Attendance: Tasha, Marin, Pika, Martin, Judy, Shelagh, Mellen, Oracle, John, Lindy, Kiara, Dave and Deb (virtually), Polly
Host: Marin
Facilitator: Shelagh
Agenda List:
New Year's Dance
Sound Meter
Annual Meeting
Greeter's Tally Sheet
Calendar
Wiz
Thur. Dance
Meraki Structure
Agenda Discussion:
New Year's Dance: Reserved. No deposit needed yet. No Committee as of now. Defer. Announce at dance that we need a committee. Request volunteers. Check in with Chloe, Liz. Discuss in Oct.
Add Save the Date for New Year's and Retreat, and Annual Meeting. Lindy to do.
Retreat: Shelagh reports that we will loose our deposit if we do not use it this spring. Shelagh got contract but with the wrong names and so Wavus is re-doing contract and will send back.
Ombuds: Martin talked to Blair. All in sync with outreach for new people in low key social way. Suggestion for circle time-- "Like any more information talk to these people".
Wiz: No report. Deb expressed an interest to be on Wiz. Martin reaffirmed his interest.
Thur. Dance: Cancelled Nov. (Thanksgiving) dance.
Greeter's Tally Sheet: No news. Not critical.
All ages dance: Circe and Andy rock the house! Another wonderful dance. Slow attendance at beginning and than other families came and came and came, more and more joyous. Lovely time. Paid $75 rent. Received $80 this past mo. Relationship with Jason is working. Discussed getting feedback re: facilitating.
Sound meter: Mellen, Nev, Deb, Pika met. Got a respectable level and a plan to maintain that during the dance. Suggestion: buy a mixer for DJ's to use. Is it worth it to spend money on? Current one is low quality and difficult to use. DJ's to meet to discuss further.
Annual Meeting: Have a date and space reserved. Committee to meet this Sun. Shelagh won't be there. Dave and Deb will not be available to be at the meeting.
Meraki Structure:
Below are ideas, suggestions, opinions from individuals as we held an open forum discussing Meraki. No votes were taken. Everyone did get a chance to share their viewpoint. It was a lively discussion and hopefully most of the ideas are captured here.
Dave: Review hx: of the beginning of PCD/Meraki--committee run organization. 'Unbranded'. 'Publicly held'. Create a structure for non profit. Treasurer and secretary have roles/to do tasks. Worked quite well. No grip on power.
Others?: Over time a sense of decreased enthusiasm. How to make Meraki more fun? "Play Meraki". Got more serious, no problem. ? loose sight of fun? Meeting objective? Power diffuse.
Relationship between Meraki/PCD. Working well.
Mellen: Community based organization. Great enthsusaiasm and lots to do in the beginning. Fun, excitement, 15-20 people ea. meeting. Monthly format. Lots of details. Last 1-2 yrs. decrease in attendance 6-7 people. Are we really achieving what we want to be doing? Difficult to make decisions. Flow pauses when people aren't present. Decreased sense of urgency. Question if it is effective or desirable. Bylaws created with flexibility. Does not say we have to meet monthly. Change frequency, or day of meeting? We have to have Board for Non-profit.
John: We tend to schedule meetings based on what we have to do, can be every 6 weeks. Question the format of Meraki, open to members? Not core group people in and out. Bigger board perhaps who have ownership of organization and involve membership input. More governing power, ownership. Anyone can come and BOD vested with responsibility.
Dave: Supports post dance meetings. Prefers not every Meraki meeting happens after dance and would also like to include week night meetings. Could be loss of continuity. Generate interest in Meraki. Don't confuse with PCD not being successful. Likes diffuse center of power. Community careful to differentiate improving structure with improving meetings.
Mellen: issues re: meetings, "how Meraki connects to PCD".
Polly: A lot of agreement in PCD functioning. Natural organization evolution. Starts out up and running and then maintenance and how to keep parts running? Polly's goal is to keep it in the community and keep the community involved. And it is not happening. People drop out. Hard to understand what is going on. Make more explicit. Help people to get involved right away. In response to Mellen's ideas of changing meraki to quarterly after dance: 1. Functionality-decision making, committees. 2. Community issues. 3. "Fuzz Stuff" 4. Philosophical, safety, etc. ID as a need. All committees report at Sun. quarterlies and then pot luck, fun! Theoretical stuff goes to elected BOD, representative of larger community, etc.
Oracle: Agrees with Polly re: separating business from...? A new person can't get invested with info in the background. With new people getting involved suggests getting more explicit with info on the website; contact, etc. Thur. nights OK for next few mos. To report in Oct. Sound system not adequate enough. Start a report/agenda before 1/4ly meeting to see and read. Getting people minutes. Publish meeting minutes every time.
Shelagh: "Themes". Desire to do it differently. Suggestion: stand up, popcorn ideas/suggestions out loud and hear them. ID a couple things about what we like and what is not working right now.
John: Published agenda; names of people with time limits. Sets agenda.
Deb: 1/4ly on Sun. with purpose in committees. People helping on ground level. Clean up Meraki slog. Keep meetings relevant and not repeating things. Load up on committee commitment. Don't have Meraki just on Sun. Minutes real and want people to be engaged and can be done easily.
Martin: One of the reasons I stopped coming. We had a core group that was sympatico and I didn't have to always be here. Excused self. Come back. Common thing-- have ongoing interest from enough people. Count on people to be hear and admired each member. Time problem. Don't need to meet regularly. Meet every other month. Voting members only. Size of bod not important. Balance between core group and come and go members. Vote on how often we meet and the 1/4ly idea. 3 principal things safety, money and music.
Dave: All successes: New energy Pika; Martin and Judy back. Marin/Andy- all ages dance. One question to ask ourselves, "How do we promote meraki?" 1/4ly after dance has been one per year. Keep track of who is coming. a list of meraki members gets . time frames all those good intentions fall down with time frames fall down. caution of high expectations of what Sunday meetings will involve. the higher we set the bar, and loose sight of purpose, may lose sight of. Read minutes before you come. Put energy into something that collapsed between meetings.
Mellen: Hybrid-- 1/4ly meetings plus easy access to make easy for people to stay a bit. Make entry pretty welcoming. Meeting too frequently. Don't think we have to change bylaws to do anything. Separate bod.
Meraki points shared between Mellen and john re: bylaws change!
Kiara: Agree with Dave. Lots of plans and some times things are going to be this way. Enjoyed in past. ? not fuzzy holding space and sharing of space. Not creating space of getting business done.
? Fulfilling in some way, slogging thru... getting shit done. How to do easier? Percolate and grow. That's why I like showing up at night. Don't enjoy keeping organization going. Needs to be meaningful.
Marin: Newcomer. Least favorite way of interacting. (Meetings) Disappointed. Relational story? Keep it going. Applaud and don't enjoy it. Divvy it up, meet with neighbor, make more personal relationships-most important to her.
Pika: Attending meetings last 4-5 mos. Impressed with organization, business of running this huge thing. Not about hanging out, but making decisions and handling business that needs to be handled. Tighten up how to tighten up decisions.
Lindy: Important not to assume we know why people have slowed down/stopped coming to meetings. We may be trying to change something in a way that does not address the primary issue. Spontaneous vs. structure ie, fun vs. work.
Judy: Likes the variety of everyone's opinions. Covers the gamut. Willing to do more.
Tasha: Hard time coming. Not fun-connection-want to use at forum as gratitude for those who are woking hard. Participation. Committees solicitus. Deb's suggestion, and Tasha agrees- build committees.
Polly: Separate function and business and fuzzy stuff, connect, relate, other issues, 1/4ly meetings. Simplifying it. Time limit is happening naturally, don't care about fun, but do care about being heard. Think about separating business from fuzzy stuff. Keep business running and roll along. Fuzzy stuff happens in a different way.
Dave: Small groups. Could be helpful. Supports Marin's idea. Dave happy to meet with anyone who would like to partner for suggestions for facilitation of meetings.
Martin: Confirm basis for this meeting is non verbal, right brain under the surface. All about relationships.
Next meeting date: Tues., Oct. 17th Martin and Judy to host 7-9 PM.
