The Web of Oz
Planning Meeting Outline

The Web crafts our rituals using our version of consensus processing, though frequently we simplify the process considerably. We feel that consensus is the best way to craft rituals that meet everyone's needs, ignoring no one.

Our current planning meeting structure dates from the Web Council on April 9, 1994. We discussed the possibility that our rituals at the time were getting stale, that we were simply repeating previous rituals rather than crafting new (and possibly more appropriate) rituals to meet new needs. The two clearest motifs in the spirited discussion were that we often did not seem to be bringing care and attention to the crafting and enactment of our rituals, and that a dependence on the "Rituals Past" portion of the planning meeting should either come after or be part of the "What I want in This Ritual" round. The Council agreed to the following outline for ritual planning meetings. We totally dropped the historical recap of each previous instance of that particular sabbat from our planning meeting structure. (I kind of miss it. It gave new people some historical background. But it was long, and got longer every year.)

The "What I Need" part was put up front to get us to concentrate on the magical purpose to satisfy people's needs. The critique of the most recent ritual was deferred somewhat for the same reasons.

Current Ritual Planning Meeting Structure

1. Check-in
2. Announcements
3. Set facilitator, vibes-watcher, dragon
4. Set dates and times
   • Date and time for the upcoming ritual
   • Date, and if possible the time, for the next ritual
   • Date and time for the next planning meeting
     (generally three weeks before the next ritual)
   • If we need a Council, set a date and time for that.
5. Critique the most recent ritual
6. —break—
7. A round of "what I need/want in a ritual right now"
8. Brainstorm on how to achieve these goals in the ritual. There will probably eventually be a series of rounds as people converge on a plan.
9. Craft the ritual
10. Test for consensus

Former Ritual Planning Meeting Structure

1. Check-in, which includes "what I need in a ritual right now"
2. Set facilitator, vibes-watcher, dragon
3. Decide on purpose for the upcoming ritual
4. Announcements
5. Set dates and times
   • Date and time for the upcoming ritual
   • Date, and if possible the time, for the next ritual
   • Date and time for the next planning meeting
     (generally three weeks before the next ritual)
   • If we need a Council, set a date and time for that.
6. Critique the most recent ritual
7. —break—
8. Brainstorm on how to achieve the agreed-upon purpose in the ritual
9. Comments
10. Craft the ritual
11. Test for consensus

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The current URL is http://www.webofoz.org/planning.shtml
This file was modified 12/14/04 11:32:57 PM

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