A Tale of Two Circles

Written By Josh Morin

Reflections from the Stump
213 days remaining

We decided on twice a month circles, to my happy surprise. The way I see this rhythm working is by separating out the two essential functions of the Leadership Council: strategy and logistics.

Story Keeping Circle

The first style of meeting will be to reflect on what we want to create next, identify emerging opportunities based on what we're learning, and contribute to our archive. Let's call this the Story Keeping Circle. It'll be a space to bring new peeps into the spirit of the project without overwhelming them with the logistical back-end.

  • Ideally, the Story Keeping Circle will convene towards the beginning of each calendar month. Everyone who's hosting something that month will be invited, giving them an opportunity to meet each other, learn more about the garden, and further design their gathering with the overarching spirit in mind (as opposed to using Temperance Alley as a cookie-cutter event space).

House Keeping Circle

The second monthly gathering is more essential. It covers scheduling, budgeting, and has the authority to settle disagreements and decide on the official rules. Let's call this the House Keeping Circle. For those who came to Park Committee meetings last year, it'll look very similar. We'll need to be a bit more formal during these gatherings for neighborhood association accountability. I'm talking about having an agenda, taking minutes, and voting when necessary.

  • The House Keeping Circle will need to convene around the end of each month to finalize the following month's calendar, decide who's hosting what, and provide enough time to update the website and send out invitations.

How the Circles work together

With this potential form, something that's coming into focus is the overall flexibility of the Leadership Council. Commitments will be on a project by project basis with plenty of advance notice and design. I think this is the right shape for our all-volunteer project.

So say you really want to lean in and host a series of back-to-back workshops on a topic you're becoming expert at. You could first come to the Story Keeping Circle to workshop the idea with the group and find collaborators. Then, you'd come to the House Keeping Circle to reserve time on the schedule, receive a budget, and formalize your plan. 

Once you know how these two spaces work, you'd be free to craft your own dream role, and define your own involvement. Keeping in mind that from month to month we'll only produce what we have the hands and energy to accomplish.

So dear friends, if you have the capacity and desire to help out over the next 7 months, I welcome your leadership and am here to support the Council's creativity and animation, as well as our ambition. 

>> Yours truly, Josh

PS. I've decided to make organizing my full-time project this year. This is something that's been slowly emerging and after finishing up my last creative freelance I think I'll just coast for a bit. I figure I'm learning just as much as I would in a grad school program, but without the debt. And this opportunity's not going to present itself again. So here we go! 

Josh Morin