agenda (topics) and minutes

for the meeting of the council of our local gathering of seekers
8 June 2003 - Barnes and Noble bookstore cafe, Nashua
scheduled meeting held after discussion meeting ~1:00PM til 3:30PM

this was a scheduled meeting with the following topics and minutes. Jack and Fred present:
agenda
1) selecting a domain name for our web site
2) a general review of progress
3) procedure for selecting a couple of additional council members (probably have to firm up membership first)
4) procedure for keeping the treasury
minutes

a general review of progress:

The feeling after today's discussion meeting was good, since we had 7 in attendance and 3 were invited guests that had attended the "First Sunday" public meeting. We concluded that our progress, all in all is good, and that we can believe in continuous growth in interest and membership (once we define that status - see other note below).

Review of discussion meetings:

We have the intention to add a suggestion box to some web page to allow people to suggest topics for discussion.

We are considering when and how we should ever split up discussion meeting into multiple groups at different tables - we should review the article on salons from Utne Reader that Rich sent some time ago.

We note that today's group of 7 was a near perfect size - any larger might benefit from separating into additional groups.

Review of treasury procedure and contributions:

Noted that when we mentioned plainly and clearly the need to contribute an amount to our hosts (Friendship Club), everyone reached for their wallets willingly.

We took in $13 in contributions today at discussion meeting.

We resolved to contribute $10 to our hosts.

Noted an intention to contribute $10-12 to the Friendship Club for each week's usage of the hall for discussion meetings.

Noted that we contributed $20 to our hosts after the 1 June "First Sunday" presentation meeting.

Noted that members will do labor/improvements at the Friendship Club to make up for lack of monetary contribution before 1 June. Jack to coordinate tasks and seek help, when needed from other councillors or members.

Resolved to follow this treasury procedure for now:

Most prosperous councillor should be treasurer - Fred is our treasurer for now.

Fred will obtain a small ledger book, and perhaps a lock box (his discretion, may become more of an issue when more money is involved.

The treasurer will note in the ledger book all funds received, and all funds disbursed.

The council must decide on disbursements - unanimous agreement required. Councillors to intitial the line in the ledger book to indicate and note their assent to the disbursement decision.

We noted no certain procedure when unanimity cannot be reached.

Review of approach to "housekeeping issues"

Jack mentioned a list of things today to new attenders, and all seemed to be comfortable with the remarks. It was suggested that we read a statement at the beginning and, perhaps the end of every meeting. A stock "meeting format" (sheet of paper to read from - a check list of things to cover) would make it possible for a consistent approach, especially for when the leader of the discussion changes.

It is suggested that councillors review and comment on these suggested remarks, authored earlier, but never officially adopted. These include a suggested meeting shedule, or "format."

Suggested introductory remarks

Suggested closing remarks

Review of "membership" ideas

We determined that we should develop an initial member vetting process that would simplify getting our "start-up membership" on board.

® We resolved to use the following procedure, subject to review and modification later:

One of our councillors has to nominate a prospective member

the prospect has to attend a meeting to discuss membership with the councillors

The councillors have to unanimously accept the prospect as a member

There will be some initiation or "announcement of new memberhip status" made to other members

we should, at some point, have a lawyer review our process to assure that it maintains our desired "private" status

Review of public Yahoo mvseekers group issues:

We will maintain a "public" email list on Yahoo, mostly so someone can find it if they are "seeking" something like this by doing a Yahoo list search.

All should keep in mind that everything posted to this list will be completely public, so it should not be used for more intimate discussions.

Jack will change the list to make it "public", using one of the following possible procedures:

start new group called mv-seekers and email forward all the archived messages over from mvseekers.

learn how to save the archived messages, close mvseekers for a day, re-start the list, upload all the archives back on and then re-subscribe everyone .

Review of "members" web / electronic communications issues

Rich to take over all issues for the "members" electronic communications and web site. This includes:

List administration for a members mailing list to be maintained at mailman.puissante.com. This is the place for members discussions, announcements of "private" members-only meetings, new members benefits, etc. This list has been established, but not actually used yet. It's called: seekers-members. The list info page is: http://mailman.puissante.com/mailman/listinfo/seekers-members Fred is setup as administrator and Rich should get the password and whatever is necessary from Fred.

Rich to manage design and site layout of the members site, as decided before.

selecting a domain name for our web site

We brainstormed some more about possible domain names, since seekers.org was not available. Some ideas included:

seekers-fellowship.org
seekers-meet.org
seekers-world.org
mosaics.org
seekers-community.org
seekerscommunity.org
seekercommunity.org ===> This one was favored, but we would like to continue to get feedback until everyone is really happy with the selection. Then, we'll grab the domain name.

Under this suggested domain name then, we could have sites for regional meetings by pre-pending some charachers to indicate the location region, eg: mv.seekercommunity.org for the Merrimack valley group, or gali.seekercommunity.org for the Gallapagos Island group (!), etc.
review of old assignments

Jack:

  • contact lawyer to set up meeting re structure for non-taxable churches (not done);

  • research legal issues re churches on the web (not done);

  • enter all info into existing web page structure, including:

    • minutes of past meetings (some entered, not caught up)

    • "Beliefs" suggested changes (some entered, not caught up)

    • "Practices" suggested changes (not caught up)

    • "Membership structure" suggested changes (done)

    • "Membership development sessions" suggested changes (done)

  • Learn "check out", "check in" revision control method on DreamWeaver (not done)

Fred

  • research domain names in .org primary domain preferably, ideal name being seekers.org (not avail), will grab other name we decide on;

  • re-arrange site structure on server to separate "seekers" from Jack's stuff, leaving old site structure intact for now, so Jack can continue to work on site as before, until changeover day (not sure of status of this);

  • create user account for Rich with access to "members" folder (not sure of status of this).

Rich

  • download Dreamweaver MX (done);

  • contact Jack for quickie D/W lessons, when time permits (to be done);

  • Learn "check out", "check in" revision control method on DreamWeaver (not done)

  • work on concept look and style of "members" area (proposals anticipated);

  • speak to contacts with information about structure of free churches (need report about this).

 

PRIVACY NOTICE: This communication is private, between the parties, and the information contained therein is not to be sold, rented, leased, or released for any purpose without the express permission of the parties. This communication does not constitute any public offering or public communication. It is intended only for the party(ies) to which it is originally sent.

back to council meetings