Process: Infoco minutes: 2009-01-27

Minutes:

Infoco meeting
1/27/2009
6:15-8pm, Sarah's unit

Present: Sarah, Alicia, Patti, Elph, Jillian, Mary, Amy

AGENDA
1. Personal check-in
2. Next Infoco meeting dates and assignments for bringing topics (we've
settled on 4th Tuesdays)
3. Logistics of the agenda going out before the meeting
4. 2/16/09 cmty meeting agenda, per request from agenda planner
5. How to introduce the discussion topic of training at a GO cmty meeting,
per request from Process cmtee
6. Checkin about this weekend's Landscape Planning meetings
7. If we have time (we didn't) continue discussion of the agenda item from
last time, about meeting roles



1. Personal check-ins

2. Infoco meetings:
Feb 24 Patti and Sarah to bring a topic - CANCEL due to many of us out of
town. (Spring break.) We tried to reschedule but no success. Note, we will
call a special meeting in early March with whoever is available if work is
needed to support the March regular community meeting.
March 24 Mary to bring a topic, Mary will ask Sarah or Patti for help if she
wants to
April 28 Amy H and Alicia to bring a topic


3. Checkin about the logistics of the agenda going out before the meeting

We had an email discussion about this. The agenda point person sends the
draft agenda to the facilitators. The facils need to go through it, tweak it
as needed, and facils need to send out something to "talk". Note, it can
still be a draft at that point, you can always send it out again if you need
to adjust it. AND the agenda should always be marked "Tentative Agenda" even
if you are not aware of smoething that is likely to be changed - the final
agenda is set/approved by the group in the meeting.

There's a new expectation that the facils send out a draft agenda AT LEAST
48 hours ahead of the meeting. (It used to be 24 hours.) Ok? Yes we'll try
it.


4. The 2/16 community meeting agenda

The pieces of the Sharing the CH proposal will come back to the 2/16 regular
meeting. All pieces have been to community meetings once. The committees
need to have worked with the feedback and revised their proposals if needed.

Seems like we need one more chance to do the overview, put it all together
again. We do need to consense on them, and then pass them back to
Touchstone.

So for 2/16, pieces needed from:
- CH cmtee
- Finance cmtee
- Meals cmtee
- Also needed - overall discussion from GO perspective, take these three
pieces, step back and look at the big picture, from Steering cmtee

We had a lively discussion about consensing on the pieces one at a time or
do it all together, pros and cons to each. Similarities to the budget
process.

Decision, put the three proposals together into one document and work
through them in the meeting one piece at a time, but consense on the whole
thing.

People would probably push back against consensing on one piece without the
others yet. And I don't think you should go back to the TS proposal. Put
together our pieces ourselves, add the background material etc. Who?
Steering.

Steering would present the combined proposal, and make sure reps from
Finance, CH, and Meals are present.

This would need the whole meeting probably.

MONKEY: Sarah will be writing up the compilation doc, and will check in with
the Meals, Work, CH, and Finance cmtees about it.

MONKEY: Sarah will send out a rough draft of the compilation to Infoco for
any quick feedback (a fast turnaround will probably be needed) and will send
out the whole thing to "talk" ideally far ahead of the meeting - the
previous week if possible, but no later than 48 hours ahead.


5. Discussion about how best to introduce the discussion topic of training
at a GO community meeting (request from Process cmtee)

Another lively discussion! Lots of opinions.

Process is tasked to bring a values-level discussion, What do people value
in training? Why do we budget for it? We want to have this philosophical
discussion at a time other than the budget.

People need to hear eachother talk about training. Why do some people value
it? Some don't value it much but this might help us find the balance point
to hear why some do value it highly.

What if we used the vision - how have the trainings we have done served the
vision?

Perception that oh its just Jillian or oh its just the process cmtee or the
facilitators who value training. I don' t think that's true - and we need to
hear from a wide range of people how they feel about training.

Jillian has a list of the trainings - we could put up large pieces of paper
with info about each training around the room. Ask people what do you
remember from that training, what did you take away from it, what may be
still in play from it. Put pictures up? Have the pieces of paper, a
description, photos if we have any, and people spend 15 minutes for people
to write things? And then share them aloud?

Are we just setting people up to argue with eachother.

Discussion about is there a value in having this values-level discussion;
some Infocoers think we should talk about specific training ideas. Process
cmtee does not want to do this, thinks we can't skip the more general values
discussion, given our specific charge from the community during the budget
process.

The training budget was eliminated in Dec 2007 for the 2008 year. What was
left was the outside facilitation emergency money, and Process was told that
if GO didn't need to spend it on outside facilitation we could do a
training. As Process said then, that is somewhat of an impossible situation,
as we often commit to trainers 4 or more months ahead. Process was not sure
how to proceed but then had a request from Grounds to use the 2008 money for
a weekend landscape master plan creation event to be held in fall 2008, not
a training, and Process agreed, with the caveat that if the community had a
sudden need for outside facilitation then there was going to be a problem.
Process asked for basically the same amount in the 2009 budget as we had in
2008 but still has the same unclarity about how long we need to wait to
organize a training in case a facilitation need comes up.

I think it was more of a pull toward being more frugal, I don't think people
really wanted to say, no training.

Seems to Process that a values discussion about training is something we
will just need to do periodically - its on a cycle in community, just like
how we will always periodically need to talk about work and if its getting
done, perceptions of fairness, is everyone pulling their weight. A kind of
clearing of the air in way, or a resetting of the community thermostat. To
hear people talk about why something is important to them personally, or not
important to them, helps others understand and change their perspective or
look for the balance point.

Process saying this is our area of responsibility. We're trying to create a
conversation, not a proposal yet. There is a way in which process has to
justify its existence in a way other cmtees don't have to. Process is in a
defensive position now. A proposal is not the first solution.

IDEA: What if process brings its charter back to the group, here's our
charter. We'd like to hear from the cmty how we should go about fulfilling
this part of our role from our charter on the community's behalf. YES! That
gets to the core piece about process's existence and how its trying to best
serve GO.

6. This weekend's events - Master Planning creation weekend

Leigh is a skilled Landscape Architect, she has worked with large groups
before but in very different situations, not in consensus based groups. She
knows nothing about cohousing. At first Grounds wanted to find a landscape
architect who was also a facilitator. Did not seem to exist. Then Grounds
changed to looking for a Landscape Architect who could deal with having
outside help with faciliation, and who also seemed sympathetic to our
values. Leigh seems to fit the bill. Mary is the lead facilitator with Rod,
Patti and Jillian helping, and Sarah, Alicia, Elph and Amy helping in
support roles where and when they can. (Both Elph and Amy are working on
Saturday so are not available.) Sarah is going to help organize minute
taking. Crucial that signs go up tomorrow morning and email goes out tonite
with schedule.


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