Minutes from the 12/10/10 Meeting

Evolver Meeting Minutes 12/10/10

Present: Alex Baker, Frank C., Allen, Josh, Caroline, Aaron, Sophie, Heather

Discussion of what people hope for the group to be and what they can add or bring to the group in the way of skills

Discussion of the usefulness or superflousness of the 'evolver' framework in trying to meet the goals of the vision the members of the group have for this collective effort
Some objects to Evolvers obvious associations with drug use and with exploitation of indigenous cultures
General agreement however that the evolver model and community had something to offer us in our efforts to build a consciousness movement in Pittsburgh

Discussion of various methods and traditions of organizing meetings, including 'consesus' model, taking stack vs open discussion, guestures used to aid discussion and the chair, and 'open space technology' method of organizing meetings where discussion is had within smaller groups and ideas forming out of that brought to the larger group.

It was agreed that several people would gather information about these various ways of organizing meetings and present them briefly at the next meeting where a decision will be made as to how to move forward.

Agreed to meet bi-monthly for the present time and to be flexible in the future depending on the growth of the group and specific events that are being planned.
An agenda will be made prior to each meetings and copies will be brought to meetings for members to use during the meeting.
There will be time limits for speakers and a chair

Aaron made a call for two co-organizers to be in touch with evolver regionally and help to plan events/organize meetings, etc. Josh volunteered to be a co-organizer. Alex said that he could work on getting us a space at Lily cafe in Polish hill for future meetings or events and suggested that that might be a good place to connect with members of the community that would be interested in what we are trying to do.

Discussion of future projects for the organization of this group including getting non-profit status to be able to receive donations, having speakers from other spores come in for events, making a budget and electing a treasurer.
These will likely be taken up not in the immediate meetings but sometime in the next few months.

It was suggested that all of us interested in being a part of the group get a membership at the realitysandwich website and connect to the evolver website that way. If you try to get a membership directly at the evolver website there is a mandatory monetary donation. This can be avoided by going through the realitysandwich site. We should all be looking into what evolver is and what it is trying to do

There was also a suggestion that a reading list/documentary list, etc be passed around throughout the members to share relevant films and info.

Incorporating an already existing idea for a consciousness night that may be trying to get organized for January into possibly being sponsored or contributed to by Evolver.

The next meeting of this group will be on December 21st. Please expect another email with details.

Note: Big thanks to Sophie for compiling these notes!