Ditching the Must Attend Planning Meeting Rule

Sometimes I want to solve problems before they happen by making rules.  I know things are too complex at home when I have to ask the kids what the rules are again.

I’ve been doing that at co-op.  I called my friend C, who thinks really clearly, and she helped me explore this a bit.

What rule was I hiding behind?  The new families must attend the planning meeting rule.  See, I thought that if they were having to be proactive and think about what they needed out of a co-op as well as what volunteer activity they’d be expected to do, no one would ever give me the “co-op doesn’t meet our needs and takes too much of my time away from our real work.” speech.  That speech doesn’t look too bad in print, I know it isn’t meant to be insulting, but I’m a bit thin skinned.

Actually I’m really, terribly, horribly thin skinned.  So, maybe if everyone knew what they were getting into before they signed up, no one would ever leave in the middle, leaving work undone, and I’d never hear that speech.  AND I wouldn’t have to write a mini course catalog because everyone would have heard the brainstorming session.

But of course; not everyone who is willing to roll up shirt sleeves has ideas for the next few months.  February is not really the most inspiring month.  In fact, a resort where someone else figures out the menu and does the scrubbing sounds lovely right now, especially if there are any nannies on staff.  Back to the willing workers who want a curricula decided by someone else.  Yeah.  We usually have plenty of adults.   Last semester we had so many adults chatting in the homework room that the older kids couldn’t get their homework done.

Some folks who want to join up and may benefit from us even if it’s the middle of the season.  We may actually benefit from them too, but my imagination is a bit stiff a the moment, it’s February.  At any rate, if they drop out in the middle, it’s not that inconvenient, we have enough adults to run co-op right if they go.

So, new rule.  They can jump-in at the middle.

If this doesn’t work out, I can always make more rules ;-)