Re: Meeting feedback

Meeting Notes: As Ron said on another thread, Paul took some notes to help reconstruct the meeting, and that is the closest thing to minutes that we have. I will share the notes he took and the discussion as we remember it.
The meeting officially began at 1:00 p.m.

Attendence : Attendence at the start of the meeting was Ron, Naked Man, Sycamore Laughing, Paul, and Jobe. Wizard joined a little later.

Contact Information: We came to agreement fairly quickly that we wanted contact information and that the forum would not be appropriate. Full consensus of those present on this. We decided that Ron could maintain a P.O. box for the first year of our group, and in general thought that specific group tasks, like the P.O. box, should be rotated among various members, but that initially at least they should only be done by persons trusted by all to not have hidden agendas regarding property disputes.
After this was decided, at some point later in the discussion, the topic was discussed again in terms of having an e-mail address, and no one had a problem with Ron having such an address for the group.

Decision-Making Method: It took us a little time with this one, because it was difficult without first having some idea of how membership was defined. Our discussion wavered between the two topics a bit, but we eventually agreed with a consensus-seeking process with a two-thirds majority for cases in which consensus could not be reached. In other words, when we need to make a decision, we first see if everyone can agree. If not, compromises are suggested. If it is clear that consensus cannot be reached for whatever reason, a vote is taken in which two-thirds majority is needed to pass. Fortunately, we did not need to go to a vote on any of the items we discussed at this meeting, which indicates that we were really seeking consensus. We could not decide on who gets voting rights at first because we had no definition of membership. As it now stands, Ron has been accepting the votes of everyone. Katrina's vote on a name, for example, was accepted even though she will not be a member at this time, and Ron said that of course he would have also accepted a name vote from Mike Castro had one been offered before the voting on that was closed. Once the group has been officially formed, voting would be done at the meetings by members present only, to prevent any chance of voting by "paper" members. Of course, we did decide that really big decisions such as a change in name or Mission Statement should be decided by the full membership body. We also discussed the fact that our decisions at this meeting could not fall under that rule unless the full membership body agreed, so we will need feedback from those who could not attend.

What Defines a Member: Just after Ron passed out the meeting agendas, Sycamore Laughing asked that this be added as a separate topic. It was agreed that any who submit the brochure's form and give contact information would be considered members with the exception of Katrina Island (Gail and/or William) and Mike Castro. These exceptions are considered temporary.

Length of Brochure/Ron's Third Pass at the Brochure: These topics were combined in our discussion. The sample brochure that Ron brought was liked by all, and the length was not a problem. We agreed to strike one sentence that refered to our not getting involved in any land ownership disputes, deciding that such a statement did not belong on the brochure, but that it was important for us as members to avoid involvement in such disputes. This was the only content change made. The brochure was then proof-read with a couple of minor punctuation and grammar changes. We hope that it is now error-free.

Clothing Optionality on the Brochure: No one objected to this. There was a bit of discussion about the content, but no changes were made.

AZ Mike's Version: This was removed as a topic of discussion as AZ Mike was not present and had no version of the brochure to submit.

Next Steps: We agreed that we have a suitable brochure to present to Ranger Brad and to members who missed the meeting. I imagine that Ron will post the entire brochure for approval.

Other Issues: We have not yet had any suggestions for a logo. We decided to keep the invitation to submit suggestions on the brochure at this time as many of us have seen that there are some very artistic visitors to DCHS and we hope to accumulate a few logo suggestions to decide from.

Our meeting was formally adjourned at 4:20 p.m. and most members enjoyed another soak and a hearty farewell.

I hope that I have given a fairly thorough and accurate account of what transpired at our meeting. If any members recall anything that I missed or feel that I am in error, please say so.