Chicks on Sticks Retreat
January 21-22, 2917
We opened with a
candle and moment of silence in solidarity with the people marching at the
Women’s March in DC and St. Paul. We all
wish we could have been in both places at once.
Laura asked for each
person to say why they like/have liked being with CoS and what they bring to
the group.
Sharon- Treasurer I have been a
Treasurer for years. It’s fun walking on stilts with other people, so community.
Angie – I like finding opportunities
for performance and grants for other people, I appreciate this is a collective,
that overhead comes back to us and a large institution isn’t taking a cut, and
anybody can be an organizer here.
Laurel – walking on stilts is fun
and learning acrostilt things is fun. The
biggest thing I bring to chicks is that I can sew and fix sewing machines.
Soozin – I like organizing things
and finding interesting ways to use stilts outside of the norm and finding
cardinal partnerships and networking. I
love performing and being tall because I’m really short. Sometimes I’m
cantankerous and pushy and sometimes that’s a strength and sometimes a weakness.
Tara – I enjoy working with
different types of people and that we have a somewhat broad range of experience. I appreciate people sharing their voices. Some of what I most appreciate, when it
happens, is doing creative projects together creating costumes working with
organizations and collaborating there’s something more meaty and good to be
working on creative work we’re creating ourselves so I guess that is something
I’ve worked with chicks to do before and really appreciated.
Sarah – I love the face of wonder, energy, and excitement of small children,
especially girls, during performance. I
love that stilting brings magic to ordinary spaces. I have website and sewing skills.
Gaea – My strengths: I’m halfway
through a masters in arts and cultural mgmt. which is giving me lots of insight into
systems and processes we need to build.
I contribute because I’m pushing stilting to new areas and pushing what
stilting can be for us. In the past, what
I loved was the sense of support by and for other women, that we can build each
other up creatively and personally through this art. I also love the sense of wonder in an ordinary
space.
Niccole – My strength is
collaboration and not so recently have we collaborated on pieces that I’ve been
involved in. There’s been years in the past where we collaborated in partnering
with organizations and within this collective.
Another strength of mine is I represent a different color of person, a
different voice and perspective. I enjoy
how young people’s eyes light up when performing and when they learn to
stilt. My biggest strength is teaching.
Laura asked for a 2
minute history of CoS. We didn’t keep it
to 2 minutes, but we were fairly concise in the timeline. Major contributions by Nicole and Soozin with
details and pieces filled in by the group.
First Chicks event was Seward Parade around this space and
we won best float
1998 - Forecast Public Arts Grant to create CoS. Amy got this to build stilts and create an
organization with a softer entry than HOBT.
Long Legged Lillies
Tyger Tyger collaboration with
Allison Heimstead
Ordway Children’s Festival
Dyke Night
Brand building early on with
Amy, Shelley, and Kat as core for a while
2004/2005/2006 Performance
art gigs such as the MIA Calder exhibit
Not enough money to really
pay people
Flag routine for roller
girls
2009 –
Previous CoS retreat
2008-9 state
non-profit
Little Mekong
Greenway glow
with funding from Springboard for the arts
State Faire
pop ups
Height of
Adventure
Laura: Your
organization has done lots of different types of things. You seem perfectly aligned for community
partnerships. You appear to share a lot
of values, which thread through the variety of work you do. Some I can immediately pick out include being
women-centered, building community, and teaching.
Mission:
reads out loud
We hooked on the word collaboration and
discussed what this might mean.
Sarah: The
organization feels like cash cow, not a mission driven organization.
Tara:
People have different capacities. Some
have more flexible schedule and some don’t and some have day job and some
don’t.
Soozin:
What does collaboration mean? There can be differing amounts of interest in a
project.
Angie:
We’ve had this go both ways, where more people wanted the Little
Mekong/Greenway Glow costumes than was budgeted for, but less people were
available or interested in the State Fair thing this summer.
Tara:
Some of that question is, do we as a group want to determine the type of buy-in? Or does the individual decide? Also, how do projects happen? Can we do individual projects under CoS?
Niccole:
Funding is an undercurrent of this conversation, but may not be the main issue.
Laura asked us to start talking about our
values as an organization. It was a bit
unclear at first if this was internal governance or external projects. We ended up doing both and looking at what we
want the organization to do going forward.
Values:
Angie:
We are a women’s org and women Stilters.
Are there ways of saying that is not a cis-gender organization and then
grow in that direction?
Sharon:
Once per year, have one thing we all collaborate on, and if the thing is
connected to community that's good. The
pay doesn’t matter, we just need to do it. Internally want to make sure that
each individual has a voice and everybody’s voice is heard and acknowledged.
Niccole:
Have more women of color in the group.
Gaea:
Internally, increase our accountability and follow-through. Externally, I want to second what everyone
said before: community, diversity gender and race.
Sarah:
Visibility branding. Then I want to
second what everyone else said. We need
to be one community, which includes setting clear boundaries, and having good
communication. This means being honest
about our time and energy we have to put into CoS.
Tara:
all of the above is important but I agree we need to perhaps expand diversity
in a lot of different ways and some can happen with community collaboration and
teaching stilting to people who have not had the opportunity which could grow
possibilities. What excites me is working on collaboration finding ways to fund
that. We could be looking for opportunities to get money such as working
through grants and find ways for that. I think it’s important to share vision
and sharing that with each other. We
need to fully realize values and deeper work which is a vulnerable and delicate
thing and how do we also make it a creative safe space where we feel
comfortable.
Soozin:
Values and where values get stuck. We
have lots of people who like to lead, like myself, and who like to come up with
creative ideas and want to be coming up with ideas. Everyone wants to direct and we need to come up
with good systems and create solutions.
For example, using the kitty we might want to manifest individual
projects using the group as an ensemble, but that means we might manifest 8
years of projects before everyone gets a chance to direct. We’re all in the
process of wanting to manifest and how does that work in a collective process.
Barebones now hires directors but in the beginning there was a huge squabble.
I’m interested in the collaborative piece and being more honest about
everyone’s personal desires in those matters. If we’re honest about those
personal directives then those affect the group and how we can get to those
places to meet each other
Laurel:
Yes to the things that have already been said.
We have 8 drivers to one car and if we each have a piece of a
collaborative thing and they might not all fit nicely. And then I want to see us create some internal
policy around how/what we charge for choreography and costuming for gigs when
special
Soozin:
If there is x hours put into something what do you get out of it…first offer on
gigs? What else?
Tara:
Can all those desires be met by this group? How can we navigate and negotiate
with each other
Soozin:
Rubrics for policy. What can we take on
as a project? Why we make choices that
we do?
Sharon:
I want to go back to what is working:
We’re
really good at getting to gigs on time,
writing
grants,
networking
and following up with people,
writing
contracts,
blog
public record,
having
an organization to pay money into,
setting
regular meeting times,
annual
meeting,
ending
meetings on time.
Angie:
Generally we’re really good about not talking over each other but 4 people just
did but generally we’re good about that vs Barebones.
Laura:
What are the areas of need? What are the gaps in the existing arts world? Great if we can say here’s a need and we’re
going to fund it. We need to look at our
capacity and expectations.
Things
to think about:
What
does this group need?
What
am I willing and able to give while still taking care of my needs?
What
does this group give back to me/What am I looking for from this group?
Expectations
of members
--Lunch
Break—
Structure
Gaea:
Accountability: we have no carrot or stick.
Even with the best of intentions there is still a lack of accountability
and follow through in place. We don’t
currently have perks of being in good standing or punishments for not being in
good standing.
Sharon:
Defining some more roles may help. At
the moment, the only well-defined roles are coordinator and treasurer. If we
figure out what CoS needs and give it a role/title then we can have people
involved in each role. For instance,
creating a permanent chairperson for a year instead of rotating constantly would
allow one person to really develop those skills. Then each person could choose their own role
and develop both the role and their skills.
Tara:
We do share skills and develop shared skills.
We try to share power. Is there a
way that we can do some mutual things with accountability?
Sarah:
I like having a shared chairperson
Gaea:
We have fluidity around roles we made fluid.
Currently, our coordinators are specific people and the role is fairly well-defined,
but it is limited to the people doing it.
In addition, the contacts that CoS has built are using a single person
as a point of contact, which creates an uneven distribution of power within the
organization. For example, what happens
if Soozin gets into a grad school and moves?
We’d lose her contacts and those gigs, because no one else has access to
them.
Laura:
I see a Balance between fluidity and well-structured roles.
Soozin:
My co-op Secretary is a yearly position but chair and facilitator rotates per
meeting. Other roles include membership,
finance person, stewardship, building and land and ground, but chair of meeting
always rotates. I feel that chair
changing helps, as it grows our skills as leaders. Secretary is a very difficult job to take all
the notes and uploading to the right place and maybe it should be paid a little
bit of something. I have a different take on what parts are fluid and solid.
Laura:
it sounds like one of the tricky things is around some are paid, some are
putting in a lot of work and not paid, so when we talk about expectations of paid
vs unpaid work there is a disconnect. If we set a low enough expectation that
everyone can meet, then we all have a minimum work that we are all doing. If I
were the secretary I would feel better if I knew everyone was doing the same
annoying task.
Soozin:
In the co-op everyone is expected to put in 26 hrs per year.
Laurel:
re Sarah’s interest in being taught things: I feel like if we can get the
running of our group streamlined, we’d have more time to do other things. We could do more of that skill sharing thing
when we have more time to do these things, like go to stilt for fun in the park.
Tara:
Through a number of different things I’ve learned a number of facilitation
skills. This means we could potentially
be building a number of more leaderships within ourselves. It’s a nice thing to
think about that we are growing that within our group and we are potentially
sharing that within our community like note taking, facilitation and
organization skills and that is strengthening to our skillshare
Niccole:
it would be helpful to have some more well-defined roles even if it’s a 2 month
role.
Needs
of group: new roles
Marketing
and outreach – maybe different things it’s valuable to have them in alignment
good to have them work very closely community outreach but marketing does
website and social media maybe more brand streamlining documentation.
Soozin:
Language for giving business card and how. A more unified approach to outreach.
Coordinating
how we do the outreach, not necessarily that we do all the outreach and unity
in messaging
Angie:
also for outreach, marketing mostly for gigs we are good at and outreach is
more driven by ”I’m really passionate about this grant.” I’ll do it if we
advertised more and if we invited more people into the pportunity to manage it.
It could be cool if we had people seeking us out but it’d be good to have an
overarching look at who we are reaching out to.
Laura:
I think marketing should be values-driven in a perfect world
Chair:
rotates per meeting
Secretary:
rotates
Coordinator:
3 currently sometimes 4 Deb Soozin Anne some people Angie
Angie:
I have questions about booking gigs. Who
does it and how is that decided? Also, what is our pricing structure of
choreography?
Soozin:
A quick view of how gigs get book: a couple years ago we put in all gigs we
booked in an excel doc for a year so we could all see that. Coordinators were decided a few years ago,
but others could coordinate. All the documents,
templates contracts, etc could be in one place.
Also, how do we follow up and hear how the event went? The contractor that Angie was thinking about
was not well pleased and there should be an evaluation process for Chicks.
Gaea:
Soozin, you follow up with gig people. And get feedback from gig folks.
Role:
Policy writer
Maybe
add to blog
Lead
Costumer
Grant
writer
Documentation
coordinator
Hospitality
for our internal community for going on a group stilt and social coordinator go
bowling walk around lake Celebrating milestones in our community and supporting
eachother Mayday parade
Storage
props person
Head
Nagger
I’ve
found having a quarterly term is useful and allows for people to grow into
their role
HOMEWORK
What can you give and what you want to get
Define role and hours expectation
Break
Tara:
What are we doing for rest of meeting
Sharon:
Look at Nov. meeting notes.
Gaea:
*Found and read meeting notes*
Things
that caught people’s attention
Resource list
Scheduling Stilters
Intellectual Property
Laurel:
Good to have policy re: IP – this falls within archivist/storage coordinator
Tara:
What is the role of people working with a group? Who gets to keep the things they make.
Sarah:
This is a conversation we’re starting, let’s set how much time and what we’re
talking about.
Sharon:
Is this something we want facilitated?
General
agreement.
Things
we could do now:
Coordinator roles
All roles
Resource list
IP? – Maybe not now.
Membership
Project criteria – Do we have
specific things we’d like those projects to meet? Values we’d like to meetin?
Fairness in scheduling gigs
Conflict resolution
Tara:
What would we like to do now? Break up
into 2 groups?
Sharon:
What CAN we work?
*Pause
to make a list everyone can see*
Gaea:
Making the resource list now will put us in a positive place to attack
tomorrow’s discussion – both having resources and feeling positive about what
we’re doing.
Soozin:
Is this different than the homework?
Laurel:
We could define roles now, do homework and have the resource list for tomorrow?
Sarah:
Like what gaea said, spend half an hour building a resource list – then do the
homework.
Soozin:
Spending more time on roles would be good – do as homework tonight.
Sarah/Sharon:
define homework
Laurel/Sarah:
Let’s vote on what we want to do.
Votes:
Resource list - IIIII
Roles – IIII
Membership - I
Coordinator – II
Project criteria – I
Want
a Coordinator for:
Coordinator roles/Fairness of
gig distribution
Intellectual Property
Conflict resolution
Resource
list:
Sewing
– Sarah, Laurel, Gaea, Sharon, Soozin, Tara, Nicole
Costume
Design – Gaea, Angie, Soozin, Laurel, Sarah, Soozin, Tara
Hats!
– Anne,
Sewing
Machine – Everyone!
Serger
– Soozin, Sarah/Laurel
Serger
skills – Laurel, Sarah
Patterning
– Soozin (some), Gaea, Laurel, Tara
Prop
design – Angie, Tara, Soozin, Laurel, Gaea
Carpentry
– All (sarah weak)
Basic
carpentry – All
Router
– Laurel, Gaea
Chop
Saw – Soozin, Gaea
Lathe
– Laurel
Table
saw - Tara
Metal
working skillz – Laurel
Choreography
– Angie, Soozin, Tara
Website
– Sarah, Gaea
Archiving
web skills – Soozin, Gaea, Sarah,
Social
media skillz – Soozin, Sarah, Angie, Gaea
Photography
– Soozin, Tara, Laurel, Gaea
Photo
editing – Gaea, Laurel (basic), Sarah (basic)
Good
camera – Gaea, Soozin, Laurel, Tara
Mint
– Sarah, Sharon, Gaea
Treasurer
(tax prep, accounting) – Sharon, Laurel(ish), Soozin (ish)
Teaching
stiltwalking – Sarah & Laurel (not formally)
Youth
skillz – All
Adult
skillz – Sharon (physical limitations)
Stilts
CoS - ~5 pairs
Tara, Gaea, Soozin all have
teaching stilts
Costumes
in Sharon’s garage – we need an inventory and organization
Organizing
storage skills - Soozin, Sharon, Gaea, Laurel, Sarah
Organizing
people – Soozin, Tara, Gaea, Angie
Acquiring
resources
In-Kind – Soozin
Random tools – Laurel
Materials – All
Networking
– Soozin, Gaea, Laurel, Tara
Grant
writing – Tara, Angie, Soozin, Gaea
Editing
– Gaea, Sarah, Angie
Organization
management – Gaea, Soozin, Deb, (Angie, Laurel)
Storage
space – Sharon, Soozin (small)
Existing
props/shows – Soozin (MIA and State fair), Sharon (stilt pants, misc, need
inventory)
Practice/Performance
space – Angie
Performance
skills –
Adults/Drunk Crowd – Gaea,
Angie, Sharon, Laurel, Sarah
Bar crowd – Gaea, Deb,
Kids – All
Directing
– Soozin, Tara, Gaea (ish)
Writing
– Gaea
Storyboarding
– Soozin, Tara, Angie,
Stage
Performing – Sarah, Angie, Soozin, Sharon,
Character
– Soozin, Sharon, Gaea
Event
production – Soozin, Angie
Stage
management – Sarah, Gaea
Talent
Scout – Angie, Soozin
Music
AV
Equip – Soozin
Vehicles
– Soozin, Gaea, Tara, Sharon, Nicole
Trailer
hitch – Sharon, Soozin
Pee
Break
Let’s
define roles!
Marketing:
·
Instagram, Twitter, FB
·
Website skills
·
Press Releases/ Press packet w/ coverletter
·
Brochures/adervtisement/marketing materials
·
Business cards
·
Collecting documentation of gigs
·
Swag!
·
Maintaining a Calendar
·
Writing an annual letter to clients
Outreach
·
Recruitment/ Talent Scouting
·
Seeking performance opportunities
·
Seeking teaching opportunities
·
Cultivating relationships with organizations
·
Cold calling new potential gigs
·
Seeking grants
·
Looking for cross-connections / Seeking
opportunities for which CoS is the specific right choice
o
Finding places our missions cross with other
organizations
·
Identifying target audiences
Gaea:
Suggestion – Can we define our 4 existing roles now, then take the rest as
homework?
Chair
·
Facilitate meetings
·
Build agenda more than a week ahead
o
Send out call 2 weeks ahead, have agenda 1 week
ahead
·
Optional timekeeper / Appoint timekeeper
Secretary/Notetaker
·
Take notes at meetings
·
Upload notes to blog within 1 week of meeting
·
Email out notes within 1 week of meeting
·
Creating list of promises and print at top of
notes
·
Identify/Highlight policies and passed motions
·
Update SoP/by laws
·
Update google docs – Permission slip forms,
contract templates, contact info, etc
o
Client contacts
o
Internal contact sheet
Treasurer
·
Maintain Mint account
·
Deposit checks
·
Write checks to performers/coordinators
·
Balance checking accounts
·
Create treasurers report for meetings
·
File taxes
·
Prepare tax forms (1099)
·
Communicate with coordinators about missing
payments/payment issues
·
Distribute checks
·
Maintain list of gigs per year
Reminderer
/ Tracker
·
Maintain list of promises
·
Email full group monthly with list of promises
·
Two weeks before meeting, send out reminder of
upcoming meet and roles
·
Pull out promises from previous notes
·
Historian/researcher on past decisions
Current
Coordinator Position
·
Respond to all incoming emails (from website) in
coordination with other coordinators
·
Request all specifics of gigs,
o
negotiate specifics – costumes, special
requests, parade vs walkabout, number in parade line up, phone number for
coordinator
o
get directions to gig,
o
get copy of signed contract
§
Pay rate
§
Performance times
§
Safety walkabout by Stilters /
§
clause for safety / cancellation policies
·
Email out gig fill request
·
Coordinate who in CoS is taking gig – inform
group
·
Pass along specific details to performer(s)
·
Point of contact for performer and coordinator
before gig
·
Follow up with client about intention to perform
·
Coordinate receipt of payment
HOMEWORK
What can you give and what you want to get
Define role and hours expectation
Roles:
·
Marketing
·
Outreach
·
Policy
·
Lead Costumer
·
Choreographer
·
Grant writer
·
Documentation Coordinator
·
Social coordinator / concierge
·
Storage props
Retreat Day 2
1/22/17
Laura:
Please say what you think the priority is for you today. Go around the table.
Nicole:
Get through the agenda. Clarify
expectations of what others expect me to do and what I expect from others.
Angie:
A clear plan on how we handle projects all the way through. Including IP and procedures for what happens
with bigger gigs.
Sarah:
Clearer sense of membership expectations, including responsibilities and
benefits. What is the value add of the
organization.
Gaea:
What is our organization for, what’s the purpose, and how are we contributing
and benefiting from it as individuals.
Tara:
Name or create a short list of core values – top 5 – to orient and understand
the organization. Clarify the purpose
through this.
Laura:
This could be a nice way of focusing energy and moving onto expectations.
Soozin:
I second Tara. I’m interested in what
the group think is and getting temperature.
What are the criteria that we are bumping up against when we make
decisions.
Laura:
Say more on that.
Soozin:
Is this an org we want to work with, is this within our mission, is this a
decision about activites we are doing within the group? Is making money towards making a living
part? How do we propose projecs we are
interested in to get them accepted? What
is the buy in of the group?
Laura:
Also, what is the perk of having it be a CoS project instead of a personal
project.
Laurel:
I don’t think I have been here long enough to say anything yet.
Laura:
It seems like the bigger questions fuel everything else. There has to be something in place to clarify
procedure before you go. 15 minutes per
meeting, subcommitees, etc.
Gaea:
Does Sharon want to add to the list?
Sharon:
Organizations structure that allows us to function without needing to make
decisions as a group every time. Make in
a priority to create systems that allow us the freedom to dig in with real
issues.
Laura:
How are you going to continue to work on procedure after this? There isn’t enough time for all of this. Focusing on member expectations and core
values today will allow for larger conversations later. What is the member issue, is it about policy? Communication?
I
asked you to think about what you have to give and what you need from the
group. This is will come back.
Let’s
start with core values and come back to member expectations. And maybe roles, how often they’ll switch
out, etc. Are the roles part of time
given or are they paid?
Gaea:
I would like to make sure we come out with procedures at the end of this. We need to not be rehashing this shit again
in two months when we meet, we need to move forward from this which means
creating procedures.
Tara:
We could meet again and spend the time to shovel the shit now, in an effort to
make it better later.
Laura:
Figure out how you are going to make consistent progress is important. The size of the group is difficult, it’s
large and easy to get bogged down. But
you are all on the same page now, unlike in some groups, so it is a good place
to be.
Soozin:
This retreat, as opposed to the one in 2008, is much more on the same
page. Before, we were at an impasse of
how we viewed the organization and what we want from it. Now we are, as a group, more focused toward
organization stuff, not just stilt once in a while for the fun of it.
Laura:
Think about what are the things when you think about the legacy. What are you contributing to the
community?
Things
that keep coming up: lots of talk about connecting to community. Wanting projects that are more than just
spectacle, doing projects that are deeper with community.
Laurel:
No one seems to have an objection, so maybe we don’t need to spend time talking
about it now?
Laura:
Are there organizations that line up with your values that we can list?
Sharon:
Parks and Recreation
Laura:
Teaching seems to come under this.
Angie:
Teaching teens turns this into a feeder into CoS, as opposed to teaching 8-12
year olds.
Laura:
You talked about young girls are potential?
General
agreement.
Soozin:
Does this become an impasse if we are doing girls only classes?
Sarah:
I don’t think we should be restrictive.
But we can be empowering and encouraging to girls without excluding
boys.
Soozin:
There are just so many boys that come out at Roosevelt. So many more boys than girls.
Laura:
This doesn’t need to be exclusive. This
can be a thing to look out for.
Tara:
Pillsbury House
Gaea:
This is a place I’ve approached. They
are open to it, without stepping on Masa’s toes.
Nicole:
Pillsbury is currently not stilting, but maybe will in the spring. What about Juxtaposition Arts?
General
agreement with Juxta.
Soozin:
Roosevelt. They don’t pay a lot, but
they are there.
Laura:
You can get grants for working with these communities, if you look around.
Tara:
I’ve connected with Phyllis … about grants.
Lura:
This is a place for that outreach coordinator.
Soozin:
There is a limit about how much we can apply for MRAC grants, how do we know
this is project we really want to pursue?
Laura:
Do you do any fundraising?
No
This
is an easy thing to fundraise for. It is
tangible, it is clear.
Soozin:
We have this $5000.
Sharon:
We were looking at this with Kitty money and doing probono work. We could identify places in which we just go
there and do stilting or teaching and we just go.
Laura:
In an effort to keep us going, can I add collaboration on this list? It came up a lot.
Sharon:
We need to define collaboration.
Angie:
Between who, like small group from here with small outside group?
Sharon:
Or collaborations within the organization.
Laura:
Collaborations came up a lot, both within the group to stretch skills and
outside.
Soozin:
I think we have an idea of collaboration, but I don’t think we have a clear
idea of what that is. We don’t know how
to take on roles and responsibilities within that. I struggle with it personally, and maybe
that’s just me. I maybe propose a
project and not everyone’s as excited about it, and there can’t be a
collaboration because there isn’t enough interest. But someone else proposes it and everyone
jumps on board. And what are the roles
within it, who’s writing/directing/etc?
We all want to be captain.
Laura:
it sounds like there is a lot of gunk around leading in collaboration.
Laurel:
We all get little bits of something we are collaborating on, and we each have a
vision then it is hard to have that thing we are excited about say no, I’m in
charge and that’s not what this is going to be.
This makes it seem like a job, not like a pleasure. Totally changes it and makes me want to back
out of collaboration.
Laura:
It sounds like directors are struggling with how much creative opinion the
collaborators get to have, which is slowing things down.
What
is the benefit of having something be a CoS project.
Gaea:
We get way more funding and are taken more seriously as CoS than as
individuals.
Angie:
There is lack of clarity around how we propose, which changes the buy in. We’ve written one where we go to the group
and ask for permission and sometimes we write first and ask permission later,
which creates lack of clarity around how much buy in people get. And about how much say people get in the
process, or what roles they get.
Gaea:
PAUSE FOR NOTES!
Tara:
I think procedure will help a lot. But
also, how do you create buy in, what are those things that help people feel
like they are part of a project. Is it
helpful to have a project that can support multiple visions, rather than a
single vision? What does it take to make
this happen?
Laura:
This is good to think about. Even in the
small organization of me and my husband, we run into this.
Sarah:
I wanted to bring up a few points around the collaborative work. 1) We all get excited in the beginning, but a
few months later we can’t make the time. Who does the follow through? 2) If a
grant is written, a few people write it and they have license to control more
of the creative process. 3) We do a lot
of communicating via email, but it’s all nested responses. Weird aspect of emailing and meeting rarely
that creates a time vortex of not realizing time commitments or needs in a
timely fashion. 4) With height of adventure: we were wishy washy about getting
into it, but then once we got hours, a bunch of people couldn’t do the times we
got assigned. We weren’t fulfilling our
obligation, which is weird and not good.
Laura:
This is also a culture issue. If the
culture says it’s ok, it becomes difficult.
Sharon:
That was also an aspect of our real, full-time jobs conflicting about it.
Gaea:
There was a lack of communication about the times.
Soozin:
This could have been negotiated from the beginning with the organization. As in, we could have said this is the time we
can start and they can choose to hire us or not from that.
Sharon:
That one did work out. But there are so
many private contractors in this group, that in the timeline of applying,
getting it, and doing it everyone has already taken six other jobs.
Soozin:
But that’s about prioritizing this.
Laura:
I think we need to switch focus. We
still don’t have core values. There are
pretty specific opportunities people want in the group, but they might not be
all on the same page.
Can
we go around and say what you want and what you can give? Outside of meetings people are doing things,
what are those things?
Treasurer
– Sharon
Nagging/Historian
– Gaea
Retreat
organization – Tara
Running
skill shares – Gaea/Angie
What
are you looking for as a member of the group?
Sharon:
Opportunities to walk on stilts that are fun.
Opportunity to collaborate with others without leading.
Laura:
Happy to hustle on someone else’s vision?
In addition to your treasurer, what amount of time do you contribute/can
you contribute?
Sharon:
It is very project by project, not by month.
Winter and summer I have more time, spring and fall I have less.
Laura:
Treasurer is important, what are the other roles and what number of hours will
those take and who has the hours to put in?
So that everyone feels like work is being done by everyone. Is there a specific benefit other than
current ones that would be good to have?
Sharon:
No, but as far as contributing to ongoing work, a couple hours a month.
Laura:
We’ll call that group structure hours.
Nicole:
I think similar to Sharon, I’m looking to continue doing gigs, continue working together on
costumes a piece, etc, just more of sort of collaboration as a whole
group. Only one or two people working
together is fun and more common, but I’m looking for more.
I’m
kind of at capacity with work and life and health stuff, so I feel like I can’t
give more hours. In the summer I’ll have
more hours. Maybe a few hours a month,
if something came up that we could work together on. I’m kind of maxed out, really.
Laura:
Acknowledging that is important. And
knowing that some people will have more time at different points is also
important.
Angie:
I mean it’s nice to get gigs and be able to get gigs that you can reliably have
someone fill as a coordinator. It’s nice
to have the opportunity to propose projects and write grants. Its easier to get funding through chicks, not
easier to actualize the project. Beyond
the hours that I do spend on this per month, which isn’t that many, I more have
time to do things project based and last minute. I’m better at saying last minute I can do 10
hours this month, rather than agreeing to 5 per month.
Laura:
Are you willing to grant write for others to take a leadership role?
Angie:
No, I would want to be involved. But
there are aspects that I don’t want to do and would want to share.
Sarah:
I love the idea of getting a large supplemented community project. I like the
gigs and everything too, but I like the idea of a big things. I did the math and if we each get $100 plus
choreo and a director, its $1000 which we could supplement another grant. I like the idea that we do this together, and
we all relinquish small amounts of control.
It would be hard, but good for all of us. Especially to do it peacefully. Build it in the winter, when we all have a
bit more time and aren’t stilting in other things.
When
I was thinking about giving, I was thinking 12 hours a year, which is 1 per
month and everyone else is upping the ante.
But calling is 12/year makes it not a monthly, but in the blocks we
usually work in. I’d like to learn to
teach, and have that be part of what I’m giving. I like the idea of volunteering for one gig a
year. I can give more in
marketing/social media.
Laura:
So it isn’t a priority to lead projects?
Sarah:
No, not really. I want to be involved and
I want control of my little part, but I don’t want to lead the whole things.
Laura:
that seems like an important line of giving up control over specific parts,
which makes it a collaboration instead of a personal project.
Gaea:
I like getting money for gigs. It allows
me to eat. On a philosophical level, I
miss the sense of a group of women building each other up, creating support and
community for each other. I want to
bring that back and create a place to build other women and get support. On a professional level, I would like the
chance to artistically lead, not just chasing people around and managing
humans, but to see my creative vision realized.
Laura:
This is important to acknowledge, there is dissonance around this idea of
what/who leads creatively. What can
you/are you giving?
Gaea:
I do 1-2 hrs per month as tracking/reminderer. I can give another 12-15
hours/year around projects, not on a monthly basis.
Tara:
I am interested in stretching skills.
I’ve done individual and group work, and like it but I want to stretch
my skills and create a spark that is harder to find as I do more projects. I love mentoring and teaching. I like the idea of teaching/mentoring young
girls. Along with everything else,
creative work in general gives me excitement, I like the idea of ownership of a
creative project and digging in with it.
Also, paid gigs are important, they keep things going.
As
far as time, I currently throw opportunities out there and have to see what
lands out. I can probably do 1-2 hours a
month, but beyond that it becomes last minute because of the gig economy.
Laura:
You are all benefiting greatly from this group, so the work of supporting it
needs to be shared. You all share
schedules and that sharing or work can work out fine.
Tara:
Comradery is also really important.
Soozin:
I like coming up with ideas and layering them with many possibilities. I’m interested in writing proposals and creating
new work with other folks. Like Tara,
I’ve worked with many organizations so the challenge and challenging myself is
one of the things that I’m interested in in terms of stretching and growing but
trying to figure out how to do that within creating opportunities for others is
more complex. Is that a vaudeville
cabaret where everyone builds their own mini show and we string it all
together? I get really driven by the artistic vision, which is from doing work
with other organizations, and maybe my desires are the same as someone
else’s. If I’m driven by a project, I’ll
put 100 hours in, and that may not be true of someone else.
Laura:
That’s also a factor of who’s vision it is.
If it is your vision, you’ll put in the 100 hours, but if you aren’t
getting your vision realized you might not be putting in that time.
Soozin:
But that’s what I want. I want everyone
to be invested in putting in the 100 hours.
As far as what I can give, I am coming out of a place of grieving and am
getting more time. I took a full time
job so that I can choose which projects I engage with and do. I would like to see us work at
Roosevelt. I would like to put in a
proposal for the State Fair. I would
like to fundraise for a project or teaching capacities. I think getting paid is important, so how do
we balance that with the work and with volunteering.
Laura:
It is possible to have a vision to both pay artists fairly and do probono work.
Soozin:
We also have a kitty and I would like us to use that money for teaching
classes, or doing a lottery of projects, or something.
I
want to say thank you to the state fair folks for their work. It would be nice to get more support for
projects that happen, it was poorly attended by other chicks.
Sharon:
I was out of town.
Gaea:
I think that was a really bad weekend. A
lot of people were out of town and or working all weekend.
Soozin:
Working on projects in the winter seems like a good idea. It would allow us all to participate in a
different way. Stilting isn’t as joyful
as it once was, I’m aging, so I’d like to participate in different ways.
Larua:
You aren’t only looking to lead projects, it sounds like you are looking to get
some of these other things, like mentoring, etc.
Soozin:
yes. Also, I have summers off.
Laurel:
I enjoy having a creative outlet. I have
costuming and art degree and I’m building a repair business right now and that
has been a focus of a lot of my energy so I haven’t been putting out art shows
so having a creative outlet is important.
The creative has been really important and is both giving and getting. Gigs are a high priority.
Laura:
Is leading a project important to you?
Laurel:
A collaborative project? No.
Larau:
What about a personal project under CoS name?
Laurel:
I don’t know what that would look like, but I’d like to learn more about
writing and finding grants. Right now my
joy is in making costumes I get to wear.
I really highly value my artistic control of the things I get to make
and I have a hard time giving it up for someone else’s vision.
Laura:
That’s important to know. Costuming help
is a big contribution. Are there are
organization things you feel like committing to.
Laurel:
yes, but I don’t have anything in mind.
I like have processes, and I’ll put time into making things run
smoothly.
Break
Laura:
For the next hour, let’s put out bigger fires.
Gig
procedure
Member
expectations
Project
proposals
Moving
forward, how do we make policy
We
won’t be able to go really deep on this, but we can get a little ways on a lot
of them and move forward.
It
seems like there has been talk that in order to submit a proposal or get a gig,
you need to be a member in good standing.
Sharon:
Then what is a member in good standing.
Laura:
yes, that’s the questions.
Sarah:
There are non-voting members who still get gigs.
Laura:
How does that feel? Is that ok?
Sarah:
The big challenge is that they aren’t coming to meetings and are hard to
communicate with, but they are coordinators.
They are getting us gigs.
Soozin:
Deb has a lot of community contacts, which gets us a lot of gigs.
Sharon:
And she has a lot of organizational knowledge.
She’s caught us on things we were doing wrong and that’s important.
Laura:
So are you all ok with the work they are doing and how they are in good
standing?
Angie:
I think they need to come to one meeting a year. We need that communication.
Sarah:
We could change procedure, and message them about it.
Laurel:
If this was all in a google doc, it would be easier.
Soozin:
I know we just had the annual meeting, but that seems like a time they should
come. They can report to the
organization about gigs they’ve coordinated and give highlights, etc. Then other people could also express interest
in taking on more coordinator roles.
Laura:
Should they come to the annual meeting?
Who is in charge of this? Please
recount the gig assignment process.
Soozin:
*see above notes on process.*
Gaea:
We also had the idea of paying the back up stilter to hold that slot open.
Laura:
Do we need to see this change?
Sarah:
I would like to have a spreadsheet that shows how many gigs each person is
getting in real time, so we can better see it.
Because the people who are getting or not getting gigs don’t know what
the distribution is.
Laurel:
I thought this already existed, and was responding appropriately. Once I found out it hadn’t, I changed the way
I responded.
Tara
: This is also a capacity and time availability issue. We have different availability at different
times.
Laura:
It seems like having coordinators at a meeting is important so they can hear
this.
Angie:
I also want to note that Soozin is really clear that she does first come, first
serve, but Deb doesn’t always and no one knows what Anne does.
Laura:
Are coordinators stilting in their gigs?
Sometimes.
Laura:
Coordinators are working for the organization, which is important.
Somebody:
Fees get mixed up.
Gaea:
For one, the org was wishwashy about times, so the fee went up.
Laura:
Have a nonprofit/for profit fee scale.
Soozin:
Also milegage is a muddy situation. When
do we start doing a mileage fee, and what is our mileage fee?
Sarah:
This is going back to the frustration of canceling at the last minute. The Stilters cancel last minute and leave an
opening but the people who could have done it originally now can’t and the
people with high availability are the ones who take it, which they should. But what happens for the people who are
canceling.
Gaea:
This is serious frustration and added to the problems about balancing gigs and
who was getting gigs. Laurel got a lot
of cancel gigs last year, which is good for her, but was frustrating because
the CoS gigs pay better and are more fun and I would have liked to do them.
Laura:
Can you do a tiered system?
Laurel:
This was also a problem in which I took too many gigs and got really far behind
in my business work. I felt obligated to
take the gigs because CoS needs to fill a contract, and the money is nice, but
that’s a problem for me personally.
Sharon:
This has happened before where people burn out.
Gaea and Tara did that last summer.
This is an opportunity for people to use the sub list and to start
vetting people.
Soozin:
The big gigs pose a problem in that.
People can’t stilt that much in a row.
Angie:
Sometimes stacking gigs works better for people.
Soozin:
In the past, Tara proposed writing down how many gigs people want so we can
balance that better.
Laura:
This speaks to a need to have outreach.
You need to write this down, pass it, and be done. You all are pretty much on the same page.
Sarah:
Except no one wants to set in place a thing that seems punitive. No one wants to take the hit, or do something
that might hurt their bottom line.
Laura:
yes. But a lack of decision is
death. You need to choose something,
whatever it is.
Sharon:
And you can always unchoose it.
Laura:
Yes! You can always change it. But you have to make a decision.
Soozin:
At the co-op, the rule is that you have to pay rent by the 5th or
there is a penalty. Once we put that
penalty in place, people started paying on time.
Laura:
We’re all working for the good of the group.
If the group isn’t fitting your needs, no hard feelings, there are other
things we can do to get your needs met and you should do them. There needs to be procedure, and then
evaluate in three months, or any set amount of time. You are giving them a job, and they are
working for you. They need a job description.
Maybe
the next logical place is to talk about and get clear about member
expectations. Or project proposals?
Gaea:
Can we do Project proposals unfacilitated?
Sharon:
Nope. Too much emotion.
Sarah:
I think if we have expectations that keep a member in good standing, we’ll know
how much time we have to commit to projects.
We have 12 hrs/year, plus a probono gig, plus a limit the number of last
minute cancellations.
Laura:
These seem like the requirements to stay in good standing.
Sharon:
But what happens when people don’t follow through and do the things they are
supposed to do.
Laura:
then your project doesn’t come first.
You don’t get first stab at the gigs.
Time availability varies, so they can work as they are free and stay in
good standing that way. Committee work
around procedures could help.
Sarah:
Gaea, do you think this needs resolution today?
Gaea:
Yes, because now we are having a conversation in which there are
consequences. I’m afraid that we’ll step
back from this if we don’t make the policy now.
I offered a stick at the last meeting and was shot down, so what’s the
carrot? What’s the incentive?
Soozin:
I don’t really like rules, but if the rules aren’t in place there is a place
for resentment to build up. By writing
it down, we gain consistency. I created
the blog, and now we can all read the notes.
We used to talk about volunteering hours, but before no one would commit
to that, but if we set it, and no one does it, it builds resentment.
Sarah:
So, what’s the carrot or the stick?
Soozin:
I don’t know. Right now, our perks are
taken. Members are allowed to stilt, so
someone who hasn’t been involved in years could take a gig.
Gaea:
But who is then on the list? Jonetta,
Kat, etc
Sharon:
Create 3 tiers of gig emails. First to
voting members in good standing, second to members in good standing, third to
subs. That way folks get a chance to
take gigs before people who aren’t supporting the org.
Sharon/Soozin:
Would Deb and Anne still want to do gigs that they can’t give themselves
priority on.
Laurel:
Potential carrot – monetary incentive for making all the meetings/4 out of 6
per year. If you are able to do or you
do it, you get paid for the meetings you attend. $10/meeting.
Not an extra burden on coordinators, wouldn’t be hugely time consumptive
on the treasurer.
Sharon:
And that keeps the perk of coordinator time to stilt the gigs they coordinate.
Angie:
We keep tossing around the idea of paying back ups. But putting $50 takes the entire kitty pay? So that’s not a good idea.
I’ve
already had to choose a different job that didn’t pay as well, because another
gig came up, so contributing to the backup kitty would be appropriate.
Soozin:
If you attend/are in good standing, you get $50 towards a costume budget. Did I miss a gig and people aren’t telling
me? I’m having anxiety about that.
General “not just you.”
Soozin:
So, if I miss a gig, a put in $25 towards missing a gig into a slush fund,
which is a penalty for skipping a gig.
Laura:
If those coordinator positions were available, who else would want them.
Tara,
Angie, Laurel
If
you are the voting members putting the in the work, you should be able to do
that.
What
I would like to do in these last 23 minutes is to assign some concrete things
and who is going to do them by when. I
think the work that really needs to get done is this procedure work. Let’s make a list of what needs to get done
and how it is going ot get done.
List
of things that need to get done.
Project
proposal procedure
Carrots
and sticks for members – accountability procedure
Clarify
member expectations
Good standing = have a role
Volunteer hours
Probono work
Clarify
gig giving procedure, including back ups
How many gigs we want vs how
many we’ve had
Pricing
Master list of gigs and pricing
Recruitment
/ Diversity
Google
Doc with:
Contacts for gigs
Member expectations
Policies and procedures
Roles
Rotation policy
Doing work/taking on a role is
part of the way of being in good standing
Group
needs
List
of policies / SoP / Bylaws
Policy
writing
Outreach
Marketing
Laura:
Before you can decide who is going to be secretary or chair, you need to know
what those roles look like. Right now,
immediate needs seem to be Policy writing, Outreach coordination, Marketing,
Soozin:
Can we do committee meetings every other month on the off months
Gaea:
Maybe now, but summer is bonkers.
Tara:
But we could invest hard now and that would be good.
Laura:
yes, commit now, they pay off will be worth it.
Also, the longer you go without looking at this, the scarier it gets.
Small
committees, maybe pairs, to build some of this in 1 hour meetings.
Laura:
Who can commit to writing policy? Tara, Gaea, Sarah, Laurel, yes to all
Gaea:
Can we vote via email?
General:
Maybe get feedback via email but vote in person.
Sharon:
I want to do policy around membership!
Membership
+ Carrot and stick – Sharon, Laurel, Nicole, Sarah
Gig
Coordinating – Soozin
Project
proposal procedure – Tara, Angie, Soozin
Google
Doc - Gaea
Recruitment/Diversity
- Gaea
Role
Rotation – Gaea, Sarah, Laurel
Laura:
Each member should probably only be in one of these committees.
Soozin:
I would like to be part of both discussions.
Project proposal is something I’ve gotten myself in trouble with, so I’d
like to be in the conversation from the beginning.
Gaea:
Are we looking at all of that list, or just the top three? I can take over the google doc as part of the
tracking I’m doing anyway.
Soozin:
I think the other coordinators need to be involved. I don’t want them to get
upset about the way in which the coordination policy happens.
Gaea:
Tough shit, if you don’t show up, you don’t get a vote. That’s the consequence of not being a voting
member.
Angie:
Also, the final say resides with the group.
So, they still chose not to be a part of the group.
Soozin:
But they didn’t know we were going to be doing all this policy work, so maybe
we need a second enrollment period and they can choose to join back up if they
feel it is important.
General
agreement.
Laura:
Looks at values, we can use that as guiding principles to build these policies.
Gaea:
did we all get hooked into that list?
Nicole:
I want to do membership.
Gaea:
Of those three options, I would be on the carrots and sticks. But if all 6 of those are in play, I’m more
interested in recruitment/diversity and role rotation/expectations.
Laura:
That can all be in play.
Sarah:
IN which case, I would be part of the role rotation group.
Laurel:
You beat me to it.
Gaea:
Does that mean you’d want to be on that as well?
Laurel:
I would be on any of it. I don’t know
much about coordinator stuff.
Laura:
I think the more you over-communicate things the better. Even to say, I think we need a policy about
fill-in-the-blank, would help keep down resentment. If you hit roadblocks, you can also trouble
shoot or reach out to me again.
Soozin:
Here is also a copy of the emergency procedures for the co-op. It has five drafts, so you can see the back
and forth that it took to make it happen.
Laura:
I don’t think this is going to happen, but be careful of super formal
language. You don’t need it to be that
intensely formal.
1:00
pm – Laura is done. THANK YOU LAURA!!!
Lunch
Break
Let’s
do a check in and see where we’re at. Also touch base about what else we want
to do today and how we think this is going.
Laurel:
Been sick and then got food poisoning, so very low energy. Annoyed about that. Would like to solidify the things we said
we’d do in small groups. Getting all the
things up there has been useful.
Everything is going so smoothly, there has to be stuff we haven’t
covered that we needed a facilitator for.
Or maybe we did cover everything and it was easier because we had a
facilitator. If we are going to do
subgroups, I don’t know what else we would do, but I’d like to get to an ending
point today, not leave off in the middle.
Sharon:
I’m tired. Lunch made me sleepy. I think the weekend went quite well. Pleased with the facilitator. She had a good perspective on things and
helped us realize that there are other perspectives to take. If we are going to sit around and talk about
things, I’d like to talk about what roles we might want to set up and what they
might cover so we all know what we are volunteering for. I want to get the membership thing worked out
because it is only fair.
Nicole:
Very full and may need a nap. I’m ok.
I’ve enjoyed having facilitation this weekend.
She honored the group and the individuals in it. She dug in and dealt with needs and opinions,
not just hovering over the top of all of it.
I’m with Sharon that if we’re going to dig in any deeper, we need to
focus on roles. If we have a moment, on
my mind is what else do we want to do with our kitty money? This has been great, do we want to do more of
this? Or what else?
Angie:
Second the brainstorm about kitty money.
Feeling a little anxious because I need to go right at 4:15, so want to
end on time and be cleaned up and out on time.
Nice to have a facilitator who knew the nature of our work without
knowing any of us personally. I didn’t
have an opinion on that before, but now am glad at how it worked out. Stuff for today, kitty money would be
good. We haven’t touched too much on IP,
but maybe that’s a coordinator thing/membership thing? Also, of the roles available, some are more
fun so acknowledging which are fun and giving credit to that is important. Committee for special thing rates could
happen today, or maybe email out general thoughts.
Sharon:
I think this is under coordinating.
Angie:
Maybe we can email thoughts about that to the committee then.
Soozin:
Getting thoughts and comparison would be good.
Did some for HOBT.
Side
note:
Sharon:
thank you for taking notes to Sarah and Gaea.
Gaea:
Notes are going to be slow coming out.
Sharon:
Maybe focus on the notes that are relevant to the committee work.
Sarah:
I am feeling more inspired than I expected to be. I’m really excited about the idea of putting
policies into play. I agree that it was
good to have a facilitator who didn’t know us personally but was part of this
world. My personal life sort of sucks
right now, but that means I’m looking forward to doing more with Chicks. I’m looking forward to making swag – t-shirts,
bags, etc. I’m excited about doing the
idea of a photoshoot, even paired down from what it was but having high res,
good quality photos would be good. For
the rest of the afternoon, let’s go for a walk/stilt and move around especially
since we are all in the after lunch slump.
If we all already agree on a bunch of pieces of membership, can we
create policy and vote on it? I would
like to have something decided today.
Gaea:
I think the weekend really well. Seeing
all of us work together to get through this and work on these issues has been
really heartening. We tackled issues
that have previously been hot button, emotional topics and didn’t get upset or
angry. The facilitator was great, she
did a good job. I’m hopeful and
optimistic, but part of me has been burned before by feeling optimistic and
then having that fail or having there be no follow through. So, currently optimistic, but maybe tinged
with embitterment. I think we should
spend the time now on Roles because we need to know what those roles are and
what the expectations of them are if we are going to make that part of the
member expectations.
Tara:
I’m feeling a little bit sleepy but mostly fine. As far as how it went, I’m pleasantly pleased
about the clarification and the commonalities that came up. I knew that but it was affirming to see. There is a lot of desire to move things
forward, now we need to do that in the ways that we can. Clarifying roles would be good especially as
we deal with membership expectations.
Clarifying kitty money would be good too, because we will likely run
into it with project proposal stuff.
Soozin:
I worked an overnight last night, so I’m feeling a little over saturated. But good.
I was a little apprehensive about the retreat originally, but I think it’s
interesting that everyone at the retreat is people who are voting members and
in the past it was a mix. It’s
interesting that because everyone is a voting member, they are more involved in
the organization and that makes me hopeful.
In the past there was a tension between love to CoS and stilting and
administrative work that needed to happen.
I appreciate everyone showing up and moving through. The facilitator was great, she had experience
in larger and smaller organization and had an idea of how collaboration works
and she had a lens that allowed her to see the ways in which we work. I’m feeling tired from all of this, my head
hurts from how much we’ve been thinking.
It’s all good work, but I’m full.
Going on a stilt walk feels like it could be really productive next
steps. If we want to be more cerebral,
expectations and roles, if we know our 5 core values, would that inform our policies? Put post notes of values on the wall, and see
what overlap there is. Also, what are
our next steps? Do we want to schedule a
follow up meeting? Or set up a timeline
for policies.
Laurel:
Sharon’s pickles made me feel better.
Also, haven’t done a lot of meetings with facilitators, this one was
better than past ones.
Gaea:
What are we doing now? Next steps, Go
for a walk, Roles, Values
Tara:
Next steps and walk
Sarah:
Maybe we save a walk to the end.
Sharon:
I already went for a walk, I want to do roles.
We need this to know what the membership hours requirement will be.
Soozin:
You’d like to set time estimates on the roles.
Sharon:
We could also know how many people are actually needed to do that thing.
Laurel:
We could set the roles and re-evaluate next year.
Sarah:
Could we spend 5 minutes on next steps.
Gaea:
If we’re only spending 5 minutes, we should set deadlines rather than really
next steps.
Soozin:
Let’s put 15 minutes into it, so we can think about deadlines/timelines as well
as thank yous for the facilitator and what we’re emailing out the rest of the
group. What from this process transfers
to the next pieces.
Tara:
Because we’re all here, we should set times and dates for committees so we know
we can move forward.
Gaea:
Angie and Nicole? Want to weigh in on this?
Nicole:
I think I’d rather set up meeting times, go on a walk and clean up.
Angie:
Setting meeting times for the committees and due dates. I guess roles if we’re going to discuss
something. Next steps is setting times
and due dates. But I’m fine with a walk. I’d prefer not to talk more about values.
Gaea:
What I’m hearing is that we should do next steps and then see where we’re at for
time and maybe clean up and take a spin around the park.
Sarah: We need a deadline
Things
to do:
Thank
you – Tara
Letter
to CoS Membership – Gaea
Make
an evaluation for the retreat – Soozin
Follow
up session with Laura – Put this on the March agenda
Note
management – Gaea/Sarah
Deadlines
and timelines
Rough
draft of policies by Feb. 28th emailed to group
Google
docs up and running with links emailed to group by Valentine’s Day
Rough
draft of roles and expectations out by Valentine’s Day
Scheduling
Project
proposal procedure – Feb. 17th 10:00-12:00 at Pinwheel
Carrot
and Sticks/Member expectations – Feb 20 at 5:30 at Ivy
Google
Doc
Recruitment
Roles/Expectations
– Jan 31st at Ivy Building at 12:30
Break
Roles!
Sarah:
Shall we create job descriptions
Gaea:
I wrote some.
See notes from roles committee
Tara:
What about reminderer?
Sarah:
We did that.
Angie:
For Choreographer, does that person get a cut of gigs in which that choreo is
used? Or do they get first dibs on those
gigs.
Sharon:
Some of these positions are really big.
Gaea:
I took some of the stuff from Secretary and put it into documentation person
Tara:
A lot of these bleed into each other.
Soozin:
With choreographer, there are other limits.
Like IP, body type, who can do the dance, etc
Much
other discussion. Fingers forgot to
type.
Gaea:
Can we shift this away from choreographer and nail down the roles that are more
straight forward?
Agreement.
Soozin:
Social planner, 2-3 social event per year.
Social
Coordinator:
Plan 2-3 social events per year
Remember and track important
dates for members – birthday, anniversaries, kids b-days, etc
Remember and track Chicks dates
– anniversary
Throw a winter/End of May
shindig
Storage
Coordinator
Organize shit
Inventory/Master list
Label stuff we have
Purge as necessary
Share inventory list
Documentation
Coordinator
Photo and video skills
Photo and video editing skills
Access to camera
Maintain google drive of gig
photos/videos
Tag photos with
performer, photographer, date, gig
Collect photos
Remind performers to take photos
Maintain blog and internal
paperwork
Costumer
Knowledge resource
Consultation for grants/gig
money – knows how long it will take to make it
Host repair/build days 3
times/year
Grant
writers
Research grants
Timelines of due dates
Present to meetings
Keeping master list of what
applications are out/going out and for what
Maintaining basic organizational
information – budget, language around mission, income info, etc
Policy
Committee
(Somewhat covered by subgroups
today)
Compile policy
Add to SoP/bylaws
Build policy drafts based on
conversation and notes from meetings
Sarah: Is there any of this that can be combined or
should be separated out?
Gaea:
I think reminderer can be smooshed into Chair.
Tara:
These feels like a lot. There are a lot
of roles there. Most orgs have a
board. We don’t have that.
Angie:
Maybe some of that is committee work.
Costumer, choreo could be committees.
Sharon:
Marketing and outreach could be committees, too.
Sarah:
I count 12 roles, as they stand. Do we
want to go around and popcorn what we think are the most important?
Laurel:
Some of these maybe year round vs pop up.
Gaea:
Some of these look really overwhelming right now, but once they are in place, they
will be better. Once we have the
systems, it will be easier and smoother and the work won’t be huge.
Soozin:
And maybe we have a longer timeline, like we need to get this done in the next
6 months.
Sarah:
Can we put our names on specific things?
Storage
– Sharon, Nicole, Tara, Laurel
Marketing
– Sarah, Gaea will help
Documentation
– Gaea
Choreo
– Angie (interested but thinks this may be low priority)
Outreach
– Angie, Soozin
Costuming
– Angie (can’t sew, but would design), Soozin, Laurel
Social
– Soozin would organize 1 event
Soozin:
A case by case project coordinator
Sharon:
This also ties into how we choose projects and what we choose.
And
the Sink in the bathroom just started leaking.
On that note, we’re done! Lets
clean up!
