2009.11.24 14:00 Working Group Meeting

Eliza proposes the following agenda:

0) Email

      The issue of Vice-Chair has been moved off of the agenda for now.

      Pema wrote "So concretely:
      by March 1 we will need a volunteer to be vice chair
      for one month, and then take over from me on April 1
      to become the new chair for the next three months."

1) The Future of Working Group

            A. In an email to the PlayasBeing group, Adams wrote:

    "The potential danger I am seeing is a bit subtle. If the working group keeps  
    framing problems and offering "suggestions" might it  tend to cause division  
    and adverse reaction to the "suggestions"? Then will we need long emails to  
    explain the problem that the working group saw? Maybe PaB would work  
    better the other way around. Let the problems that require a group solution  
    be defined in the gaurdians meetings along with a discussion of possible  
    solutions there."  

B. Pema later wrote a WG email regarding recent turbulence, which Eliza unwittingly
    made public, bringing about more discussion regarding changes within PaB, and the
    necessity or not, of the Working Group. 

C. Eos and Storm wrote inspiring pieces regarding the essential vision of 
    PlayasBeing, and perhaps we might discuss those further.

2) 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? 

                       
3) 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?

4) New Guardians

     We have had no objections to the three proposed guardian candidates. 
           
         A. Shall we now invite them?
         B. What about mentoring? Until we have a specific mentoring policy in place, 
             is there someone we might ask to contact these new guardians to answer 
             questions that may arise, to and give an overview?

           
5) 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?

          
6) PaB Village

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

          
7) 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"?

8) Outreach: Community Gateway

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