[WEC-Coord] draft agenda

[Rob Zako]

Dear Dennis and the rest of the WEC Coordinating Committee,

Thank you for suggesting a draft agenda for our meeting on November 20.

In general, I am concerned that this meeting is a bit light on concrete
outcomes, but hope that it will serve as a good check in and that having
more frequent face-to-face meetings will help the group gain and maintain
momentum.

Insofar as the efforts of the various committees are intended to inform the
discussion of the whole group, it would make sense to put the committee
reports closer to the start of the meeting, in particular, after
housekeeping matters.

In the interest of time, I¹d encourage each committee to prepare a brief
written report in advance -- just a few sentences or a paragraph.

Finally, I have a few comments that relate to the Work Plan of the WEC,
which is available online at our wiki:
http://wiki.eugeneneighbors.org/wiki/West_Eugene_Collaborative#West_Eugene_C
ollaborative_Work_Plan

In our discussion of a Work Plan, I hope we will pick up with the Work Plan
we have, making adjustments as necessary, rather than starting from scratch.

The draft work plan contemplates a series of products, each building on the
previous, including:

    1) Core Values. (Kevin circulated a suggested Core Values Statement for
the technical committees to review prior to the 11/20 meeting.)

    2) Goals: Set the vision and the picture of what the WEC is trying to
achieve for west Eugene. The Goals will elaborate on the Core Values
Statement. The Goals should also be consistent with relevant federal, state,
regional and local policy direction.

    3) [Guiding] Principles: Provide guidance on how the goals can be
achieved. The Principles break the goals down into separate pieces. They
will be used for setting the stage for how the alternatives will be
developed. They may include a list of ³tools² or ³strategies² or
³guidelines² for making the principle a reality.

    4) Evaluation Measures: Specify ways that the different alternatives can
be measured to see how well the Goals (hence the Core Values) are achieved.
Not every Principle will need an Evaluation Measure.

The descriptions of Goals, [Guiding] Principles, and Evaluation Measures
above are taken directly from the Work Plan (see page 13).

I am concerned that we are being a bit loose with language, and that some
are looking to flesh out out Core Values and also perhaps Goals, i.e., WHAT
we outcomes we want, whereas others are thinking about [Guiding] Principles
for HOW to get what we want, or even Evaluation Measures for figuring out if
what we get is actually what we want. Such loose use of language sets us up
to be talking about different things during the November 20 meeting.

Personally, I believe the time is ripe or overripe to talk about what we
want, i.e., Core Values and Goals. But I think it would be premature to
begin thinking about HOW to achieve what we want, if that is what is meant
by [Guiding Principles]. WE don¹t yet know enough to begin thinking much
about how to craft potential solutions.

It is also unclear what roles the (technical) committees are expected to
play in the November 20 meeting. Are they to make presentations as part of
the Work Plan and Guiding Principles agenda items or not. What makes sense
for the technical teams to do depends on what is to be done with their work.

Thanks,
Rob


From: Dennis Donald <dennisdonald at earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:02:27 -0700
To: 'WEC Coordinating Committee' <wec_coord at westeugenecollaborative.org>
Cc: 'Scott Bellows' <scott at disputesolutions.org>
Subject: [WEC-Coord] draft agenda

Coordinating Committee:
 
Here is a draft agenda for next week¹s meeting.  We would like to send this
out ­ even if it goes out without some of the read-ahead material related to
the work plan or guiding principles ­ on Wednesday or Thursday a.m. at the
latest.
 
Please let us know if you have suggestions for improvement. We also think it
would be helpful to have a couple WEC members help launch the discussions
for the work plan and the guiding principles.  Let us know if you have
suggestions ­ this could be an opportunity to have some individuals who are
beyond the ³usual suspects² play a more active role. But, we do think
whoever it is should have had some orientation to the topics through the
initial task force deliberations.
 
All the best, Dennis & John
 


 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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