How can you fit involvement in Mosaic Commons into your life? There are a multitude of different ways in which we do the work of building our community, and we have all found different types of roles to fit our lifestyles.
Overview:
Involvement in Mosaic Commons includes attending general meetings twice a month. Additional meetings are sometimes scheduled with our Project Managers or other project professionals. Members take on action items each month that are completed outside the meetings. Some of these are administrative, some research-oriented, depending on what comes up. In addition, members participate on one or more teams. We also consider social functions an important way of being involved in our growing community, as well as a great way of having fun!
Here is a more detailed explanation of the different types of work and social functions that happen in our group.
Work Functions:
General Meetings – These happen on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month and are where the majority of our decisions are made. We also schedule fun items just to relax or so that we can get to know each other better. An example of a "just for fun" item is a recent sing-along of "Stand by Me" with a member on guitar. A "get to know you" item that we do at every meeting is a fun question for everyone to answer in turn. It might be something like "What's your favorite thing to do on a hot summer's day?" or "What musical instrument would you like to play professionally if you could?"
Workshops – These are occasional happenings when we need to do a body of work as a group in order to move forward in our process. An example would be our site planning workshop in response to signing a purchase and sale on our land in Berlin.
Action Items – Action items can be one-time tasks such as digging up the zoning bylaws for a town, writing a proposed policy summarizing a discussion on an issue such as pet policy, or starting an online discussion on an issue we didn't have time to explore fully in the meeting. Action items can also be part of recurring role or work on a team (see below).
Teams – Action items are often brainstormed and picked up by members of teams, such as the facilitation team which plans the agendas for our meetings or the marketing team which strategizes ways to spread the word about our group. Involvement with a team generally involves meeting once a month, more if needed or less if there is a lull in activity in that particular area. For a complete listing of our current teams click here. During team meetings, ideas and proposals specific to that team are discussed and members pick up items requiring completion from those meetings. These can be one-time items such as updating a web site with our information for marketing purposes. Or they could be longer-term work such as making an informational videotape on our group that could be shown to prospective members.
Ongoing Tasks – We have a variety of ongoing tasks, many administrative in nature, that complete action item requirements. Some of these roles are fairly light, and some heavy — some are shared by multiple members. Ongoing tasks include things such as coordinating our mentorship program, arranging child care for meetings, coordinating our landsite search, organizing a social event for the group, or taking notes at meetings. We also have several fixed roles or "offices" for the group such as Treasurer, Secretary and Bookkeeper.
Social Functions:
Post General Meeting Potluck – After every meeting we have an optional potluck meal where we can eat and talk together.
Socials – We plan socials where we can all get together and have a good time getting to know one another. We have visited NARA Park in Acton and Elm Bank in Natick. Sometimes we get together at a member's house for a meal or a marshmallow roast and sing-along.
Retreats – These are occasional planned day trips or overnight trips to cool places where we have some fun.
