Meraki Tuesday Oct 7, 2025 at Kari and Jimmie's House
Meraki met at Kari and Jimmie's house
Attendees: Kari (ingatherer), Deb (facilitator), Lily (timekeeper), Marion (vibe checker), Tasja (notetaker), Jimmie, Jason, Lily, Kiara, Blair, Rebecca, Gary, Shelagh
Meeting Format
- Choose roles (Ingatherer, Facilitator, Timekeeper, Vibe Checker, Note Taker)
- Ingathering
- Briefly review How We Roll
- Summarize previous meeting notes
- Gather new agenda items
- Set order and time for items
- Attend to agenda items
- Schedule future meeting(s)
- Evaluation
- Outgathering
Agenda
- Retreat Update & Scholarship Request - Kiara
- Annual Meeting & Recruitment Update - Rebecca
- Secretary Role Proposal - Tasja
- Email from Dancer re: Temple Beth El - Rebecca
- DJ Training - Jason
- Vision Committee Update - Shelagh
Vision Committee Update - Shelagh
Met 2 weeks ago. Lots of enthusiasm about the vision, different energy for moving it forward or even having a committee. We reorganized.
Brian and Jason are focusing on workshops to align with our values.
Shelagh, Kiara, and maybe Tasja and Kellie are interested in actionable steps toward our vision, whatever that might be.
We met 4 times and we're holding a lot of interesting ideas.
We have notes and want to share them.
Click here for Vision Quest Committee Meeting Notes.
Annual Meeting & Recruitment Update - Rebecca
Brian has stepped up to be President. YAY all around!!
Annual meeting is Dec 7 after dance.
Secretary Role Proposal - Tasja
Tasja has had a hard time finding someone to step up to be Secretary. It feels like a big ask to many.
Proposal is that taking notes should not be the role of the secretary but rather be a role filled at each meeting.
We could also consider using AI for note taking on zoom calls.
In fact, this is how it's always been, it's just that previous and current secretary usually do it.
Brian would take notes sometimes.
Some people have an aversion to AI.
We need a separate proposal for how we feel about using AI for notetaking.
There are transcribing tools that are not AI.
It's ok to share notetaking as Secretary position. Same with treasurer. They don't have to count the money; they just have to be responsible.
Having more service positions that are less high commitment would be great.
Fresh blood into the mix into leadership is a goal.
Decision: Notetaker is a role assigned at the beginning of every meeting, not exclusively the role of secretary.
Retreat Update & Scholarship Request - Kiara
Sadie, Nate, Kiara are the committee.
We are up to 51, goal is 60.
2 people have asked for scholarships.
How much could PCD offer in scholarships?
In the past, it was a partial scholarships of 50%.
We're doing pretty well at this point financially since lots of people are paying covering amount.
In the past, PCD offered $2000 to help cover shortfall at the retreat.
How do we decide how much to offer in scholarship?
We need to decide the amount we can offer in scholarship and the maximum amount we can offer each person in scholarship.
There's a benefit to being more conservative in our finances so that we have a pool of money for a potential new space.
We have $30,500 in the bank.
We try to make retreats self-sustaining.
We're close to covering everything now.
Decision: Let Kiara and John work it out. Up to $500 in scholarships and a max $2000.
There are two people who aren't officially members who want to come. One will have danced 5 times by the retreat. Another person hasn't come 5 times and has trouble making it to dance but attends Wed dance regularly.
We set a standard that you have to dance 5 times, so why should we make exceptions?
General consensus is that we should stick with the rules, but others feel exception would be ok in this case, especially since the retreat isn't yet full.
The reason we have the rule is that after 5 dances, you presumably know our culture.
All the people who want to come have aske, so why not trust that those who want to come should come.
We're hitting a roadblock on a decision, so proposal is:
Decision: Let President, Secretary, Treasurer decide this year. It's an experiment. And we will revisit the policy next year before the retreat.
Note: We did not have consensus on decision.
UPDATED: Leadership decided to stick to the rules and only allow members to attend the retreat.
DJ Training Proposal - Jason
DJs met 4 times and have a financial plan for DJ training.
3 training modules. Application for being a DJ. Cost to PCD would be $3500 - 4000 for 2 people to train up to 4 new DJs, including hours for prepping modules, plus access to DJs as needed up to a certain amount. The DJs applying invest $200 and when they're ready, they do a set and are paid that money back.
Initial application would cost $20 and would cover their knowledge of 5Rhythms, PCD culture, etc, over zoom.
The training is around technology, culture, 5Rhythms, plus prep time.
DJs are asking to be paid for their time training new DJs because it's historically been a big time commitment. It will also make our dance sets more consistent. Plus we've invested a ton of time over the years mentoring people who want to be DJs and then drop out.
We'd like to have a chance to look at the proposal in more detail and then decide.
We'd like to start in January, so we can take our time to read and digest the proposal.
The cost is based on an estimated hourly rate of $30/hr for DJ's time.
How would money flow from PCD to the DJs?
We should have a contract between trainees and PCD.
What is the financial setpoint and other factors that would keep trainees in the program?
DJs are the lifeblood of PCD and there is a lot of support in the room for that sentiment.
At the same time, PCD is a partnership between the DJs and the dancers.
Decision: We will post the proposal for next Meraki and discuss in more detail then.
Email from Dancer re: Temple Beth El - Rebecca
Background/context: The PCD leadership received a thoughtful email from a former regular dancer who has decided not to return to PCD while we are at Temple Beth El. The writer expressed appreciation for PCD and asked what we as an organization know about the temple's political views and actions regarding the war, and whether we care what their stance is.
Rebecca sent a reply letting the individual know we would begin to address this at Meraki. Rebecca and Deb discussed at length how best to approach this conversation, and facilitated the discussion tonight.
Discussion: The purpose of the discussion was to hear what questions this raises for leadership and to begin considering how to address these concerns. No decisions would be made at this meeting.
The leadership solicited questions (a dozen or so) from those present. They ranged in topic from PCD’s values and mission, community inclusion, venue limitations, and precedents for navigating difficult or heartfelt conversations. These questions will continue to be considered and addressed at upcoming meetings.
This was an initial conversation. No decisions were made. The group recognized there is a lot to consider here.
Next Steps
- Further discussion is needed.
- Questions raised will continue to be considered/explored
- This topic will continue to be addressed at upcoming meetings
Next Meeting
- Monday Nov 3 Zoom
- Sunday Dec 7 After dance 3:15 - 4:30
Tabled
- PCD Sponsored Workshops - Jason
