2009.12.01 14:00 Working Group Meeting

Pema proposes the following agenda:

0) Email

      Eos has started a google email group for the upcoming Malta retreat.

 

1) How to balance vision and details in our WG meetings?

    Soon after Mark joined us, in the Spring,
    he has reminded us of a saying by Padmasambhava:

       My view is higher than the sky, but my attention
       to actions and their results is finer than flour.

    How can we cultivate that kind of balance in the WG?
    Five options have been proposed in email so far:

    1) spending half an hour in each meeting on details,
       and half an hour on more general discussion of
       how we see/sense PaB and its growth;

    2) while we still have a considerable backlog of
       details, spending an hour a week on details, and
       spending another hour a week on wider issues;

    3) try to address all details from an open space with
       an open mind, viewing all of PaB through working
       with the details;

    4) schedule a several-hour WG SL retreat, some weekend
       in December;

    5) we might try to set aside one of the meetings each
       month for a more visionary agenda, and that week
       address only pressing details.

2) Fundraising and Donations Listing

     The general consensus of the PlayasBeing group members who have replied 
     via email, is that the European model of not listing individual donors with specific 
     monetary amounts given is preferable to listing amounts publicly.

          A. is everything firmly in place, so that we can ask people now to
              give donations, whether they have pledged money already or not?
              Can we give them clear instructions where/how to donate money?
              Who will send out a notice describing that?  The note should
              probably ask to include either SL name or "anonymous"; see also:

          B. do we have a clear system to register automatically who gave money;
              does PayPal address that?  If somebody just pays through PayPal with
              their RL name, we may have no clue which avatar corresponds to that.

          C. shall we make a final recommendation of exactly how to list time and
              money donations on a PaB web site, taking into account all the
              reactions we've gotten so far?

3) New Guardians

     No new guardian candidates, so far.

 

4) Chat Log Annotation

      The PlayasBeing group has decided against labeling the chat logs in 
       an automated way, and has moved toward individual guardian detail, 
       such as Stevenaia's suggestion of writing:

       "The Guardian (on Call) for this meeting was stevenaia Michinaga. 
       The comments are by stevenaia Michinaga.....The following Guardians 
       were in attendance for this session:  Pema Pera, stevenaia Michinaga, 
       etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, "  

       Do we want to list all guardians at the top of each chat log page, 
       as Stevenaia suggested, and some others agreed with, or not, since 
       yet some others were unhappy with it?

 

5) A Two-Tier System of Guardians?

    The idea has been brought to the WG to have more than one level of PaB membership,
    perhaps in the form of plain PaB "membership" and a more actively involved
    "guardianship."

6) Different Kinds of Sessions/ Emphasizing "Pure Play as Being/Applied PlayasBeing"  

      A. Growing out of 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."

    Some of the kinds of sessions which have been discussed are:

               1) "pure PaB": the practice of PaB itself
               2) "applied PaB" how practice of PaB influences our life
               3) newcomer/Introductory sessions
               3) pure contemplation and spirituality
               4) applied spirituality in politics, economics, society
               5) unrecorded sessions, such as those Adams, Gaya, Eos, and Eliza
                   have organized   

     The suggested focus is toward 1 and 2, for regular PaB sessions.

        B. Do we have specific ideas we might try out or discuss within the larger PlayasBeing 
            group?  Further thoughts or frameworks we might discuss?

7) PaB Village

       Are there any suggestions for new events and/or structures in the 
       PaB Village, perhaps in relation to in-world 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.