community meeting agenda and input from the wider community in general
the last community meeting at Nest site was great but the agenda was entirely set by the core team, despite a number of issues that came up before being met with a response of 'wait until the community meeting to bring this up' . This left quite a few people again feeling censored and me with the feeling that nest is a community in name but not in function. I propose that the agenda and time limit for each item at a community meeting should be decided openly by the community. A feeling that all important issues are heard is a key part of a strong community in my view. I also feel that a lack of process by which people can have there questions or grievances addressed in general lead to this pressure for so much to be discussed that it was seen by the core team as impossible to manage. I propose that the next community liason person (a role for which i have already volunteered) looks at ways to ensure every nest member is responded to with love and any issue of the day can be brought to the wider group in community meetings or otherwise where appropriate. let me know your thoughts on this!
Tom Allen Sun 9 Jun 2019 7:26AM
representative management only works if all the people feel they are being represented fairly and fully, which was not the case at this meeting. If even one person feels there issue is sidelined, it becomes selective representation which is a terrible system. even if this selection is accidental, it has the same effect.
Alice Sun 9 Jun 2019 1:41PM
Good point. I suppose the risk with everyone being able to propose meeting agenda points is having a 20hr long meeting. Probably unlikely to happen :) And maybe if there were many things to be discussed, the community could vote in a poll on what topics they would like covered?
Tom Allen Sun 9 Jun 2019 3:37PM
totally agree, but at any point where it looks like a 20 hour meeting is even slightly needed then we are already past the point where we are not dealing with issues fast or effectively enough. Most thing brought up at community meetings in the traditional type of community could have been dealt with by one on one's or a smaller group , as most of the issues i heard people complain about not being heard this year where. The problem i am really trying to highlight (and solve by volunteering for community liaison team) is that issues are not being dealt with at all, and thus building up towards a demand for a 20 hour meeting. full community meetings should only really be addressing major issues in my view, like changes in the structure of the whole thing etc and should be about presenting prepared and thought out plans to propose for adoption. everything else should have another space, which i hope to create :)
Simon Edwards Mon 10 Jun 2019 6:34AM
I think people being able to raise what they want for a meeting is great, as long as it's not in the meeting. There should be no need to raise things in a meeting - they can be raised in advance, in writing. Loomio would be the preference, because then it allows debate ahead of the meeting. I'd see anyone who didn't want to put their thoughts into writing first as not that interested in having it raised. If people bring up things at a meeting then that's how meetings spiral out of control time-wise. Having a community liaison officer is a great idea and if they spot things on FB or receive emails, they can direct people to start a thread here.
Tom Allen Mon 10 Jun 2019 8:31AM
Totally agree. The problem this year was when people where bringing things up online in the run up to the event they were being told to wait for the community meeting. This is what must stop in my opinion
Simon Edwards Mon 10 Jun 2019 9:00AM
Yes, agree. Hopefully Loomio gives the mitigation for that. But having a community liaison person makes sense still too, to keep on top of those things and try and resolve things in advance to ensure the meetings remain focused.
Mands Connolly Tue 2 Jul 2019 9:42PM
I'm very hopeful that whatever team deals with community /comms will be very much more mindful of transparency this coming year, as I hope all on the event team will be. We have had some great people raise interest this year, at least x6 as much as last year and I'm sure none of us would want to loose such keen interest. I'm really looking forward to seeing us evolve to engage more folks this coming year.
Alice · Sat 8 Jun 2019 6:32PM
I agree that all community members should be able to propose topics to be added to the agendas of community meetings, although my understanding is that some core team members are reading through loomio to see community feedback/common themes that are arising, and are using that to dictate what is discussed in meetings - which I also think is a good way of doing things.