DOT Minutes Feb 2007

After reporting to the parish Board last night, some further thoughts occurred to me. Starting with the size of the faithful attendees at the DOT meetings v. the number of things that need to be done in the church. Not a new issue, by far. More on that in a minute.

Saturday, March 24 is my first choice. I will check with Fr M if there is an Annunciation liturgy that morning.

1. I confess to dropping the ball regarding total preparation for the big event last Sunday. Please forgive me. Although the post vespers meal went well, thanks to an enthusiastic parish response, and a wonder of a clean up crew, the dusting of the church floor before that glorious Vesper service was left to one hard worker, who probably had other things to do...

Ken Naff said he would locate the info we need to get those wide dust mops that will make it easier to do the job, and with two of them on hand, a partner-in-work can cut the job in half for anyone clever enough to realize the floor needs a touch up - not me, but someone who notices those things

If you care to browse the info re the women's group, you will note some helpful info, useful in any parish, and worth taking a closer look - since OUR PARISH is growing so quickly.

For example, the link for the tasks of the women's group encompasses a long list of items, nearly all of which are dealt with in our parish by a particular person, who usually asks for help, informally. It wouldn't be hard to mentally substitute those names - you know them as well as I. The difference is, on that web site they are "officially" named as responsible. The jobs are defined. They maintain a notebook that lists these responsibilities and describes in detail what is expected, in order to complete that task.

Most of the "positions" in the list are filled by "appointees" in our parish, not by elected individuals. No problem, but is anyone in training to assist, to learn how, to fill in, to (ouch) replace such a person? [Rhetorical queston: no response required.]

In the St John parish the vice pres is "in training" to replace the Pres. Well, Yazmin, I wouldn't do that to you, since we promised not to at the time you accepted the post. But it is not a bad idea for the future, and it has been discussed as a possibility in the past. Any ideas on how that could work? For example, when I was vp, I doubled for the person who presented the "devotional minute". It was not then a requirement that the vp become pres when the latter departed.

3. It seems to me that the women who hang out and enjoy each others company, are probably more likely to pull together to do the necessary work when required. The concept that we can "fellowship WHILE we work" is one I don't see happening. I think maybe that is the cart before the horse. - Maybe that is just my view - not being especially social myself, it is a view that is just a bit hazy right now.

What do you think of more emphasis on getting together as women in the church, so that the tasks can be the bass viols to that symphony, instead of the violins. Any thoughts on that?

Do you think this meets the fellowship needs of the women in this parish? This is soooo not my area of expertise, so any input or any idea of who might have some good ideas would be welcome.

I would say: "let's cover this at the next meeting", but if the attendance remains light, the opportunity for input is not getting accomplished. Maybe like the British Parliament, the real work needs to be done outside the formal presentation. OR we could actually have a SHORT meeting on a Sunday...as Exec Committee, with invitaion open to any interested party that has a free minute or two. ya think??

Suggestions, please!! We all love out parish, and want to see it as a comfortable, well run home away from home, but this does take some planning...and getting that sand out of life's gears...