Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re:reams of minutes

[pattymara (pattymara]

On Tue, 04 Sep 2001 12:12:14 -0400 Sharon Villines
<sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> writes:
> Sharon
> Who is on to work on all our minutes. We also have reams of minutes.

Sharon and list,
I sympathize.  At Tierra Nueva we had "The Box" which the minute-takers
passed around as the job changed.  For nine years.  When we had been here
for almost a year we decided to
have an anniversary party and collectively write a script for "Telling
Our Story".  The committee decided we would divide the members into four
large groups, each responsible for two years of history, from 1990-1998. 
Minutes from each two year subgroup would be distributed to the team
captains, and they would create a historical, humorous rendition of what
happened in their assigned two years.  

Great idea, huh?  Except that the minutes Box was in a shambles.  Some of
the secretaries had dutifully kept a binder of their minutes, corrected
and in order.  Most hadn't.  I embarked on a monumental crusade of
"calling in all minutes" in order to assemble an archive that reflected
our history.  It tooks weeks to collect them, and days to assemble them
in order.  I made an official archival binder, then photocopied it to put
in the safe.  

We collectively created the most humorous skit to tell our story, and
have repeated it every anniversary (September).  Tomorrow night we are
rehearsing for our third anniversary rendition...we "fast forward"
through the first nine years of dreaming, developing, construction and
move-in, then slow down and report on the past year, a month at a time. 
It is a humorous way to poke fun at our foibles and thank the burning
souls.  

>From time to time I leaf through the official minutes binder to check if
the secretaries are remembering to file the minutes.   Still, there are
gaps.  Sigh.  In order to write this year's "Telling Our Story" script I
had to scramble to find several awol minutes, with the entire month of
November still missing.  Oh well.  Perhaps we can have a moment of
silence in the play to honor November's absence.  

Only recently have we begun to compile our Decision Log.  I know that new
groups are being encouraged to keep stringent accounts of their minutes
and decision log.  We had to learn the hard way, but that's part of being
one of the oldest coho groups in formation. 

Minutes are so important.  Keep track of them as you go.

coheartedly,
Patty Mara
Tierra Nueva Cohousing, central CA coast, where we are watching for the
first monarch butterfly scouts to land in the eucalyptus grove.  

 
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