Do we have an agreement as to the basic retreat goal? From a discussion with Stan, it seems that the two small groups [discussing potential retreat outcomes] went down different paths. Agreeing where we plan to get to is crucial to this process and I hope that we can nail that down first. [Click here to view draft notes from our Friday planning meeting.]

-- Judy Gelman (gelman@erols.com), April 18, 2001

Answers

My sense is that we do not have an agreement as to the basic retreat goal. The current statement of the theme, "Reexamining and renewing our covenant of shared values" is more of a statement about process (that is, what we might do at the retreat) than a statement of goal or outcome. My reading of where the retreat planning process is led me to construct a set of activities that should ensure that we have the "horse" or ends stated clearly before we construct the "cart" (means to those ends).

Part of the dynamic is that the retreat planning team is top heavy with carpenters. I hope that you each take my request to expand the decision-making team seriously.

-- Michael Gottlieb Berney (mgberney@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

Dear Michael- I really don't know what or who you mean by "carpenters." Warmly- Judy

-- Judy Gelman (gelman@erols.com), April 18, 2001.

I thought we did have consensus: 1. the retreat would look at the prinicples and guidelines to see what has to be revised; what new ones we need. 2. the retreat would set up a process whereby these activities could be carried on throughout the year and with people who were and were not at the retreat. 3. At the end of the movie we would have a guidline or some guidelines ready to submit to the congregation.

-- Stanley Newman (stanleynewman@prodigy.net), April 18, 2001.