April 9th Community Meeting
Hello Everyone,
We had a Northside Community meeting on Sunday night. It was nice. We sang some songs, shared some ideas and had a lot of fun over the course of the 3 hours we were together. We also decided to start doing a couple things. Read about them if you want.
Monthly meeting. We are going to try to meet monthly to sing some songs, talk about our lives, relationships and ideas for making our community better. Everyone is welcome to come. Its going to be semi-structured with a rotating facilitator who will probably get to determine how structured it will be. Jess is the facilitator for May. If you want to discuss something in May email it to Jess. Its her job this month to make sure that we remember to talk about all the ideas that people send her over the course of the month. She also will facilitate the meeting and write an update email to everyone who wasn’t there of what we talked about. We are going to meet the first Sunday of every Month.
Trash Pickup Day. Josiah suggested that we take some trash bags and clean up our Arlington neighborhood on some Saturday morning. Carrie suggested we sing slave spirituals. We tabled scheduling it until May.
The Can: The can was the biggest topic of discussion that we talked about. We tried to set up a basic framework for it that we can work with as we continue to use it. Anyone can contribute to it as they see fit. The basic idea is to create solidarity between us and do something significant as a group that we wouldn’t have been able to as individuals. We aren’t setting specific dollar amount goals or raising for some specific purpose. Instead, we are raising money that we can use in whichever ways we feel led on a monthly basis. We decided to put a Satellite can at 1003 to make it easier to contribute change for people who go in and out of that house. If other Satellite cans are needed they can be created. Some uses for the can we thought of were as insurance to care for group members or friends or acquaintances of group members, to spend on big community events and to give to charities or churches we are involved in. The only real guideline we came up with for the use of the can was that there needed to be 5 people present at the previous meeting to take a vote on whether to use it or not (a quorum). We decided to give the person asking for part of the can the option of being present at the meeting or not and to give that person a vote. The can is mandatory mention every month. Whether to build the can or drain it every month is an on going topic.
Potlucks: Potlucks were the second big topic of discussion. We decided to scrap taco Tuesday and instead have tacos anytime we want (Tacos anyTime). We are going to start having a potluck every Sunday night at the girls’ apartment. The bus is home base. Fieldtrips, however, are allowed and encouraged. Next week, April 16th the party is at the hotbox for a cookout. Bring your own beef, beer and whatever to celebrate the resurrection. We decided that the potluck happens every week regardless of whether no one shows or there are 60 people. The only rule is that everyone / every group brings enough food to feed themselves. Colleen is going to send out a reminder email every week but that is unnecessary because it is at the same place every week at the same time. We are going to give out an attractive sash every week to whoever makes the best entre (decided by a vote). Themed potlucks encourage.
That’s what we talked about. I hope to see everyone at my place on Sunday and at the next meeting May 6th at the Bus.
Love
Us
We had a Northside Community meeting on Sunday night. It was nice. We sang some songs, shared some ideas and had a lot of fun over the course of the 3 hours we were together. We also decided to start doing a couple things. Read about them if you want.
Monthly meeting. We are going to try to meet monthly to sing some songs, talk about our lives, relationships and ideas for making our community better. Everyone is welcome to come. Its going to be semi-structured with a rotating facilitator who will probably get to determine how structured it will be. Jess is the facilitator for May. If you want to discuss something in May email it to Jess. Its her job this month to make sure that we remember to talk about all the ideas that people send her over the course of the month. She also will facilitate the meeting and write an update email to everyone who wasn’t there of what we talked about. We are going to meet the first Sunday of every Month.
Trash Pickup Day. Josiah suggested that we take some trash bags and clean up our Arlington neighborhood on some Saturday morning. Carrie suggested we sing slave spirituals. We tabled scheduling it until May.
The Can: The can was the biggest topic of discussion that we talked about. We tried to set up a basic framework for it that we can work with as we continue to use it. Anyone can contribute to it as they see fit. The basic idea is to create solidarity between us and do something significant as a group that we wouldn’t have been able to as individuals. We aren’t setting specific dollar amount goals or raising for some specific purpose. Instead, we are raising money that we can use in whichever ways we feel led on a monthly basis. We decided to put a Satellite can at 1003 to make it easier to contribute change for people who go in and out of that house. If other Satellite cans are needed they can be created. Some uses for the can we thought of were as insurance to care for group members or friends or acquaintances of group members, to spend on big community events and to give to charities or churches we are involved in. The only real guideline we came up with for the use of the can was that there needed to be 5 people present at the previous meeting to take a vote on whether to use it or not (a quorum). We decided to give the person asking for part of the can the option of being present at the meeting or not and to give that person a vote. The can is mandatory mention every month. Whether to build the can or drain it every month is an on going topic.
Potlucks: Potlucks were the second big topic of discussion. We decided to scrap taco Tuesday and instead have tacos anytime we want (Tacos anyTime). We are going to start having a potluck every Sunday night at the girls’ apartment. The bus is home base. Fieldtrips, however, are allowed and encouraged. Next week, April 16th the party is at the hotbox for a cookout. Bring your own beef, beer and whatever to celebrate the resurrection. We decided that the potluck happens every week regardless of whether no one shows or there are 60 people. The only rule is that everyone / every group brings enough food to feed themselves. Colleen is going to send out a reminder email every week but that is unnecessary because it is at the same place every week at the same time. We are going to give out an attractive sash every week to whoever makes the best entre (decided by a vote). Themed potlucks encourage.
That’s what we talked about. I hope to see everyone at my place on Sunday and at the next meeting May 6th at the Bus.
Love
Us