Can you believe that after this packed weekend the four of us-- Daniel Lindenberger, Dave Pollard, Tree Bressen and Sue Woehlin-- retreated to Eugene for a three and a half day work session?! We did, and despite only starting at 10 in the morning (a new/later norm for the group) we still managed to fit in an average of 10 working hours each day.
In keeping with priorities identified at our June work session, one focus of our work revolved around continuing to “consolidate project systems.” This included reorganizing how we track priority projects, fine tuning individual task tracking, adopting a master list of ‘roles & responsibilities’ and assembling notes on ‘future dreams’ in one place. We also made progress consolidating what had been way too many different tech channels, including working out protocols for where to archive photos and videos and where & how to make these available on the website, and revising the master list of accounts and access passwords. Plans to migrate the pattern hi/lo mailing lists to Drupal (our website) were also drafted.
On a process level we also attended to articulating (and documenting) desired group norms and communicating around how we want to deal with conflict and other upsets. [Which we began to put into practice as the days unfolded ;-) ]
We also spent a fair bit of time on issues related to both outreach and recruitment of new volunteer Stewards and Ambassadors. These ranged from a plan to launch “dilemma calls” in the new year to support folks (regardless of location) to connect with others around applications of the deck, to thinking through ways we could support local networks forming around a shared passion for the deck (such as is developing in Portland, OR), to developing a curriculum for self-guided solo or group study of facilitation focused on the patterns/deck. We also brainstormed uses of the deck that take special advantage of electronic platforms (such as our iPhone app or iPad Infinite Canvas).
We scheduled the nest two combo public workshops and work sessions for March 28 – 31, 2014 in Portland OR (hopefully in conjunction with the emerging Portland group) and May 24 – 26, 2014 in Langley, B.C. (near Vancouver). Details to follow, and please contact us if you want to be involved in some way.
We also convened a formal meeting of the Board to adopt the 2014 budget.
