Process minutes: 2016-10-02

Agenda:

checkins
skills and thrills 2016 planning
next meeting

Minutes:

Present: Patti, Sarah, Jillian, Elph, Becky H


Jennifer is doing election related work and asked if we could consider
supporting election efforts. Moving Skills and Thrills is not really an
option, CH is booked, Thanksgiving and winter holidays getting close. Most
people will not be working on election stuff that weekend, but it would
great to help support efforts in some way, encourage people to do so. Idea
- Sunday 11/6 have a phone bank at 4pm for people who want to help make
calls. Or find someone who can make a brief presentation, here are signup
times, here's the contact person, how to get hooked up to do phone bank
work. Margaret Flannery has been working on voter registration. Maybe she'd
be willing to help organize a phone bank of the three cohousing communities
on Sunday at 4pm.
We did not assign any MONKEYS to this, do we have a next step and by whom?

Tema and Anastasia were interested in participating in planning, and
perhaps Tevah, and Mary King if she's available. Move our next meeting to
Saturday 10/15, 4pm eastern (instead of evening 10/14) so Tema can attend;
Sarah to skype in at 3pm Iowa time.

When is event?
Saturday, Nov. 5, 9am - 4pm
Sunday, Nov. 6, 1pm-3pm

What is our ideal outcome for the weekend?

Long discussion about what creating a Master Plan means, and what Visioning
means, how they are related, and the need to have a wide focus when we talk
about Visioning. We have a large group of new people, we have people
interested in all different aspects of what it means to live at GO. And we
need to show clearly how we are making progress and how what we do can be
applied concretely no matter what the interest area.

Discussion about how an important part of why we do Skills and Thrills
weekend events is to come together and connect with our neighbors, make
sure people feel a part of the group and that everyone's voices are heard,
and everyone has the opportunity to listen to others. Getting to know
eachother a bit better. Foundation of connection to help start and support
the day and the work we do together.

Idea, start with a go around, 2 minutes max each for those who wish to,
what is it like for you living at Great Oak? For some, they might reflect
on, how have my experiences and expectations changed over the 13 years
here? For others, what are those of those who have lived here for 2 years,
or for 2 months? What are they expecting and experiencing. Have to be pithy
though!

Does it have to be in the full group though? Some people work better in
small groups are more willing to share in small group. Value to both.

And from that we can transition in to thinking about, GO 5 years from now.
2022.

The visioning piece also opens people up - puts you in a creative and heart
space exercise, not a mental exercise. The strategic plan part that comes
after it, the "how" part, is the head-space part of it.

To write a vision - pick a time in the future and write down what it looks
like, describe it to someone. You're not describing HOW you achieved it,
and you're trying to stay with the concepts, for example:

Its a lovely evening in Oct, people are eating a delicious dinner in the
CH. We've had a great time redoing all the flooring in the CH and it looks
incredibly beautiful. Four-dozen diners from all three communities, sitting
both inside and outside at comfortable, sturdy tables, are enjoying the
meal, made from almost all local ingredients. The diners on the lower
common house patio are enjoying all the colorful lanterns. The dinner
cleaners are starting their work, and are thrilled with all the clean and
neat storage areas for all the equipment.

>From the vision you then get your goals and objectives - oh I guess we
should start thinking about CH flooring, Ch kitchen storage, and more
outdoor dining and outdoor lighting, etc. Committees and interest groups
and the whole community can come up with goals and objectives to get where
you want to go, when you have the vision to guide you.

Visioning starts with a brainstorm, process of broad and then narrow and
then broad and then narrow etc.

Its faster to do a vision for a small group than a large group. Large group
gets more ambiguous - hard for the whole group to see how to shape it.

Should we start with interest groups and committees and then bring that to
the full group? Or we could pick a small group and have it done by the
whole group. Like use CH as the example, a stepping stone to build skill
and capacity.

Doesn't have to be committees - could just be interest areas and then
committees will see how their work intersects.

But there's no way you can come up with vision, and strategy, and goals,
for every single cmtee or interest area in one weekend, let alone
prioritizing them as a full group!

Or maybe we can figure out how to narrow the focus right away - what are
the members most interested in.

Frame and open the conversation to have a broad conversation and then
narrow it?

Aging in place and living well with children might well surface as
additional areas of strong interest. So if we start with Aging in Place and
come up with general strategies and next steps? We could send each
committee out to talk about Aging in Place and what are their ways to
address and then bring that back to the group?

But as an outcome I want something written down that a committee could
weigh decisions they make against it. I'd like to end up with some steps in
the community's visionary direction. And that for the people in the room
there was some shared understanding of that visionary direction.

A positive vision of what the future looks like at a certain point in time,
on a thematic area:

For example. Great oak in 2022 around finance. What does it look like, in
the present tense? Its a beautiful day in Oct, its been tough but we
planted the seeds for financial stability and we've succeeded wonderfully.
Today's quarterly presentation by the committees was well attended and we
had great discussion about their plans for the quarter etc.

Could do the same thing with landscape, children, aging ... what does it
look like - in as much detail as possible. Not how we got there. THEN you
fill in with strategy, goals, objectives, action steps, financial,
budgeting. Because you know what it looks like.

Has to be broad enough to get a wide interest in the group. But how can we
take on that much in such a short window?

Like for example "Relationships" or "Communication" is different from
"Infrastructure", in how you handle. Might need outside resources. Might
need to get the expert in the room as the next step. Or if the group
chooses one area to focus on, that I have no interest in, I might just
wander off to do my laundry instead.

What if the outcome for the weekend were the whole community vision. The
need people have to have some identification for the issues they care most
about would be carried throughout the weekend because they can help make
sure its held in the larger vision. Aging and children would still be in
there. People could fall in to their interest areas and flesh out areas and
bring it back to the group.

So that would be a product with no concrete steps for what to do next
though. We need some concrete next-step results too or people will be
upset.

Whatever end product we get out of this weekend, no matter what, it will
need more work.

During the process could we prioritize one aspect and do a bit more work,
with action steps.

Could set another 3-4 hour session in Jan/February to build on the work and
create next steps. OR could set aside a series of 40 minute slots at
community meetings in Jan and Feb, when meetings are often cancelled due to
lack of agenda items. Could focus on one committee at each meeting, how
they interpet the vision, what goals and next steps are the right ones.

Looked at our existing vision statement:

Great Oak Vision Statement
Our vision is to create a sustainable community that is diverse and joyful.
We seek to thrive in harmony and dissonance with one another. In this place
we value and cultivate our strengths and our differences.

It is a very broad one, 20,000-foot perspective. Not time bound at all.
What we're doing does not negate or change it. It can help us and inform a
specific date vision we want to write now.

Calling the vision we want to create now, GO in 2022, an OPERATIONAL vision
makes it more concrete. A snapshot of a vision in time.

Zingerman's mission statement is a few sentences. The vision is 8 pages
with different sections. Each vision section doesn't say HOW you do it, it
says what it is to be. But out of that the organization then creates its
objectives and action steps necessary, in alignment with the vision.

The large one would have touch points on major issues. it would describe
what it looks like but not how. Eg for Aging you might say, there are
places to spend time outdoors that are comfortable for our aging members.
(but not, comfy park benches placed every 20 feet - that comes in
objectives. that might include lighting etc). People will keep trying to
put the specifics in, and you have to back it up and ask, what does that
specific thing mean, what does it enable you to have and write that down -
oh I see you want safety and comfort for people who want to relax outdoors.

This cmty has a history of creating tools for itself to help it move in to
the future and then burying them. Part of process cmtee's job and
challenges is to help keep them at the surface.

Get together as a group, pick the major aspects that everyone feels like
they have a stake in, and we write out a positive vision that take them all
in to account. And then that can be a tool that is actively used for the
next five years.

Tangible, you can weigh your decisions against. Its a tool of leverage.

Elph's example of what he would want as part of the financial vision, for
committees. Building it in to the budget systems.

Maybe it would look like asking each committee to take the vision and have
them set specific objectives, in the next year.

Can we do any of it on Sunday 11/6 - pick one area, and show how it works.
If X cmtee was going to fulfill their part of the vision, what would X
cmtee propose as objectives for the next 5 years.

We could accordion it depending on how much time we have left. Read through
what we have written and think about it from the perspective of one
committee. Take 15 minutes to write down what concrete things they could do
in the next 12 months to help address the vision. Could be in small groups
or full group, brainstorm.

Talked about committee turnover. Committees have to read existing mandates,
idea for Sunday afternoon too.

I like the idea of a followup day later in winter, 4 hours where we go deep
and committees could work on this, bring their current mandate with their
objectives, OR, to do this one committee at a time, at a series of regular
community meetings. 40 minute agenda item once a month.

Can we get an outside expert to help us with the vision process? So all
GOers can participate? Elph thinks its possible a Zing person might be
willing.

We've been talking for 2.5 hours now. When are our next planning meetings:

Saturday 10/15 4-6pm
Thurs 10/27, 7-9pm
Sunday 10/30 1-3
THur Nov 3, 7-9

NEXT STEPS:

Need to get a lunch for 11/5 posted in MESS - Sarah doing now
Childcare: Jillian will email Talk. Two years ago a teen from Sunward
helped. Analiese might be willing?
Will figure out buying snacks and coffee as it gets close of course.
Dessert potluck and dance party

Patti will follow up with Jennifer and Tevah
Sarah will follow up with Tema
Elph will sketch up a structure. Elph will contact some Zing people. We
could provide a sort of floor facilitation - helping wrestle the group, but
could also participate. Pair with the zing person, help them bridge with
the group.

Maybe we could share some samples. For marketing the weekend to our
neighbors. Appealing and concrete. A description of some aspect of what our
community looks like in five years, written with as much detail as possible
how it feels, what it looks like. Then show how you can use that to guide
you in what you do to meet that vision, to get to the concrete steps.

SAMPLE Vision of childcare at meetings:

Tonight's community meeting just ended, right on time at 8pm, and many
people are still hanging out in the dining room and sitting room, chatting.
We started on time too, with all parents sitting contentedly in the circle
before 6:30pm. The childcare workers are enthusiastically talking about how
the evening went, and talking about next month's theme. This evening's
childcare's theme of Undersea Exploration was engaging for the kids, it was
both educational and creative, and the childcare workers had all the
supplies they needed ready to go. The providers always feel confident
focusing on the children rather than the time because they know the meeting
won't be extended without them knowing. And because they know, like
tonight, when a child needs their parent, the parent is close at hand. The
parents know their kids will be safe and the childcare providers feel
confident in redirecting kids as needed to keep kids safe and happy.
Childcare workers for specific meetings, and the themes, are announced well
ahead of time so parents know and can be involved as much as they wish to.
There are always more people wanting the childcare positions than there are
slots available because the role has been so clearly defined in writing,
and people mentor each other when new childcare providers rotate in.

Then what are the next steps? Whatever group working on it, would look at
Objectives to set in order to achieve this vision, and then setting Action
Steps in order to achieve those Objectives.

So one Objective might be, written documentation of the position. Then
could break down, what kinds of written documentation (Eg, maybe a job
description is needed or needs to be reread and reevaluated. Maybe a few
checklists are wanted - how to prep for childcare, how to run a childcare
session, etc). Who will do each one. By what deadlines. By what process
will the documentation be discussed and agreed on. By what deadlines. Etc.