where and when to meet

We’ve just come back from the Cornubia for a social. This was a good pub according to most of our criteria, but they shut at 6pm on Sunday. They seem open to staying open slightly later for us, but at the moment we’re really too small to ask such a big favour. However, they did say that Mondays there are quite quiet. Is this somewhere we’d like to go for our reflective sessions? Also, should we be thinking about having our social session on a Monday too? It seems to be really difficult to find a city centre pub that’s suitable and open on a Sunday. An argument for this is that everything could be simpler if we end up meeting in the same place, on the same day of the week. I’m sure there are reasons against this, so please comment.

We did commit to exploring different pubs for a few sessions. Please suggest where we should go for the next reflective session. This will need to be a relatively quiet pub, in the city centre, with real ale! This is the minimum requirement…

mailing list

Hi. Can I encourage everyone to join the Threshold mailing list? You’ll have to sign up for a Yahoo account, but that’s a quick and painless process. The list has been quiet so far, but it should be becoming our main channel for announcements and private discussions shortly, as not everyone’s on Facebook.

Cheers
Phil

greenbelt

do we want to ask to do something at greenbelt this year? it would be something light like a pub meeting or low key installation. points to consider: is everyone going? we’re a young group? what would we do?

one hour preparation – rule or guideline?

jenny wrote: On my sick bed (I got a virus for Christmas) I have been designing a spiritual adventure game for the next reflective meeting (first Monday in January, which I think is the 6th). The only problem is I have exceeded the one hour preparation time we decided upon, so that it didn’t become a chore to plan meetings.Is this a rule or a guideline? Can we individually choose to ignore this, or will this put pressure on people in the future to do bigger and better things, leading to us all disappearing down the exhausted-alt-worship plug-hole?!

john wrote: From the totally theoretical view of someone who is only a virtual hanger-on to this enterprise…I’d prefer it to be a guideline, because sometimes I really get into something and spend hours on it. When this happens, the preparation is actually a lot of fun, and it’s wrong to place arbitrary limits on having fun However, if one does this, it’s probably a good idea to apologise to the group for breaking the guideline, and promise to do something simpler next time.

bea wrote: What John Said – I think its OK as a guideline, and should be taken as an average over time, so that a particular person can spend more than an hour if they really want to, but should try to do something much simpler that takes only 20-30mins prep next time, to make up for it.

are we happy with chosen pubs?

richard wrote: I haven’t made it to the Portwall Tavern yet so can’t comment on it as a venue. Was there a strong reason for not just meeting in the Llandoger Trow on Mondays as well as Sundays?

bea wrote: It was the balance between wanting nice beer and a nice venue – the LT is large and has lots of cubby holes suitable for meetings, but the beer is rubbish – PT has nice beer but is small…

jenny wrote: Perhaps we should swap over which pub we use for what? The PT is fine for a social and the LT would have more privacy for reflective sessions. We’ll meet at the PT tomorrow night though.

lindsey wrote: the current pubs don’t really work. I propose we try a different pub each time over the next 6 or so meetings. Then we can make a decision based on our experiences of warmth, accessibility, noise level, beer, space etc. As long as we give plenty of notice this shouldn’t matter. I propose the royal navy volunteer as the next venue. If there is consent (no-one objects) Jenny can send out details in a facebook event invitation nearer the time/Phil can e-mail. In the meantime lets keep thinking of alternatives.

discussion

we have now set up a website/blog and this discussion page is intended to take over from the facebook discussion forum. this is so that anyone can access the information, without needing to join facebook. to keep you up to speed i will copy in discussions previously on facebook.