Re: Criteria for setting meeting agendas | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Berrins (Berrinsaol.com) | |
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 07:43:08 -0600 (MDT) |
In a message dated 4/28/02 3:33:39 PM, bschaller [at] theriver.com writes: << Do other groups have a way of deciding which issues should come to the attention of the upcoming meeting? >> Our board of trustees puts together the agenda for each upcoming meeting. Doesn't take long and no one seems to get worked up very often, if ever. One tactic we've taken with "parking lot" issues (aka "back burner" issues) is to use basic time management concepts. Urgent issues naturally take precedence, but if you ignore non-urgent issues they eventually become urgent, usually because not dealing with it allowed a crisis to develop. So rather than plan your agendas strictly on how urgently you need to address issues (aka crisis management), put ALL your issues and goals and dreams on a big list and prioritize them. Prioritize them based on your vision of what you want your community to be or be doing next month, in a year, in five years, and in twenty years (or whatever time increments make sense to you). And now, the most important steps: Find ways to process the high priority issues (give idealized deadlines where appropriate) and break down those processes into discrete steps that can be assigned and brought to meetings to be dealt with, bit by bit by bit, regardless of urgency. Update your lists and reprioritize regularly. There are lots of books on the mechanics (and I'm sure folks out there have suggestions!). Looking at this big a picture for the first time can be sobering, but you also get a great perspective and appreciation for the amazing work you're doing and have already accomplished. While it seems almost impossible to do this during the formative stages, because urgent issues pop up so often, do it anyway, and do it regularly. The sooner you get started the more it will be a part of your overall group process. It took a while before we realized that time management concepts were necessary and it took some practice as a community to prioritize effectively, but we're getting better at it. We're still working on breaking down larger, non-urgent, issues into manageble steps and getting them meeting time, but we're getting better at this, too. In my opinion, this is what has made getting the agendas together relatively easy. Roger Berman Pathways Cohousing Northampton, MA _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
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Criteria for setting meeting agendas Becky Schaller, April 28 2002
- Re: Criteria for setting meeting agendas Howard Landman, April 29 2002
- RE: Criteria for setting meeting agendas Rob Sandelin, April 29 2002
- Re: Criteria for setting meeting agendas Berrins, April 29 2002
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