Working together non-hierarchical collaborative group that wants to take important decisions together means we depend on each other a lot.
Doing all this in our free time also means that we need to consciously set some time apart to live up to our commitment to make this work. With most people leading very busy lives I have the impression that the combination of all the treads, proposals and documents can easily become overwhelming.
Proposed solution to be tried out
The solution I would like to try out is a document called “updates”. This would be a document that includes all the essential things that happened in The Reef since the last update. This will include the plenary meetings, news from the Teams, things everybody needs to do etc.
So if you would have been on a 3-week business trip to Mars, upon your return you would only need to check two documents to be up-to-date on the essentials:
The “agenda and minutes” document from the plenary meetings
The “updates” document
If you have more time, the next source of information would be the Edgeryders forum, where we document and exchange on things that are relevant for the entire group.
Kind request
@reeflings: Would you be willing to do the following?
Have a look at the first update (internal link) and catch up if needed (especially the “to do” part and the plenary meeting)
Provide me with some feedback in the thread below. It could be lenghty and detailed, or just a couple of words, whatever feels good.
This would meet my need to know that everybody is still on board. TIA!
For me it’s GEFN-SETT (Good Enough For Now, Safe Enough To Try).
Advantages: short and curated.
The potential disadvantages:
one more document to update for Team Coordination… so more workload.
the absence of clarity on the authoritative version. “I did not do it, because it was not on the updates doc”. Is this a valid argument, or is the person supposed to check, say, the previous meeting’s minutes, or the calendar, or whatever else?
It’s half an hour’s work that saves more than 20 individuals a lot of frowning, being overwhelmed, getting lost and/or getting discouraged, so I tell myself it’s a service to the community with a good ROI.
The way I see it is that it is still everyone’s responsibility to stay up-to-date. The updates document is just a tool to help with that. I would regret it if we would go formalistic or legalistic on each other though. We are here to help each other and to look for solutions when things went wrong, no?
The updates document should not be an additional burden. On the contrary, it should help everybody to deal with being part of a remote organisation as a time-intensive hobby. For the email notifications you’ll see that Alberto created a manual that should make it easier to tweak your notifications in a way that are most useful to you.
I find this compilation very useful (even for those who haven’t been absent) and especially appreciate the internal links! Thank you, Lie! Is it meant as a continuous document (with the latest updates on top)?