Meeting!

Hi Everyone-
So I was thinking that we should try to meet before Spring Break. Our next meeting is going to be Thursday March 1st- 9pm my house again.
Please comment on your thoughts before then.

Also, there is a new Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola. They are having some cool seminars this semester that I thought we might want to check out.

March 14 "Making the City Child Friendly" (2-4 25 E Pearson Rm. 204)
April 2 "The Right of Homeless Children to Healthy Lives" (LSC)
April 25 "Children Facing War and Political Violence" (LSC)

peace, Laura

Mackenzie, Patrick, Hannah and Eddie....we miss you terribly and wish we could have hung out with you last night. Here are the notes from last night’s meeting. We haven’t made any final decisions because, of course, we still want everyone’s input that wasn’t there. This is what the 5 of us came up with…

■ Internet: We could get dial-up and only hook it up to one computer so that internet would be there in those procrastinating….it’s 3 am and the library is closed and I still have to do research….moments, but it wouldn’t be something that would distract us from the community. But, it’s possible that we still may be able to pick up a wireless signal for free in which case, we should have this discussion next year about how that would fit into simple living and community.

■Facilitator: We all agreed with the comments on the blog. We all think having a facilitator would be beneficial. We think this relationship should be a sort of open-door policy with no set commitments, but a person who is serious about the community and willing to make the commitment to it. What we want from this person is the chance to occasionally talk to someone outside of the community one on one about our experience, someone who would join us for dinner every now and then and someone who would be willing to facilitate a conversation within the group if needed in a difficult situation. This person’s personality will shape the role as well (for example, whether the person is more interested in prayer or group dynamics would make a big difference). Also, we don’t like the term facilitator, we are going to call it a community mentor instead. Except, we’re trying to find a cool word for mentor (maybe from the Bantu languages….where other great words come from, such as safari and mambo and of course ubuntu)

■ NEXT MEETING: We never decided when it will be so I’m just going to throw out a suggestion and see if people are free, but if you have a better time just post it. How about the Thursday before spring break at 9pm? Does anyone have an opinion where we should meet? We will be discussing:

- the issue of alcohol

- getting out the word about our community this semester (a possible event or an article in the Phoenix)

- community commitments next year (this is important to figure out before we all make other commitments)

Please comment on these topics so we know where everyone stands going into the meeting.

Notes from the tiny little notecards...

Hi friends,
Well we had a meeting last night which was accompanied with wonderful cookies made by Julie. We talked mostly about planning an Agenda on things to talk about for this semester. Also, we talked a lot about subletting. We decided to make an application for all those interested that would be due March 1st, and then the people living there this summer can get back to all those interested by March 15. Here are the items for this semester's discussion:
-How much involvement from University Ministry in our community
-Community Facilitator, is it necessary and who?
-Sub letters (contract draft we will review next meeting)
-Roommates below us? (Lydia and Laura are working on figuring out who it is...possibly sharing Internet?)
-What specific commitments will we need to make to the community (ex. prayer, dinner, meetings)
-Book Club (possibly a campus wide event?)
-Gardening (would need to start this summer)
-What aspects of the community would start in the summer
-Bank account for community will be opened at beginning of next semester (hopefully get a good bonus)
-Should we get the word out this semester?
-Dean Brackley (on campus, might see together?)
-Dan Berrigan (possibly extra talk to Ubuntu)
-Simple Living guidelines
-Dishwashers vs. hand washing, which is better?
-alcohol policy for community and issues with that
-creative activities we can do as a community
-Internet
-Banner with Community name

We then picked a few topics that we thought needed to be addressed sooner and we will be talking about them at our next meeting, Thurs Feb 15 at 9pm-ish at Laura's. Hannah, Patrick and Eddie, if you could give your comments on these issues before then we thought that could be helpful.
Things to comment on:
-University Ministry Involvement
-Community Facilitator (we will need to ask soon)
-Sub letters (all interested email Julie or Cassie ASAP!)
-Roommates below us
-Internet (especially so we can tell summer sub letters)

Thanks for reading this crazy long post. We miss all of you abroad. also look for a short email from me too. thanks!
-laura

Art?

Hey Guys-
So I was checking our email and Lydia emailed us about this really cool class called Activism Through Art. They are looking for groups to create art projects for, and I was thinking it would be really cool if they could make something for our house (or even maybe help paint the upstairs or something). Anyways, there is a mandatory meeting for anyone who would like the class' help, it's this tuesday feb 6 at 7pm. i have class and i was wondering if anyone else can go. email the teacher at ttresse@luc.edu and let her know that we are coming and what our organization is all about. comment if you can go. thanks!
peace,
laura

Thank You

Thank you all so much for the card. It came to me right when I needed it most. I just got home from a long day at praxis to find it laying on my desk. You are all with me here and I think and talk about you all a lot. Thanks again!

PR