Since throughout this boot camp, there's mention of things that you should be taking care of at meetings, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the idea of meetings, and all the lovely things that you could put on your agenda, and point to the associated posts. I'm assuming you actually did the exercises that explicitly instruct you to use a meeting, since you probably won't need to use those exercises again.
- Hiring and Firing and Self-Advocacy - You might have a meeting about issues with your counselor or therapist, and agree on what you will or will not share with someone who is a new member of your team.
- Always Lock the Door When You Leave - Working on safety rules pertaining to the world outside your body.
- Knives Point Down in the Dishwasher - Working on safety rules to modify and monitor internal behavior. You might also refer to That's MY Shampoo! on this topic.
- You Can't Make Me! and Who Stole My Money? both deal with how to get compliance so that people follow the rules -- from inspiring them to follow rules voluntarily to holding meetings to determine disciplinary measures for rules violations.
- You're always making me late! deals with avoiding time loss through time tracking, and you might discuss different means of tracking time with your fellow residents at meetings.
- Don't shove me around! and Is this a home or a prison? help you deal with the issue of stealing front (ie. "time loss") so you might hold meetings to discuss how you can share time with your other residents.
- Can we talk this over? covers methods of improving internal communication. You might hold meetings to brainstorm new ideas for how to improve communication.
- We're so glad you could join us! addresses how to help get stuck guests to become less stuck so that your other methods of improving internal relationships will help the stuck guest; this can involve some meetings or committee meetings to set up ambassadors to approach the stuck guests.
There's many ways to use meetings, not limited to this list. Eventually internal communication can become so natural that you no longer need to hold formal meetings, and the votes and internal communications "just happen" and there's less rules violations, the rules list is pretty stable, and you have such good relationships and clearly identified goals and roles that you no longer need to monitor everyone's behavior so closely or hold meetings over every little decision. Until you build a solid sense of trust, however, these explicit meetings help you turn the chaos in your system into a more orderly community.
If your system is running this smoothly, there are many other things you can turn your attention and energy to, some of which will be addressed as this boot camp continues.