Fellow Presbyblogger Michael Kruse compares his General Assembly General Council meetings to cat-herding. I'm starting to learn that his analogy holds for presbytery meetings as well.
This is my first week in my new life as Moderator-elect-elect. There have been lengthy meetings. The meetings are interesting enough but it's hard for me to grasp EXACTLY where we are when we've finished. This is complicated by the fact that QG is relatively new to presbytery doings and sometimes finds herself lost in the ecclesiastical Presbyspeak. Your humble correspondent is way too Type-A for this and finds herself spinning out of her comfort zone.
So today I brought my trusty I-Mac laptop and my imaginary Mom of Presbytery Hat and suggested that I act as clerk and take minutes for the "team" meeting. It worked for me. Hope it works for everyone else.
Yippee-I-O-Kay-Yeah!
9 comments:
worked for me ... thanks for giving us the needed structure. I'm going to use the cat-herding video at my leadership course this Saturday. Love it. Oh ... and don't hesitate to speak out if we're using presbyspeak that is unfamiliar ... how about a sign like a wink, twitch or a nod in my direction. :)
When my wife was an Elder at one of our previous abodes, the Session meetings would get bogged down in nit-piks, or the minutae of how to do X, when the meeting was just to approve the process of investigationg how to do X.
Having facilitated meetings elsewhere, and realizing that the Moderator was not going to step in, she would invariably blurt out That horse is glue, lets move on! ... those on Session that had a clue, would realize she was talking about beating a dead horse, the others would just shut up and stare. In either case, they then would move on to the next agenda item.
So, don't hesitate to create structure where there is none, you're actually doing the whole group a service.
Wendy--Thanks! Look for the ear tug (a la Carol Burnett). That will signify too much presbyspeak.
Reformed Catholic--love the "That horse is glue..." line! That's priceless!
The cat-herding quality of Presbytery meetings is apparently universal. This is exactly how I would describe our meetings of Presbytery also.
Enjoy!
You volunteered to take the minutes?
Geez! They will LOVE you forever!
You'll get the hang of it quickly enough. Call up former moderators and quiz them about what they wish they'd done with their time in office...
Happy for you and for your Presbytery. They are lucky to have you.
"Herding cats"---HAHAHAHAHA
There is wonderful line in the ad where the guy says "I'm living a dream." My sentiments as well both as moderator of presbytery and serving on GAC. It is a dream in that I often find myself saying,"Okay. I'm ready to wake up now."
:)
Presbytery meetings can be almost surreally tedious and crazy making. HOWEVER: I'm currently part of a group planning an interfaith conference here in our town. This group didn't agree in advance to use Roberts Rules, or the Consensus model, or any established structure for group decision making--everyone just plunged in. Believe me, it's ten times worse.
I LOVE that video!
I've used to for Children's Ministry. I think the kids are harder to herd than cats....
This here fits just about any denomination don't you think, and well maybe church too.
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