Re: sharing circles
From: Marty Roberts (MartyRsonic.net)
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 13:05:01 -0600 (MDT)
We have two things here that are similar to what you talk about. The "official" one is what we call an Alternate GM or Community meeting which meets once a month and alternates with our business GM which also meets once a month. I will answer the questions below:

On Sunday, October 13, 2002, at 10:01 AM, Marjorie wrote:

I have been reading the archives about sharing circles and would like
more information to give to my group. If your group has a non-business
meeting which is focused on the members' exploration of emotional
responses to life in cohousing, would you be willing to tell me the
following:

1. How often does this meeting occur?

Once a month (although tends to get canceled about 3 times a year)

2. Is it a regular event or scheduled as needed?

Regular - 1st Sunday of the month - alternates with the business GM which is the third Sunday.

3. Is there a facilitator?

Yes - the meetings are planned by our Community Life Committee and facilitated by rotating members of that committee. whereas our business meetings are facilitated by our Facilitation Team.

4. What is the format?

It varies - we shoot for a mix of deeper discussion of hot issues, games and singing, improv, etc., occasional field trip to a local spot of interest. A variety of things that are not business but are considered community building. We wanted to include some trainings on consensus, communication, conflict, etc., but ran into a snag as to whether our HOA could pay for such trainers, so haven't really done that yet. We always include about a half hour for a life history telling by one of our members - we have gotten through about half of our adults now. We started with the oldest first, since they had the longest stories - giving the youngers a chance to catch up!


5. Do you have guidelines for participation at this meeting?

The entire community is invited and "expected" to attend, but some don't.


6.. What percentage of your community attends?

It varies - it tends to be a smaller turnout than the business meetings, maybe half to two-thirds on average.

Then we have also experimented over the last 6 or 8 months with a circle that met one Monday night a month for more personal sharing. The whole community was also invited to that, but after a very well attended first meeting, only about 7 to 10 folks show up now and the last two have been canceled for lack of interest.

We are planning our first off-site retreat since we moved in three years ago - in November. We plan to do some training and exercises in communication and conflict resolution. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Marty Roberts
Two Acre Wood, Sebastopol, CA

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