Steward Community Woodland

Meetings, meetings, meetings and more meetings.

We operate as a non hierarchical group, with no leaders. We avoid allowing roles to form that may confer an inequality of power. Each persons opinions are considered equally valid and important. We do not vote, as we see voting as an inherently competitive system. Instead we use a system known as consensus to reach decisions that have in theory, the consent of the whole group. Consensus is reached when everyone is happy to accept a decision because they agree it is the best possible for the group.

Making group decisions, resolving conflict and reaching consensus requires those involved to have learnt and employ good interpersonal skills. At Steward Wood we have tried various techniques and have a lot to learn.

There are generally four types of meetings that we have: regularly morning (work) meetings, regular weekly business meetings, occasional 'feelings meeting' and 'one off' meetings to sort out specific problems or events.

Meeting structure and protocol

With the exception of morning meetings and 'feelings meetings', an agenda is made available in advance so that everyone is able to add to contribute to it and be aware what issues will be raised. At the start of the meeting somebody volunteers to act as facilitator. We try to rotate the role and avoid having the same people do it all of the time. Another role that may be required is somebody to take notes or minutes if required.

Meetings take the form of a circle (as far as is practically possible). We prefer everybody to be seated on the same level if possible.

A tool we have sometimes found useful is a 'talking stick'. This is an object (doesn't have to be a stick) that is passed from person to person. The person with the 'stick' should not be interrupted and will pass on the 'stick' when they have made their point. Obviously this should not be necessary and normally people will respect the fact that somebody else is speaking and not interrupt. However sometimes the 'stick' is a useful reminder, and a tool that many groups find helpful when debate becomes heated.

Another tool we have found useful is the 'go round' during which each person in turn around the circle gets to speak briefly about the subject at hand. This is a useful way of getting a general sense of the group feeling before going on to discuss an issue in more detail. It also encourages the involvement of those in the group who tend to speak little.

Morning Meetings

Planning and organising occurs during a number of meetings. Every day (in theory) we have a morning (work) meeting at which we discuss everyone's personal plans for the day and the priorities for group activities. Somebody will usually volunteer to organise getting a communal meal together in the evening and somebody else take on ensuring the washing up gets done. Issues relating to the day are decided. There is normally no written agenda or minutes and the meetings are very short. When they happen, these meetings are very useful. They encourage effective communication, team activities and efficient use of time and resources.

Business Meetings

On Wednesday we have our 'business' meetings at which we sort out money maters, like food purchasing, and van use issues. All major decisions regarding the group are decided at these meetings and they can go on for ages. We've had Wednesday meetings that continued into Thursday! We unplug the phones and try to avoid having people visit on Wednesday so that we can give the meeting all our attention. These meetings have improved considerably and are not quite the chore they used to be.

Feelings Meetings

We also have 'talking circles' or 'feelings meetings' at which we try to defuse conflict and resentful feelings. Ideally people would feel able to speak out about their feelings as an when they happen but the reality is that years of conditioning has meant that most people repress emotions. The talking circles provide a formal venue to speak honestly about the way we feel but they are far from perfect. The meetings themselves are resented and feared by some people in the group and so we have been progressing slowly.

Other Meetings

Our 'one-off' meetings have proved to be quite a challenge. We have found that these irregular meetings are often forgotten and never happen. We haven't yet found a solution to this problem. There is obviously the potential to have too many meetings and the 'one-off' meetings pay the price. It has become something of a communal joke that we put off decisions by deferring them to separate meetings which we then forget about until the next business meeting when we read the minutes from the previous week.

Meeting Fatigue

A well know phenomenon experienced by those who seem to spend to much time in meetings. We are not immune to the problem and every now and then the whole group seems to spontaneously reject the concept of morning meetings entirely. We have found ourselves renaming meetings to disguise the fact that they are meetings at all. Our original 'feeling meetings' made a sneak come back in the form of 'talking circles', in the summer we had 'permaculture picnics' and when preparing the planning application we had ' planning play days'.

Conclusions?

Group dynamics make or break projects like this one. Few people are equipped these days to communicate openly and honestly with other people and we have all come to the project with years of emotional baggage, preconceptions and conditioning to deal with. We are learning the hard way (is there another way?) and have a long way to go but we have certainly progressed and are finding that we communicate better as a group now. We are keen to hear about other people experiences and methods in relation to these issues.