of prep meeting with
committees who have difficult agenda items, other times only a few minutes.
Fall is pretty well assured to be harder because of budget. Winter can
sometimes have more pent up issues that were waiting for budget.

• The idea of one longer (3 hours?) facilitator gathering each work season.
Or maybe just winter/spring and summer, since fall has Skills and thrills?
Geared toward existing facilitators but also for new folks considering
facilitating. Come talk about how this past season went, open session to
discuss it. Kind of like a mini retreat? Make it a brunch people can
schedule 6 to 8 weeks ahead. Can also use this time to prep for the coming
work season - who is going to facilitate, who will lead an alternative
meeting, what could the topic be and how could it be approached - what is
"up" in the community that is not really being talked about, or what skill
does the community need more practice in. If new folks come to this and
then want to learn more we can each make efforts to include them, mentor
them in what we do - cc them in meeting prep emails, invite them to meeting
prep, meeting debrief etc.

• the question of if we need to give someone extra hours to plan the 3 hour
gatherings? Or just make it a gathering that the convenor will convene and
we have the list of subjects to cover and see where the discussion takes
us?

• Skill and thrills in 2014 - feel like it would be good to have half of it
be on, How we make decisions and how we deal with conflict as a community.
And see where the energy goes. Perhaps time to revisit this. We have an
influx of people who are new to it all plus we've been at this 13 years
now, good to reflect. Do we need an outside person? It can help just
because they bring new energy and create a back and forth. And I also think
we are ripe for the facilitation group being more active. When I lived at
Sunward there were a lot of short trainings about facilitation, an
afternoon here or there. Susan - this is what I do - I teach people about
consensus and how to facilitate. I often back off on volunteering, I know
because I live here I'm not the outside expert. But as a group of seasoned
facilitators I'd be happy to bring a series of things I know that we could
talk about. Does not have to be me up there, could be me and others, or
just others. What are the skills we can share as a facilitation collective
that all can pick up. Not necessarily facilitation but how to be a part of
a consensus meeting, for new people, a refresher and also for potential
facilitators.

• What do you think the community is not talking enough about right now? I
wonder if we are in a bubble of over-politeness right now - facilitators
need to be ready to take them on and not just back off. Should we be posing
more pointed questions? Maybe point out our concerns to others who can
surface them without being the facilitator! What do you think are the top
three potential trigger points? Relational - people who are not meeting
behavioral norms. This is not a CRC issue it's a community issue/topic. Is
this an arena that facilitators get together and talk about next steps?
Discomfort and annoyance causing a sense of discontent. There's both the
philosophical level - this is a community but it is not paradise. And the
practical - people not coming to dinner if they feel uncomfortable. Tension
still about expectations of work and where are they in terms of reality. We
did talk about it last year but we only did it to stage 1. Can we look at
taking it to the next stage. How do we shift our expectations of eachother.
FYI two people are assigned hours to check in with each person one at a
time over a year - an information gathering and a pressure valve - info
that could really help.
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