LAEV Retreat June 12-13, 2010
Ann, Dave, Federico, Joe, Lois, Kathy, Somerset, Dale, Zoe, Randy, Josh, Aurisha, Heather, Lara, Yuki, Jimmy, Leslie, Julio Sr, Doran
Hopes and Fears
• Hope
o More invested, more ownership of the process
o Be able to work together
o Move forward on the transition
o We’ll find the one ring of power
o We can get back on our bicycles
o Collective abilities to listen and understand each other
o that we can bond over similarities and vested interest
o this will be exit interview for Kathy
o We can be honest and work through some of our obstacles
• Fear
o That I’m too grumpy lately and that won’t be productive
o Orcs will take over and kill us all
o Increase level of distrust
o we won’t be able to resolve frustrations and differences
o might hurt feelings
o we’ll just spin our wheels
o that this will suck
Goals
• Create safe space to air and listen to frustrations, strong emotions and conflict
• Identify Obstacles and solutions
• Re-energize and make concrete plans for moving forward
NOTES
Kathy taking notes. Discussed changing order of agenda items, decided not to. Reviewed ground rules – perspective is “solution focused” declared a bias that all issues are resolvable.
ACTIVITY: PICTURING THE FUTURE
Illustrated “road map” exercise, facilitators Federico and Yuki.
Used long piece of butcher paper on the wall to illustrate.
PAST
Formed BVCLT
Got a lawyer on board, Al Valencia
Stakeholder document, other documents drafted
Policy development proceeded with some pitfalls and successes (experienced agreement failure with the chickens)
NOTE that struggles are important, valuable part of the learning process – turn conflict to the good
Wiki – good record of meetings, agreements – solid documentation
POG formed 2005 - High energy
Highly functional community work with several groups and individuals
Got good outside help
Published Transition Times
Memorandum of Understanding with US/TU
Lots of negotiations
Came close to formation of Bimini Green LLC that fell apart (Was not congenial at first – which alienated CRSP)
PRESENT
Bylaws in process
Better attendance/participation at meetings
BVCLT functioning and working on community garden
Activated Management Committee
Personal level of excitement about the transition; perceived collective excitement right now, and in general at the time the POG was formed or at early retreat when current iteration began
0-25% - 2 personal, perceived now 0, personal then 0, perceived then 0
25-50% - 3 personal, perceived now 10, personal then 3, perceived then 0
50-75% - 2 personal, perceived now 3, personal then 3, perceived then 6
75-100% -6 personal, perceived now 0, personal then 4, perceived then 5
Image: Present – “Desert valley of sleep” – legalese puts people out in meetings, but we have to get through this difficult arduous process which is important and tedious
Blogging
Raping trolls of resentment
FUTURE - How do we know we have succeeded?
Will never be complete – always a process, but there will be milestones … when do we party?
• Well-distributed responsibilities and power
• Address kids, family, diversity issues – develop larger apts for family units
• Increased fairness, parity, equality
• Cohesion of effort, teamwork evident to outsiders
• title transfer of property from CRSP to US/TU
• Rent checks made out to US/TU
• we get a trustee
• mortgage burning party in 23 years and same people still here
• we will start another project together
• full participation - intentional owner members play a greater role
• more owner members
• 107 is complete!
• federation of formal and informal organizations, collaboratively associated
• relocalized economy
• greater interpersonal warmth and trust and love in the group
• Functional, responsible group of committees handling day to day affairs
• Have a budget, with funding for projects, a way to move ahead on projects
• Other groups replicate our urban model
• Neighborhood transformation
• Don’t have to apologize for so much to guests
• Sustainable – not dependent on one person for infrastructure
BREAK.
What are the hurdles? What do we need to do to get there?
• Approve the bylaws
• Greater trust = greater efficiency (in general)
• Circumvent subdivision Map Act
• Qualify as Limited Equity Housing Coop – rental agreement with agency investing >=$100K
• IRS Exemption – 501c(3) nonprofit status
• Learning to trust new members to expand POG
• Establish process for admitting new owner members
• Closing on the purchase (clothing optional and optimal)
• More productive participation from more people
• Rent arrears– establish internal safety net, revolving fund – relocating deadbeats
• Clear communication with all residents– meeting with long term renters about all changes
• Clear exit strategy and procedure (evictions) – CRSP take on the old debt?
• Written five year plan and budgets
• Articles of Incorporation
• New Member Packet
• Regulatory Agreement
• Occupancy Agreement
• Certificate of Ownership (Share Certificate)
• Disclosure Statement
• Miscellaneous other documents
• Owner training to learn management tasks
• Hold Orientation- explain new ownership, educate residents, → everybody “gets” the transition
• Shared time commitment
• Revisit committee structure, maybe restructure if two committees is not enough
• Address the low energy situation – how to re-energize?
Plan: Tomorrow each task on a timeline with deadlines, steps, etc.
BREAK FOR LUNCH IN THE COURTYARD
ACTIVITY: We all juggled as a group.
SESSION TWO
Checking in with each other: Partnered in groups of two, for speaking/listening then listening/speaking, to explore issues, frustrations and conflicts experienced regarding the transition process.
Ground rules
Say what you need to say with awareness, trying to be productive; assume good faith, good intentions in others; request a pause if one is needed by using “Time Out” gesture. “You” and “I” statements – we were reminded about. OK to express all emotions and feelings including anger, anxiety, frustration, fatigue; acknowledge your responses to others’ comments. Facilitators kept time.
Go-round:
Stated to the group what we expressed to our partners in dyads.
• Power imbalance: At first huge commitment to POG work then learned that personal membership would be blocked, and dropped out.
• Growing commitment. Guilt about not doing enough but “I am not the only one to do little.”
• Tension is obvious to an outsider – not good that community bottles up conflicts, not sure how to be a positive force.
• Basic disagreements among POG members that have never been worked through, frustration about getting those addressed before adding more members, today finally broaching, would like people who have trouble paying rent on time to speak openly to the whole group about it.
• Participation level was high at the beginning, recently greatly decreased, saw others excuse themselves from responsibility so burden on remaining participants became too great.
• At first enthusiastic but increasing burden and work is not appreciated, generates anger and criticism, brings resentment, frustrating; also continuity an issue – everyone is busy.
• Not sure how to help the process but optimistic if ignorant, and fearful because effort is soon to be losing steam.
• Have been on committee, have learned a lot, uneven work burden has become more so and this keeps increasing, not creating the space for more participation so people feel excluded.
• Energy goes up and down, people depart and return, natural process, I vent frustration in meetings, sometimes we go in the wrong direction
• Here 11 years and more faith in the process than ever, key is that our interpersonal relationships are critical, we need to be aware of each other’s personalities, we need to be more effective and efficient the way we work, hope to be more active as soon as possible
• At first was curious and intrigued, there was a lot of tension in my committee which I did not bring up and it continues, felt I did not have much to offer, my ideas were not valued, now I don’t know how to get involved and feel a lot of ambivalence and frustration.
• Have been away a lot, this is the first time I have heard about all these tensions, have observed that certain people question things in a way that sends things back to the drawing board.
• I feel like I am still transitioning into the group, looking to get more organized and balanced soon, looking for something here that I can feel passionate about.
• There is a lot of tension between an expansive structure and a tightly controlled transition with people on opposite poles, requires much negotiation to move forward.
• Here nine and a half years, see much change, am intimidated sometimes by some members, noting growing tensions.
• I see in myself a tendency and pattern – less excited than when I first moved in – incredibly frustrated by my conflicts with other people – see some people as stubborn and inflexible – hard to find energy to move forward when others are unable to see things that I think should be obvious.
• Currently feeling extremely pessimistic – like to do stuff, have been doing planning, but more comfortable with concrete projects – no interest in certain subjects – where can I make humor more effective?
• Conflicted about my level of participation – when I began having less time I thought others would be stepping forward, but it turns out my lack of involvement is a problem for the group, so I need to plug back in – very frustrated with our failure to find ways for new people to participate.
• Lack of trust
This may be the tip of the iceberg – there are a lot more specifics – OK to name names, this is the space for that. There are hot button issues. Can have folks talk to each other in the middle of a circle. Can request a one-minute pause.
Open Discussion
• Conflicts between specific people are destructive to the group.
• Much work that needs to be done is beyond my level of expertise so my involvement would not help. More delegation would be beneficial.
• Some work is really boring but we have to do it anyway –we are not passionate about it – but it is educational. A challenge to do the work and see it as a learning opportunity. The more people on board the quicker we get through it.
• Work, school, the last thing I want to do at home is stuff that does not interest me, and I don’t understand why I should care. Why are certain things so important? What will be so different after transition? Ownership scares me, I am not ready to take on more debt, not sure I want to be an owner. Tension between Kathy and Lara makes me very uncomfortable. Wish I had addressed it, because it has become more intense.
• There is a lot of idealism here. People do not understand the payoff of all this work. I am not good at fleshing out details, but someone has to be on the bylaws committee so I do the work.
• Conflict Resolution Team intervention requested and ignored – Kathy hoped to be Lara’s friend.
• Thought I would become a facilitator, but then saw how they were attacked.
• In life you don’t get all the things you like. Things have to get done when you have an objective; because the goal is clear you do the work, but here, it is not clear that we share this goal, so I don’t know if I have to do all these things.
• I am frustrated now, and in the past, about how poorly we bring in the energy of new people. Have been frustrated with Lara’s concerns about letting new people into the POG. There has to be a better way and we need it desperately – original people are burned out, dropping out, too many members don’t pull their own weight, and those who do have energy don’t know how to help. We need to make new people feel more welcome and less intimidated.
• Originally I felt like I understood it and we were all on the same page, I was on two committees, we got a lot done, it was very clear. When we presented to the group it was not clear.
• The whole Dale thing showed a big lack of trust. We did not ask him what was going on.
• There is a “I’ve been here a long time and I am just showing up” contingent – how do we show new people that we are trustworthy?
• I never got to talk about issues with Lindsey before all that blew up on the internet.
Everyone was thanked for having the courage/balls/ovaries to speak up and to listen to others.
• There is a clique here. In less than two years mostly single Spanish speaking moms formed a LEHC in a Pico Union slum. And look at all this long process with our high level of education. We should take a field trip.
• Addressing tension between Joe and Lois – longstanding – most of the time healthy – but feelings no longer get hurt. Not a problem at Lois’s end.
• A lot of people want to help the process. At one point all POG members were required to be on a committee. Maybe require everyone in the IC to be on at least one committee.
• If our trust level is enhanced, work will go more smoothly as more work can be delegated to small groups, mostly to be rubber-stamped by the plenary body, especially the boring work – which can always be tweaked later.
• Let’s acknowledge how good we are doing – this meeting comes at exactly the right time, when it was time for a check-in. There were timelines but we are still doing OK. Not fair to expect process to be so swift, it takes its own time.
• Helpful if we addressed our mission with clarity from time to time.
• Need tighter interpersonal relationships – brothers and sisters do fight, but can have equal power in the family unit. We can grow from this. Need a little more trust in each other, communication, openness, peaceful interactions. The more we put ourselves down the harder it will seem – don’t take yourself so seriously. There is gruntwork to be done, we have PhDs?, there is drama, chaos is OK, that’s what it means to be human. I think we are doing all right. Let’s not lose more members as we move forward.
• I agree that we need to get new people involved in the process but there are different roles – one is learning the background information that enables people to participate in committees without intimidation. One is presenting background info to new people.
• This is challenging, not sure I want to speak, very nervous, my heart is racing. Caffeine? I love this place. Seeing some of the conflicts has been very difficult. Too emotional. Suddenly terrified. … I love being here; I love all of you. One of my challenges is figuring out how to want things without needing things – how to need things and not have them – and this is a place where that is being worked out. Early on discussed the power structures here with Dore – right now understand that better –I find myself so frustrated with the ways decisions get made here. Why are we doing the transition? One of the answers is – I was disgusted with the way some decisions got made by a small group of people, they were hurting this organization, had too much power. That’s why I thought the transition was important. In this meeting we are asked to assume good faith – that’s hard – but I know everyone here is trying to do their best. Strong recollection of working on financing piece when management committee was unable to function effectively and respond. Now some committees pushing ahead while others drop out – pattern is repeating. Super frustrated with our ability to let hard things drop. No serious follow up to the chicken episode – never did a “lessons learned.” A bunch of stuff under the surface. We talk about the Kathy/Lara conflict but we do not address it. Glad we are here, hope we can dig in, amazed by our blindness to what we don’t want to see.
• Why am I excited about the process? More like worried about what happens if we DON’T? do this – the whole organization could start falling apart.
ACTIVITY:
Most of us screamed REALLY LOUD. Then we took a break. Great snacks! Continued stack.
• How to help more people work on the transition? Some folks are totally drained and not in a position to ask for help, recruit or train helpers. But we have a full understanding of what the work requires and what is essential.
• How are people invested? Ownership is scary, but everyone needs to be involved, even if planning to continue renting, if we want to stay together as an organization. It’s worth working on.
• Our energy goes in waves. The thing that keeps people going at times of low energy is that feeling of trust. When that is missing, there is conflict. It is a complex issue. A lot of people have no financial security – why am I getting in bed with them? What are students going to do when school is over? So many people are in transitional lives.
• At some point there was a decrease in compassion and trust, people were trying, people were doing transition work, then there was less trust, less compassion, less supportiveness – what happened? It was not just one individual – what happened?
• _____somer notes
• Sad to see Kathy leave.
• The Dale incident was a shock, it also scared some people off
• Issues between Dale and Doran
• Concerns with why the conflict resolution committee wasn’t there for Kathy when she requested help twice.
• Yuki taking some responsibility in having inability in moving that forward between Lara & Kathy.
• Aurisha missed Kathy’s emails, apologizes for that.
• There has been a lot of growth from the Dale incident, but we should have had a recap but being overworked ron and aurisha didn’t.
• There needs to be support possibly for helping the CRSG(conflict resolution support group)
• (Summary/clarification of statements by Fed)
• when esphandiar hosted the CRSG group he headed it, there isn’t a host for that committee anymore
• Jimmy and Lesley interested in helping the CRSG
• The failings of the CRSG are critical
• Do we have policy of requiring members to work on their conflicts with others?
• Loyola Marimont and county of la dispute resolution services can support us.
• The response that the community had of not going to Dale to ask him about the Linsey incedint made Lara feel unsafe.
• Andrea wouldn’t talk to Lara about the chicken issue.
• Both issues made lara feel estranged from the community
• Fed clarification (trust issues that Lara brought up, and busy CRSG members contribute to this problems of trust)
• The Linsey issue had some healing. Not new age like but, after going to all these retreats, I saw the community carry themselves badly online and didn’t have a good experience with that.
• We’re not that cool, we have a lot of baggage that keeps people like little Fabian or Maria’s daughter from hanging out.
• (CHECK IN) Fed is fading (conflict is a major area to concern ourselves with. Perhaps we should have crsg be more a part of our processes)
• if there are issues that need some more unpacking or can we be more solution oriented.
• Could Dave unpack his ideas of the power structure.
• The “power thing” and how we’ll be “looking different” for the transition to work.
• Power transitions in organizations are often messy so this isn’t that uncommon.
Federico taking notes from here on ——--
Fish Bowl exercise (about the perceived powerstructure)
Somerset And Dave – in conversation mode
D: Recent incident: a rumor about space with the garages. Lois decision didn’t come to the community.
So lois has power to ignore the community? lack of transparency?
S: Are we spending time to build “buy in”? with more energy the work can be distributed. Things get done quickly sometimes. Lara and Lois are just 2 people and they make a lot of decisions. Lara and Lois resist getting rid of stuff (going to the landfill).
D: the notion of sweat equity. The more you do the more you can say over what happens. But this is frustrating. If we have a small group of people making a lot of decisions, yes it means they are putting in a lot of time. the answer is difficult.
S: they have lots at stake, like this is going to be their retirement place. So it must be frustrating to have a lot of part time help. That hasn’t been addressed well. It is a trust thing too.
D: it’s amazing how much has happened. But at the same time the fact that Lois and Lara make most of the day to day decisions is our own fault, so it is not fair to everyone. There is an implicit imbalance of power. Lois is not power hungry, she has a lot of responsibility. So we have to step in, and someone like Lois should be able to step back.
S: that sounds like that whole founders syndrome. Kind like in the bicycle kitchen. This is inherently going to be messy.
Comments from the larger group:
Lara: on the rumor of the cart. Lara has been aware of Lois’s, Michelle’s positions, and people’s aggravation with the cart on the street and a solution was tried: to ask Maria if she would be ok with storing the cart in her garage.
Lois: lara wants to reduce the tension in the community so she tried. Perceiving Lois as the last word on everything has been going on for a long time. The board of directors is ultimately fiscal and legally responsible for the organization. Have been trying to transfer power to the community. Lois wears many hats. There a so many day to day decisions that you cannot bring them all to the community. Lara sends many things to the community. Lois hoping to get rid of many decisions.
Jimmy: laras intention to move the cart came from a very good place –to reduce resentment - , and many good intentions can bite you in the ass. Few people have a lot of responsibility, like Dale (he knows how to do too many things). The management knowledge can be brought to more people.
Randy: sometimes the baby turns into a teenager, you got to let him/her make mistakes. But for this project to fall apart would be very difficult.
Aurisha: cart issue is an example of we being afraid of dealing with issues head on. Part of the lesson learned is to talk about things head on. It was like lara putting a bandaid in a huge wound, good intentions and all, it was pointing at a very big issue, the space issue. We need to start looking at the bigger issues.
Dave: although the intentions were great, trying to solve the issue without community input was difficult.
Aurisha: in trying to take care of the needs of just a few people, we are not taking care of the needs of the community.
5min break
the sarah Palin toilet paper in the Community Rm banos is amazing
solution brainstorm:
including new folk:
reserve a meeting for new members to get their feet wet doing facilitation, possibly using the bike rack for agenda items
regular consensus workshops
nvc
open bookswork invitation from Lois to understand how the books work for LAEV
when we understand good intensions
we love oneanother that sparks participation, so solution, create more space to have that participation, crsg meeting monthly,*
keep that meeting constant and always be looking for the inherent drama, we need energy behind the crsg require more of members:
have a kick in process whenever people fail to meet their membership.
Fed to offer co-facilitation for new members
Cram session for new members as to what the process is. We still don’t know what’s going on!!!*
We tried to meet once and then twice a month
More liaisons needed
After people become members find out what committee they want to be on.
Have a really open door for new members for committees
Resurrect new member orientation
Full support for the management meeting
Have check ins regular
If we don’t already we should do an annual review of the whole community
Perhaps yearly self evals as well.
Entrance interview (last responsibility of a liason) So now you’re here! what can I help you get connected too?
Proposing another retreat in September for getting things done.
Inquiries email responder is part of membership.
This “email responder” could work really well for the CRSG
We need more work responsibility. We need to up our expectations.
Work on our process for adding people to the POG
The question of “what’s the goal” needs more group time.
We should have someone go to the national Management training workshop.
We could have the mission of the committees and the schedule, the people, on the wiki, so that people can refer to it.
More time for uneven work
Opportunity to join committees. And info on how (tomorrow)
The “email responder” should be used for all committees for good communication.
Each committee could have a clipboard. Most communities have that.
Full disclosure is really important, a lot of shit’s vague.
Yuki close up:
More time tomorrow for these solutions
EVAL:
Facilitation team kicked ass!!
Feel a lot better for this check in*
Could we do it every 6 months?
Jimmy thought it was on time I think it was overdo
Thanks for the opportunity to have the space to voice a lot of frustration
Could have spent more time on putting this organizational meeting together. It could have been scary with people running out crying, but it wasn’t. I’m relieved
Would’ve felt sad if people hadn’t expressed their feelings.
I feel super optimistic. I feel like everyone is really mature.
I’m looking forward to jumping in and doing more committee work.
It’s very reassuring to see where we are at the end of the day
Less time on the past and more time on looking ahead.
The dynamics and frustrations that came out is
How many hours did y’all put in for the prep??
Food was fabulous!!!
More fishbowl!
Positive step forward
The power imbalance has been addressed and talked about
We always spend a lot of time in these retreats, doing this and that….
We love therapy…I call us therapy village. Where’s the straw bale work, we can’t do stuff cause we’re always in drama and meetings!!!! I’m missing the cool stuff we want to do.
Happy
People were thoughtful, took notes, were mature, way nicer to facilitate people that are good at being at meetings.
Wouldhave liked more sword and sorcerro references.
Boring, more drama please!
Thank you to the notetakers
Day 2
Present: Dave, Yuki, Lois, Kathy, Aurisha, Somerset, Federico, Melba, Lara, Leslie, Andrea, Randy (at the end)
From Solution Brainstorm from Yesterday
1. provide opportunities for new folks to facilitate (* linked to item 2 below)
2. Co-facilitation for new facilitators *
3.Opportunities to join committees *
4. Developing a process for adding people to the POG *
5. New member liaison
6. Have in process liaison plug new folks into committees
7. Info session on transition process *
8. Regular trainings (management, facilitation, consensus, respectful communication, finances, new member orientation) *
9. single email for conflict resolution team and management committee *
10. more info on wiki and/or clipboards with committee info – purpose, who is on the committee, when meetings are *
11. liaison check in *
12. regular conflict resolution team meetings *
13. more space for communication/check ins at meetings (pre-meeting check ins and “mud pit” for when people are having tension/conflict within a meeting) *
14. annual review allowing for criticism and self-criticism *
15. getting things done retreat in September *
16. more time for goal setting/clarifying (moved to emotional issues session)
17. change participation requirements
18. mandatory participation on committees
19. process when somebody fails to meet participation requirements
20. up to date contact info *
21. better dissemination of info
Added today:
- sessions to deal with emotional issues 1) “expansive view versus controlling view” 2) lack of participation and uneven work 3) delegation of work and empowering committee decision making 4) transition in relation to long term renters 5) extent to which sweat equity determines decision making authority (sweat equity paradox)
- including non-intentional residents in information dissemination via a newsletter
- have agreement on moving forward with these items
Comments:
On regular CRT meetings
- can we make the conflict resolution team more active, reach out to people when there is tension and invite them sit down with them?
- people need to find outside opportunities for therapy when they need it
- need a place outside meetings for discussion of emotional issues
- could the conflict resolution team have “office hours” as opposed to regular meetings
On regular space for check ins at meetings
- More frequent or longer meetings to allow for space
- CRT might be a better space for this than Monday night community meetings
- Or could do this one meeting every other month
- Space at meetings to name conflicts or tensions and ask them if they want to go to the CRT
- Put check ins on the agenda
- Could try an optional check in time before the Monday community meetings facilitated by someone from the CRT
- Need to make sure meetings stay efficient, not draining participants’ energy
- Melba is willing to facilitate pre-meeting check-ins
On annual review
- Could be done in conjunction with an annual planning retreat
- Opportunity for each member to reflect on how they participated during the year
More time for goal setting
- Need clarification on goal setting, why are we doing this? Is this the equivalent of driving to Vons, versus walking or biking or skateboarding?
- Having this conversation might help address our flagging level of interest, otherwise we might never reach our goal
- Might be good to take a look at why we chose this model given the realities of our political structure vis a vis property ownershipOn changing participation requirements
- Could have people talk about it and bring a proposal to the meeting
- We have spent a lot of time talking about this issue
- Dave is concerned that Lara has been blocking forward movement on this issue
- We are a different community then when we last had this discussion in depth
- We all know who does more or less than others
- New people have recently been acculturated to more extensive participation
- Could have policy of either working more or paying more
- Have to accommodate fluctuations in peoples’ ability to participate
- Lara responds to Dave – what is important to her is that the approach to participation is not punitive, does not want a method of tracking that feels like a culture of policing
- Could come up a solution that doesn’t involve policing
- Could think about participation expectations instead of requirements
On newsletter for long term renters
- Lara does not endorse doing this
- We did it before with “transition times”
- Could survey them to find out what they want to know
- Would be useful to have a discussion about the history of our relationships with long term renters
- Need to be forthcoming with them, many have been here a long time
- Could have a face to face meeting time as opposed to notes under doors
- What it is that we offer long term residents has changed over time, the current structure does not anticipate someone who is a long term resident becoming a owner member, but that impression might have been given to some people
- Need to set the record straight that it will be easy for them to be an owner member, Lois has made them all aware that the transition is happening
- Flyer could be about educating next door neighbors about living more ecologically
On having sessions to deal with more emotional issues
- Could do it at meetings or schedule other times
- What if we don’t have these discussions? Maybe we don’t have any other choice
- Could schedule them at POG meetings, could take up the whole meetings
- Do these in one day or whole day retreats
- Could be done at Thursday night potlucks with facilitation by CRT members
- Concern about not having these discussions just with current POG members
- Concern about keeping Thursday potlucks for fun
- Could do POG meetings but don’t take the whole time, use fish bowl
- We do need to deal with these issues or we risk an explosion
- Could start with a mini fish bowl session at the next POG meeting
- Default position is to not talk about these issues but this could have bad consequences
- Outcome could be a congenial agreement to disagree
- Could do these discussions at pre-meeting timeConsensus on getting the list of solutions on the agenda on 6/13 (Federico) and 6/21 (Leslie)
Consensus on starting sessions to deal with emotional issues the topic of clarifying goals and strategy (with Lara and Federico in the fish bowl) on 6/28
Evaluation
Revisited goals of the retreat, summarized what we’ve done
+ was good yesterday at creating safe space to share feelings
- this morning, we lost that with Dave and Somerset reacting to each other
- another warm up exercise to open up that space
- we weren’t all here to get started so the
+ we met all of our goals
- today was much harder because it was the real work
- energy different today
+ good presentation, didn’t let us get too far off track
~ there are people in the room that are just not going to get along, we can’t all be best friends. Should let it stand in our way. It’s an unfolding process. Sometimes we need to laugh at each other.
+ good congeniality that we have. We can still have love and argue.
- the back and forth is not productive.
- sorry I missed some of it. Would love to talk to someone here about it.
+ thank you for preparing++
~ today’s the day the hard work gets done.
- could have put in more silliness at the top of the day. Approach from a point of humor because it’s the hard work.
~ please still come
- I didn’t experience it as a totally safe space yesterday or today. Not all the issues were identified yet. One of the things is to evaluate different options for moving the bylaws forward to take us to the end of the year.
- thought that this would be the easier session, but in hindsight, could have put more creativity in the activities.
+ all the goals were met++
+ great job
+ I like how the conflict was brought out in the open. This is more like a family and families do that.
- would have liked more people to be here.
- difficult discussion today
+ happy with what we accomplished
+ still feeling energized and optimistic.