Process: Infoco minutes: 2014-06-30

Minutes:

Infoco Mandate
June 2014
(last revised Dec 2012)

SUMMARY: A description of what Infoco (Information Coordination Committee)
does for Great Oak.

STRUCTURE AND EMPOWERMENT: Infoco is a subcommittee of Process. We are made
up of the facilitators for each work season. We are not empowered to make
policy decisions in lieu of the community.

ROLE:

Infoco's role is to provide support and learning opportunities to Great
Oak's community meeting facilitators, to help make the community meetings
as successful and effective as possible. In addition Infoco works with
Process committee and the community on process-related issues and on
special events including the annual community-building weekend event
(currently known as Skills and Thrills).

RESPONSIBILITIES:

A. Infoco's Planning and Learning Meetings, and Alternative Meetings

As of June 2014 the facilitation group would like to try coming together
for up to 4 kinds of gatherings:

(1) Each community meeting’s cofacilitators will work together to do
whatever prep is needed for the community meeting, and, can ask for a
special infoco meeting to help them with prep for a tricky meeting if
needed, but it is not assumed that there will always be a meeting of the
whole group of facilitators before each regular community meeting. The
purpose of meeting prep is to harness the skills, enthusiasm, and
creativity of facilitators and presenters to bring proposals forward and
deliver them in a way that make meetings flow in the best possible way.

(2) At the end of a regular community meeting, anyone can ask for there to
be a debrief, but it is not assumed that there will always be one.

(3) Once a season, the facilitation group will try taking on an alternative
meeting to bring forward a topic that the facilitation group feels is
timely and would be useful to the community to engage with. Two
facilitators will take point on this each season – one as leader, one as
facilitator.

(4) Approximately once a season (this may not happen in fall since there’s
already Skills and Thrills), the facilitation group (and others we invite
or who wish to come) will come together for an approx. 3 hour gathering
(brunch!), to do the following:
- have some social time where we get to know each other better and have
fun.
- reach out to potential new facilitators, encouraging them to come.
- provide an arena for facilitators to bounce ideas off of each other.
- talk about the past season of meetings and how it went;
- talk about what issues are “up” in the community or should be being
talked about in the community;
- talk about who will facilitate in the next season;
- talk about what a good alternative meeting topic would be in the next
season;
- talk about who is willing to facilitate the infoco alt meeting in the
next season and who to lead it; and
- come up with the a sketch of the plan for that alternative meeting.
- discuss topics to keep learning about facilitation and help others learn.
- work process-related issues through to solutions, sometimes together with
Process cmtee.
- depending on the season, work on an annual community building event
(currently called Skills and Thrills).

B. More on Infoco's Community Meeting Debriefs
Anyone can ask for there to be a debrief after a community meeting but
there will not automatically be one. Infoco debriefs after regular
community meetings are an opportunity for the facilitators, and for all
community members who are interested, to come together and:
- offer encouragement and feedback to that night's facilitators about a
meeting while it is still fresh in our minds, to help facilitators continue
to build their skills and confidence.
- ask questions about specific points in the meeting and what choices the
facilitator made and why, and what other options might have been considered.
- follow up with any loose threads from the meeting and assign any monkeys
needed.

C. The infoco convenor's responsibilities are to:
- collect infoco agenda items.
- announce and convene the infoco meetings.
- ensure that infoco committee meeting minutes are taken and are shared
with the community.
- per the bylaws, the convenor of infoco serves in the titular role of Vice
President of the Great Oak Cohousing Association.
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