2007-01-31

Membership Committee Meeting

January 31, 2007.
8:14pm –10pm
Attendance: Yuki (facilitating), Aurisha, Federico (taking notes), Ann, Thiago, Lara

Discussion about Diversity:
1. Definition:

• Relative diversity:
  • to other eco villages
  • to surrounding communities
• Categories
  • life experience
  • Income
  • ethnicity
  • sexual orientation
  • gender
  • abilities
  • skills
  • interests
  • age
  • profession
  • family composition
  • religion spirituality
  • legal status
• Not diversity for diversity’s sake
• Why diversity
  • Balance:
    • of energy
    • gender
    • inclusive rather than insular
  • Demonstration
    • Diversities conflicts
    • lower impact, quality of life
    • to all people
  • model human relationships / coexistence
  • New creative answers
    • variety of perspectives
  • broader base of knowledge
  • try new things
• Priority?:
  • first level:
    • ethnicity
    • gender
    • age
    • family composition
    • formal education
  • second level:
    • skills
    • income

great discussion about class. Sparked by the priority. What does priority mean? Priority changes with time. Needing to be selective about who do we need to put energy into. Not an exclusionary thing but a prioritizing thing.

Our current process selects for very motivated people. What does encouraging –or putting energy- means? If there were a lot of people, it would be overwhelming for the community. Maybe there is not need to feel overwhelmed.

We could look at what we need now. What gaps do we want to fill.

Current (guessed) gaps:

• family potential (apt 211 is going to be open)
• gender gaps (there are more men than women)
• age
• class?

Do we need the actual data.
We need to talk more about all of these subjects.
Remembering Tree Bresson’s exercise. We could implement some of these exercises. We need more spaces to talk about these things.

There are not many spaces opening up
Acceptance is not tied to space.
Challenge: how do we say no to somebody? Will we ever say no to somebody based on diversity? How? What’s the wording?

How are we respectful?
We need some kind of limitation in numbers.
Idea: to limit 2 people approved waiting for space.
Idea: to present the issues we came up to at the meeting.
Idea: to get professional help (like facilitators specialized in diversity). – they need to have a lot of people. It could be an ongoing process. Having open discussions.