Ok guys, Jason and I discussed this a bit, and we're throwing together a more streamlined format for the agenda, incorporating everyones input and info in more organized fashion for the formal meeting!

This is the agenda set up from a standard form, with a few alterations for our purposes. Everyone should add anything they wish to;
if you want to make an address formally, put it in. If you'd rather wait for the open floor after the scheduled reports, its all your call. If you have an issue that correlates to a workable degree with what another presenter is addressing (or if you just dont want to take the floor but have some valuable input) then talk to that person- maybe your info can be fit together, or maybe you'd prefer to do your own. Just make the delineation clear if your topic is similar to another's.
I only listed the names below because they are the ones who made their positions known at the previous meeting, and we have plenty of time to fill.
If possible, it'd be a good idea to print this out and bring it with you, for your own notes or whatever fill-ins you'd like to make outside the formal proceedings, especially pertaining to New Business.
Just copy and repaste with your additions so we keep it all together!
Everyone good with this?




AGENDA-

I.
Call to order



II.
Roll Call



III.
Approval of last meetings minutes
(addendums, revisions, exemptions- 10 min max)



IIII.
Reports-

a)
Mel-
TZM Global Update, IT Issues, Chapter Status, other items

b)
Jason-
Tech Advancements, other items

d)
Michael-
Direct Action; initiatives and status, street teams, informal meetings, other items

c)
Jesse
Political Analysis, Current Events, other items

d)
Open floor to unprepared statements relevant to TZM or TVP



IV.
Old Business

a) Official Action Items

b) Status of projects/initiatives

c) Member additions/concerns



V.
New Business

a) Upcoming events

b) Ideas for New Initiatives



VI.
Floor Opens to Discussion



VII.
Final Points and Reminders



VIII.
Adjournment

Carl, thats a great idea, I'll donate the next months prize!

scarletletterman wrote:
Carl, thats a great idea, I'll donate the next months prize!

Excellent! There might be a way to work out the treasurer/donation thing with a monthly contest too. Get donations for prizes, maybe. We could do image contests too if there was enough interest. I would donate a poster a month, no problem, if it got artists to submit their work to the site and come to a meeting.

Great topic for the next meeting. If anyone needs a ride from Tacoma, PM or email me. I will leave around noon.

I think our outline left the actual business discussions on the back burner too much. We should move stuff around so the important business is done first and the other stuff later. We ended up rushing a bunch of stuff at the end we should have been talking about long before the discussions we did have. I though this weeks meeting was a fairly unproductive meeting but we did discuss some of the more important stuff on the list (presentation team, next potluck, monthly writing contest, etc.) which is good and at least we figured some stuff out for the next couple of weeks. This is a work in progress so lets get some refinement and give it another go in June!

As you say Jason- A work in progress.
All things considered, this was actually our first run at achieving a more structured and thereby productive formal meeting. All in all, I thought it went well. To be desired- of course. That is the impetus to improvement, lacking that, we have only boring bureaucracy.
Having said that, in the interest of improvement, you're right, so what can we do better?

More input before the actual meeting for the outline, reports, and well-considered projects. People felt they needed to speak out during the reports because they didnt have one, or they found objectionable the contents, or they wanted to clarify or chime in. Thats all acceptable, and quite welcome. Provided its relevant and productive. The debates that occurred in throughout the meeting would have been far better held till the meeting moved to that section, which we didnt even get time to address, so that we could have embraced the points raised without needing to return to what others were trying to finish speaking about. Without one's own discipline and respect for others there is no organization, without organization there is only self-determination, without that, we're beating each other down with clubs. Let's all consider this.

One more thing-
This kind of consideration and interest in deliberate input, is Not what I would consider "administrative" tedium. I want to be able to hear, and explore, the full points and facets of what everyone has to say. Our membership is eclectic and creative enough to have many. Everyone here has something of value to put forward, and they need to be heard.