Process: Infoco minutes: 2007-04-22

Agenda:

- Schedule facilitators for May community meetings
- Topic for June training

Minutes:

Infoco minutes 4-22-07

Present: Sarah, Mary, Melissa M., Gail, Adi, Patti

Facilitator: Sarah
Minutes: Sarah

MONKEYS
- SARAH: type up survey and send out for review/changes; have
surveys ready for distribution at May 2 community meeting;
- SARAH: report at next community meeting what we discussed /
direction we are headed and get feedback; request agenda time;
- ALL: come to May 8 Infoco meeting to organize outreacj to
households for surveys
- GAIL & JILLIAN: Assemble packet of existing agreements that touch
on the sub-topics: committees, work, community meetings, decision
making for distribution prior to June weekend, (possibly for
distribution for May 21 community meeting).
GAIL: send out schedule query form to facilitators and minute takers
for the new work season;
GAIL: Check with Jay to seeif he is available /willing to facilitate
on May 2;

--------------------------------
SCHEDULE FACILITATORS FOR MAY COMMUNITY MEETINGS
- Not many facilitators for the next work season were at the meeting;
Gail will send out the form she has used in the past to begin the
scheduling process; she will do this for minute takers as well.
- Gail will check with Jay to see if he can facilitate on May 2,
Sarah will be the other facilitator for that meeting;

TOPIC FOR JUNE TRAINING
--------------------
Flip chart display:
THEME: Participation
SUB-TOPICS:
- work
- committees
- community meetings
- decision making
- clear expectations

New topic suggestion: Finances and late association fees.
--------------------------

Our work tonight is to look at the theme of participation and the sub-
topics that were identified at the last community meeting and to
flesh out a focus. Also, a new topic suggestion has surfaced
regarding finances and late association fees. What do we do with
that? Let's open the floor for comments and discussion.

It would be a good idea to put together a packet of any existing
agreements we already have on the sub-topics of work, community
meetings, commitees and decision making for people to review in
preparation for the June weekend.

If we do want to explore the financial peice we need a better
description because it's not just association fees.

Finances is a kind of participation in community life, it can be
integrated into the participation theme easily.

I don't think we need clear expectations as a seperate item. When we
talk about or explore these sub-topics we'll naturally be talking
about what are our expectations?

The late association fees topic needs discussion prior to the June
weekend. The question is: "What happens when someone doesn't pay
assoc. fees?" It's a problem we have now, we need to figure something
out about how to deal with the cash flow.

There is also a broader discussion that can happen on the topic of
finances in general. We pool our money together here at Great Oak,
what are our understandings and expectations around that? What about
the privacy issue? We have open books, what's the difference between
me going and looking at the books and Finance publishing the info?
There is a difference, and that would be a useful thing to talk about
over the weekend.

Let's think about having a go-round type sharing circle BEFORE the
June weekend so that peice is done and we can get into content and
problem solving sooner.

I don't want to see us lose the focus on participation in other
aspects of community life, though. We could spend a whole weekend
just talking about the issues around shared finances, the current
situation, the budget, etc. etc.

I'd especially like to see some time spent on discussing our committees.

I'm concerned that the focus of the questions be about what is
working for the community, not what is working for you as an individual.

It's hard to seperate those things, the communtiy is us. I don't want
to hear people's intellectual analyses of what they think should be
different, that doesn't help me understand what's important to them.
We could argue about intellectual ideas forever.

I get frustrated with all the feelings that get shared and then there
is no forward movement, There needs to be a way to move forward, and
talking about personal feelings doesn't seem to get us there.

Somehow we have to do both. I don't think we will move forward in a
way that is building trust and a sense of communtiy if we leave out
the personal experience piece.

The large group needs a meta discussion about "What is it about our
community that seems to be broken right now, that is manifesting in
low participation in committees, community meetings etc." That
discussion could seed ideas for how to re-vamp our current structure
and systems.

Could we have the meta- conversation before the June WE? What about
some small group discussions at a community meeting so people have
time to really think about the question and how they are feeling.

Let's focus on what kind of prep we can do before the June WE to get
people thinking and to get a sharper focus, if possible. So far we
have suggested: small grp work at a community meeting, a packet of
existing agreements, a questionairre;

One disadvantage of trying to get input at community meetings is that
there are a lot of folks who don't go, and these are the very people
we really need to hear from.

A suggestion at the last community meeting was to do a survey /
questionairre. We could do that as a way to get people thinking about
things before the WE, and see if something floats to the top as a
focus for June. If we had a narrower focus we would be more likely to
get to some tangible outcomes from our weekend meetings.

If we do a survey let's do outreach to households to encourage them
to fill out the survey.

Survey questions:
- What parts of community life at Great Oak do you enjoy
participating in?
- What parts of community life at Great Oak feels do you NOT enjoy
participating in?
- What committee meetings, if any, do you attend?
- How often do you attend community meetings?
- Do you meet your community work obligations?
- Do you participate in decision making at Great Oak?
- Are you regularly up to date with your association dues?
- What parts of community life at Great Oak do you chose not to
participate in?
- Other comments?