2009.11.17 14:00 - Working Group Meeting

Eliza proposes the following agenda:

1) Donations

      A. Pema and Storm have sent an email concerning donations and fundraising for PaB. 
          Further discussion is needed, to determine the best way to organize
          fundraising and pledge collection efforts. As Pema wrote "Should we have certain
          times a year for pledges and/or actual fundraising?  The middle of Feb/May/Aug/Nov,
          say, if we start now, or is there a reason to take an other choice of dates?"

      B. Due to differing currencies, would direct payment through PayPal provide simplicity?

      C. Shall the donation list be public? What if some would like to remain
          anonymous? We could make a public list of donations of time and 
          money; both types of gift are valuable and could be listed,
          with time donations as a list of all volunteers for PaB tasks.

2) A Chair for the WG?

   A. Do we agree with the current description of Chair for the Working
      Group as being one of:
 
             1) Composing an agenda
             2) Moderating the WG SL meetings
             3) Playing the grandparent/sweeper role of checking to make sure
                 decisions made within the WG are followed up on 
       
    B. Do we agree that the WG Chair will serve for three a month period, 
        with the rotation of minute-taking continuing as organized by Saki previously? 
      
    C. Do we agree that the WG Chair position will a volunteer position rather than 
        forced rotation, only falling back on forced rotation if no volunteer steps forward?

3) Different Kinds of Sessions

    A. Emphasizing "Pure Play as Being/Applied PlayasBeing"

             Growing from discussions within our weekly guardian meetings, Storm has brought
             forth the idea of having different kinds of sessions. In a recent email, Storm wrote:
             "Maxine has commented occasionally on boundary issues. I see the possibility of
             having more than one kind of session as a potential solution to all sorts of seemingly
             disparate problems we are having, many of which include boundary issues."

               Storm suggested to discern four types of PaB sessions:

               1) "pure PaB": the practice of PaB itself
               2) "applied PaB" how practice of PaB influences our life
               3) pure contemplation and spirituality
               4) applied spirituality in politics, economics, society
                   and suggested to focus our regular PaB sessionss on 1) and 2),
                   leaving 4) and perhaps also 3) for sessions at other times/places

            
    B. Newcomer/Introductory Sessions  

             Storm wrote: "We've also had another not-irrelevant input about the possibility
             of reserving at least some sessions (or having separate sessions)
             specifically for newcomers.
            
        
4) Mentor System for New Guardians and New Guardian Roles

             Related to, and perhaps in combination with, the above,
             the idea has been put forward to instate a mentor system for new
             guardians, in two versions: one for those who become a general PaB
             guardian for the first time, and one for guardians who take on a
             weekly session for the first time.

             We have discussed this idea a few times. Does someone have a clear idea
             and specific suggestions as to how this might be implemented, perhaps
             in conjunction with Introductory/Newcomer Sessions?

5) New Guardian Candidates

            One candidate has been brought to the larger PlayasBeing group. Are
            there others for consideration? 

6) Unrecorded Guardian Meetings  
        
             Pila suggested introducing unrecorded guardian meetings;
             there are clearly many options, as has been mentioned at
             several occasions, such as:

              -- SL retreat sessions of several-hours or even longer
              -- spontaneous groups of guardians setting up their own meetings
                 as Gaya, Eos, and Eliza have demonstrated
              -- organizing specific officially non-recorded guardian meetings
            
             Would the WG like to initiate further discussion within the PlayasBeing
             google group, to ask others to bring specific suggestions to the floor, and
             to comment on those suggestions and initiatives given by others?

      
7) PaB Village

              Are there any suggestions for new events and/or structures in the
              PaB Village, perhaps in relation to retreats?

8) Coordinator as Role Name

              The six WG members play a role as coordinators, yet they also
              delegate some of their responsibilities to other coordinators
              outside the group; would it be more clear if the WG members 
              would be given another role name, different from "coordinator"?

9) Outreach: Community Gateway

             We may want to consider offering PaB as one of the groups that 
             newbies can turn to during their initial orientation.