May 4, 2007 Visioning Meeting Committee Minutes

Rachelg (minutes), Possum, Christian

This meeting was not very well attended, so we didn't really know what we should be talking about/doing. It seems like if we are going to do the things we say we want to do, we need to figure out a way to not get sick of each other/the task at hand. Its not the best to be trying to make decisions that affect a group process with only 3 people present, especially since none of these 3 people attended the last meeting. That said, we did manage to have a fairly productive meeting (sitting in the sunshine, which was nice) and have come up with some questions/suggestions.

1. We thought it would be good to have a visioning meeting contact person. Seeing as it has been difficult to have everyone on the visioning committee meet together regularly, it might be a good idea to have one person (or 2 people working in close contact) act as sort of a coordinator to make sure that things are getting done along the timeline that has been decided. This person would follow up with people to make sure that everything is happening as it should, and would also act as a contact person for the other people in the committee (or folks in general) who had questions about what is happening/what needs to get done, etc. Christian volunteered to take on this role, specifying that he would just be a logistical person, and would not take responsibility for tracking people down to make sure they were doing what they said they would. Rachelg said she would assist as required.
2. We were wondering where things stood with contacting I Deal about coffee and Edith about food? Possum said that if Edith had not yet been contacted, he could do it. We also thought that if it was not possible to get food provided, that it would not be hard to provide our own food, potluck style.
3. We were also wondering (based on the minutes from the last meeting) if a new contact person for Sharmeen had been identified, and if she has been contacted since the last meeting? Also, if Enda is coming back soon, then maybe we don't really need someone else to take on this role? Christian said that if he is to act as coordinator for the visioning, he would be willing to be the contact person for Sharmeen.
4. Also, has Mike confirmed the booking at that innovation/creativity place (forget the acronym) on Spadina for June 9th? If not, it should be confirmed.
5. We also decided not to get involved in party planning stuff. It had been suggested that this meeting combine visioning and party planning, but seeing as there was noone from the party committee present, we didn't feel it was appropriate/relevant to discuss. We encourage the party committee to identify what needs to be done in the next couple weeks, and then send out an email to the events list so that anybody can volunteer to do the things that need to be done (like postering, or whatever).
6. As far as the specific sessions in the visioning, we were wondering if the people suggested for the panel on the history of the AFU had been contacted? If not, is this maybe an area that needs to be revisited? Like, who is going to be on the panel and why? Christian said he would like to participate on this panel.
7. We spent most of our time talking about the last session, the 3 - 5pm session about "where we are going". We thought that it would pretty hard to reach consensus on an overall, ideological "mission statement" during the two hours, so we thought that maybe it would be better if we concentrated on putting together a fairly open and inclusive description of what the AFU actually does to put on the website for new people to read. The reasons for doing this would be so that we can continue having ideological, identity related conversations (for those who are interested) while not getting in the way of the day-to-day operations of the AFU. This kind of goes to the heart of the disconnect between theory and practice, which we can, of course, talk more about during the session. Speaking of which, we came up with a couple suggestions that the session facilitators are welcome to use or discard.
   • We see that the specific goal of this session is to identify specific priorities for the AFU and begin to address these priorities in a concrete, action-oriented sort of way.
   • As such, we see the first 1/2 hour as identifying 2 or 3 priorities, which we think will have come out of Sharmeen's session (we would like to coordinate with her about this), and then the rest of the session would focus on ways to address/put into action these priorities
   • This would be done by getting people to propose ideas of what can be done, and more importantly, what specifically they are willing to do. We see the outcomes of this being several.
     • formation of committees? (identification of problems and things to work towards)
     • group of names of people interested in the same thing that could get together to figure out what to do about it
   • maybe plan future workshops/parties/next visioning meeting? (create committees around these?)
8. Generally, we wanted to make sure to keep this meeting "fun", by which we mean interesting and engaging for participants. It shouldn't seems like a burden, it should seem like something people are involved in because they want to be.
9. Also, it is important to keep in mind, and just generally be aware of, the different barriers to participation that exist in large group meetings like the one we are organizing. Facilitators should consider/strategize around ways for everyone to be feel included and comfortable to engage in the ways that they are able. It usually isn't enough to get rid of explicit barriers to participation, (like you can't talk cause you're a girl/black/gay/disabled, etc), and the subtle ways people are excluded should be thought about (like what kind of groups do people feel comfortable speaking in? Large vs. small, speakers list vs. free-for-all, time limits vs. take as much time as you need/want, etc.) There is of course no one right answer, but it just seems like this is something worth being aware of, particularly if we are interested in doing anti-oppression work anyway.
10. Post meeting schedule on website and encourage people to fill it in as we go.
11. We thought we could discuss this stuff at the next general meeting, and set the date for the next visioning committee meeting at that time as well.