![Minutes: Process: Infoco 2007-11-13 [Minutes]](display/images/gocohologo.gif)
Process: Infoco minutes: 2007-11-13
Agenda:
Infoco/Process7-8pm, CH sitting room
Present: Patti, Gail, Jillian, Elph, Mary King, Sarah, Rod, Alicia, Amy H
Agenda
1. Check ins
2. Monkey review
3. Upcoming Infoco meeting roles
4. Next community meeting, date?
5. Facilitators and Alternative meeting leaders and work credit
6. Next infoco meeting date
Addendum: GO training and outside facilitation history
Minutes:
2. MONKEYS and COOLER ITEMS--------------------
From previous meetings
COOLER: bringing forward a pre-proposal about giving feedback to
community meetings when you can't come to the meeting
COOLER for Alt Meeting topic: Discussion about HOW we talk about
things. It sounds like this fall we already have topics though, but
we should keep it in the cooler.
COOLER for Alt Meeting topic: revisit our vision statement
COOLER for Alt Meeting Topic: Strategic planning discussion. The
teacher, Grace Bogs, that Rod and Melisa had for strategic planning
said she would do a 2-hour workshop for free, might want to contact
her for a spring alt meeting.
----------------------
From previous meetings:
DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will resend out the infoco pre-proposal for how
to give feedback to community meetings if you can't be present.
DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Alicia about the August and
June minutes to see if those can be sent out soon.
Re-MONKEY: Jillian will check in with Alicia about if she is
willing/planning to bring forward the discussion about non-GO kids in
the common house to a community meeting.
DONE: MONKEY: Patti will check in with Megan about her alternative
meeting on 12/5.
DONE: MONKEY: Jillian will send out an email to talk to encourage
people to think about being alt meeting leaders for the next work
season - remember all those cool ideas community members had? Now
folks need to step up to make them happen, and infoco can help.
----------------------
from this meeting 11/13/07
MONKEY: Facils will email "talk" about meeting date staying 11/19.
MONKEY: Facils will ask Megan to announce her Dec 5 alternative
meeting event, on 11/19. Does she want to do a dance still? Would she
want to do anything for Hanukah?
MONKEY: F&L wants a short agenda item to report the current state of
the accounts receivable, facils will contact them.
MONKEY: Sarah will make the facilitator group fun!
MONKEY: We should all appreciate the minute takers! Many communities
struggle with this and we have been doing GREAT with it.
MONKEY: Gail is willing to put schedule forms in people's boxes for
the first 4 months of the year, after we know who is facilitating.
MONKEY: Jillian will email this info to Work cmtee.
MONKEY: Work allocation party is either Dec 9 or 15th, Infoco and
Process folks will need to be there to look at the results.
-----------------------
3. upcoming Infoco committee meeting roles (Infoco meets 2nd Tuesday
4th Sunday)
11/25 facil: Elph Minutes:
12/11 facil: Patti Minutes: Sarah
12/23 facil: Sarah Minutes: Elph
4. Community Meeting Date for 11/19
Lively discussion. There is some energy to move the 11/19 meeting
date. One potential is 11/26, another would be to do Wed Dec 5 which
is currently the alternate meeting night that Megan will do.
We should not switch the budget meeting to Dec 5, that is the first
night of Hanukah. Its unfortunate enough that it's an alternative
meeting, definitely should not make it the budget meeting.
Rod did a survey, 20 households have said they will be there on 11/19
and 8 have said they won't. However several of those eight would
still not be there for the 26th anyway even if we switch it to then,
and then other households will not be able to make it on the 26th if
we move it - people have highly scheduled lives.
AGREED: Leave the meeting on Nov 19. Its hard but it's not clear that
it would help to change it and it has been a known budget date for
three months. Let's remember to NOT do this next year.
Discussion about the Training item, having a fishbowl about it. Who
could be in the fishbowl? Already have ideas for who has concerns
about trainings, we need additional folks for the fishbowl who find
them valuable. Maybe Aaron? Katie? People who think trainings are
valuable and willing to talk about that.
MONKEY: Facils will email "talk" about meeting date staying 11/19.
MONKEY: Facils will ask Megan to announce her Dec 5 alternative
meeting event, on 11/19. Does she want to do a dance still? Would she
want to do anything for Hanukah?
MONKEY: F&L wants a short agenda item to report the current state of
the accounts receivable, facils will contact them.
5. Facilitators and Alternative meeting leaders and work credit
Lively discussion, continued from our previous infoco meeting, about
the idea to have regular community meeting facilitators in a
year-long pool, and alternative meeting leaders stay on the current
work system of 4-month shifts.
Why try the facil year-long pool? More flexibility for people to
switch around depending on meeting content and their scheduling
needs; more support at any given time for Infoco, agenda planning,
meeting planning, meeting debriefing, and meeting roles; more support
for alternative meeting leaders should they want it.
Idea that we should ask for 8 slots from work cmtee for the year-long
facilitation pool, as a starting point, AND, see how many indications
of interest we get - if say 10 people want to be in it, we will lower
the per-person hours accordingly and have 10 people in it to start. 8
is not a cap.
What if in May the community decides to get rid of the alternative
meetings, and go back to two regular community meetings a month? Then
we can always add more people in to the pool at the next regular work
change, though that might affect the total hours.
What if someone decides they want to join the facil pool during the
year? Again we can add people at the next regular work change, though
that might affect the total hours.
Make it clear that its an open pool. Idea is *not* to be a closed
club, very important to keep this idea clear that it is open, we can
add people in. Each time the work season changes we should put out a
call ahead of time to hear if others want to join and if so we can
figure out how to add them.
Discussion about alternative meeting leaders and credit - idea that
folks who are excited about something, or interested in something,
can organize an alternative meeting event. Many of the ideas that
were brainstormed of what the community wants to do, are not about
discussing topics. They're about having fun and connecting with each
other. Like a dance, an art project, a building project, painting
something, a bonfire, a conversation cafe, an open space event, a
sharing circle, etc. So it seems like 2 hours of credit per person
doing that, will not cover all the work certainly, but it will cover
a chunk. The regular meeting facilitator hours don't cover all that
work either but it covers some which is really nice to have.
To start, for work credit for regular community meeting facils in a
year-long pool, ask work cmtee for 8 slots with 1.75 hours/month
each. For work credit for 4 month alternative meeting leaders, ask
for 4 slots with 0.5 hours/month each.
That comes to 192 hours total, which is the same hours total as what
we currently have.
Various other ideas tossed around. Giving credit retroactively.
Let's have facilitator parties! Let's make it fun!
MONKEY: Sarah will make the facilitator group fun!
MONKEY: We should all appreciate the minute takers! Many communities
struggle with this and we have been doing GREAT with it.
How far ahead should we pre-schedule, once we know who is in the
pool? How about just doing the first 4 months as we used to do.
MONKEY: Gail is willing to put schedule forms in people's boxes for
the first 4 months of the year, after we know who is facilitating.
MONKEY: Jillian will email this info to Work cmtee.
MONKEY: Work allocation party is either Dec 9 or 15th, Infoco and
Process folks will need to be there to look at the results.
6. Next meeting
Next meeting is Sunday, 11/25, 7pm. Elph facilitating
ADDENDUM
After a recent request for the information, Jillian compiled data on
the trainings and outside facilitation that have happened at GO over
the last few years, it's below.
2002
Sept 28, 2002
TRAINING
Bea Briggs did a 6-hour training on consensus, using the consensus
process, and facilitation. Her fee was $600. I don't know the
food/childcare costs, and am not sure if she charged us for travel or
not.
2003
May 16-18, 2003.
TRAINING
Community-building weekend event with Shari Leach. Her fee for prep
time and for Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday was $2500. Not
including travel. (Housing and food provided for by CDC). Paid for by
CDC. Topics included: leadership and power, top ten secrets to
surviving your first year in community, gossip, noise, work
expectations. Also had a goal to integrate new members and help bring
them up to speed on our history.
(I don't know what the food/childcare costs were.)
2004
This is from a process proposal for extra money for food and childcare:
"Process originally asked for $3000 for training in 2004, and due to
the budget needs were allocated $1500. Then, we needed to spend $750
of that $1500 training budget, on emergency outside facilitation and
consultation instead." The community agreed to spend an extra $350
over budget so we could still have a training in 2004.
May 2004
OUTSIDE FACILITATION
$750 on outside facilitation, during regular community meeting times,
with Sandra Greenstone for the basketball situation.
October 16, 2004
TRAINING
One day training with Sandra Greenstone. Morning session was a
refresher on Consensus process, and a discussion of committees,
committee structure, committee mandates and empowered committees.
Afternoon was a communication workshop by Sandra, called Turning To
One Another.
Sandra's fee was $750, and GOers did much of the presenting and prep
work for the morning. We had $200 for food, and we had childcare at
$20/hour for 6 hours.
Spent $1850 in 2004
2005
June 18, 2005
OUTSIDE FACILITATION
Laird did a one-day event with Great Oak, which was partly training,
but mostly working on the parking issue. The day divided into two
parts. During the morning he presented thinking about conflict,
focusing particularly on the situation where at least one person
objects with passion to what's happening or is being proposed. In the
afternoon we switched gears and started working the issue of GO
parking and garage use. Also introduced a 4-step model of working
though moments of high emotion or conflict in a meeting or situation.
Laird's fee, $1000, travel: $200, childcare and childcare supplies:
$205, snacks: 33. Total: $1438
Dec 10-12, 2005
OUTSIDE FACILITATION
Outside Facilitation weekend with Laird. Topic was Living Well With
Children. Came up with some agreements around responsibility,
accountability, and cleaning up messes. Cost to community was just
for childcare and food subsidy (approx $600), Laird's travel and time
were free due to the facilitation class.
2006
June 1-4, 2006
OUTSIDE FACILITATION
Outside Facilitation weekend with Laird. Topic was Living Well with
Children. Bridged from December 2005 weekend. Content included:
agreed on a statement of values, agreed to: - Label all toys - Each
household will remove their toys from common areas at the end of each
day. - Everyone encouraged to remove tripping hazards at all times. -
Safety issue = pick up NOW (timely manner) - clear hazard NOW. -
Bring kid involvement proposal. - Bring in an educator to do some
training for the entire community on how to communicate with kids.
Cost to community was just for childcare and food subsidy (approx
$600), Laird's travel and time were free due to the facilitation
class.
November 11, 2006
TRAINING
One day training event with Diana Kardia: And Now for Something
Completely Different: Living Well With Difference. Included many
small group and full group activities.
Her fee was $900 plus $280 travel, $240 childcare, $250 food. Total: $1670
2007
June 3-6, 2007
OUTSIDE FACILITATION
Outside Facilitation weekend with Laird. Main themes were
participation in community work, committees, and meetings, community
meeting structure, and learning/trying new formats for meetings. Cost
to community was $565 (this was for childcare and food subsidy,
Laird's travel and time were free due to the facilitation class).
November 10, 2007
TRAINING
One day training event with Diana Kardia and Karen Williams, "taking
the conversation about difference to the next level." Three key
components in this process: * learning more about each other and the
life experiences and perspectives you each bring to the table; *
increasing the skills needed to fully participate in a conversation
about differences, and in the conversations that emerge from
difference; * addressing the reality that individual differences fit
together in ways that create connections and disconnections between
individuals - within any collective there are naturally sub-groups
where our experiences are more easily understood and our
collaborations more easily enacted, so part of the work of being with
our differences is being with the social structures that we create
around similarities and differences (and the impact those social
structures then have on the collective).
Costs: $900 presenter fee, $220 travel, $240 childcare, $290 food. Total: $1650
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