Proposal 11: Weekly Leader Reminder Letter
Add form letter to GROW form letters page titled Weekly Leader Reminder Letter, to be sent to the upcoming leader on Wednesday.
Recommended Language:
“Dear :
I’m sending you a friendly reminder that you are scheduled to chair this upcoming Sunday. I’ll be attaching a clean copy of the updated meeting format to this email. Let me know if you have trouble opening it or copying it to an email. Please remember not to add any urls in your post!
**Please reply to this email to verify your availability to lead this Sunday. You must send your meeting lead email on Saturday night, no later than Sunday morning, to ensure that ladies in various time zones will receive the meeting on Sunday morning.
If, for some reason you cannot chair the meeting this Sunday, please let me know before Saturday so I can find a replacement leader.
*For a list of meeting topics that have been previously used, visit the following link on the GROW webpage. http://www.g-r-ow.com/members/topics/chrontopics.htm
Thank you for your service!
-Weekly Leader Listkeeper”
Rationale:
- This letter needs to be sent each Wednesday to ensure the assigned leader will be available for the upcoming Sunday meeting. There is no “official” form letter on GROW for this. Making this an “official” form letter would make sure the Listkeeper had an approved form letter to use each week, reflecting past business meeting decisions. Refer to the April 2012 business meeting decision below, where it was decided that the meeting be posted on Saturday, no later than Sunday morning.
- Weekly Meeting > Topic Postings (4/12)
Decision: We have consensus on this Proposal and it is APPROVED that we begin posting the meeting on Saturday, no later than Sunday morning. We will “revisit” this topic in our October 2012 Business Meeting to discuss possible modification of our website and literature to reflect this change.Proposal: Begin posting the meeting on Saturday, no later than Sunday morning, to ensure that ladies in various time zones will receive the meeting on Sunday.
Summary of Comments on Proposal 11
- I strongly disagree with this suggested language. We have been here before, as having meeting leads consistently “on time” has always been an issue. It’s inappropriate to require meeting leaders to post their leads on Saturday, as our meeting starts on Sunday. The group decided in past debates that we can suggest people post on Saturday but not require it. Also, “Sunday morning” is difficult because our members are in so many time zones. I would change the language as follows.
**Please reply to this email to verify your availability to lead this Sunday. You must can send your meeting lead email on Saturday night, no later than Sunday morning, to ensure that ladies in various time zones will receive the meeting on Sunday morning. I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask people to let the listkeeper know before Saturday if they can’t chair. This will not help with people who simply forget to post their leads (I have been guilty of this) or who have something come up at the last minute. The listkeeper has already asked them to confirm they will be there on Sunday. If they do not confirm, that’s a clear sign there may be a problem. If they do confirm, we have to trust that they’ll do it.Basically, this proposal is asking the meeting leads to solve what is an occasional problem for the Weekly Meeting Lead Listkeeper. I just don’t think it’s necessary. I would delete this sentence completely. If, for some reason you cannot chair the meeting this Sunday, please let me know before Saturday so I can find a replacement leader. - Sounds great.
- This letter is very good and I appreciate having it. Thanks to Amanda for taking her job to heart and creating this.
- Minority Opinion after the vote
- My only problem with this proposal is the following sentence: “If, for some reason you cannot chair the meeting this Sunday, please let me know before Saturday so I can find a replacement leader.” I would change my vote to “I agree” if the words “before Saturday” were deleted.
- I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask people to let the listkeeper know before Saturday if they can’t chair. What happens if the person doesn’t know until Saturday that they won’t be available? This will not help with people who simply forget to post their leads (I have been guilty of this) or who have something come up at the last minute. The listkeeper has already asked them to confirm they will be there on Sunday. If they do not confirm, that’s a clear sign there may be a problem. If they do confirm, we have to trust that they’ll do it.
- If the Weekly Leader Listkeeper maintains a list of women who will step in to lead a meeting when the scheduled person doesn’t post the meeting, she doesn’t need the advance notice to find a replacement lead.
- Basically, the language “before Saturday” is asking the meeting leads to solve what is an occasional problem for the Weekly Meeting Lead Listkeeper. I just don’t think it’s necessary. It won’t solve the problem, and it imposes an unnecessary requirement on the weekly lead.
- Again, the rationale behind this is to give the WLL a heads up IF POSSIBLE. There is no punishment or consequence if they can’t. This is a courtesy! I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to be courteous and let the WLL know ahead of time if they can’t Chair. If they don’t show or run late, that’s a separate issue. This is for people that know they have a conflict ahead of time.If things happen, they happen and we are more than flexible when life happens! This has been working so far when I sent this request to our chairs. The big question here is… does the language “before Saturday” help or hurt the group and the way it functions… or this an issue of people personally not wanting so many “guidelines”? This is about what helps our group function and get meetings posted on time for everyone.
- This happens so rarely that I don’t think it’s necessary to add another task to the Weekly Topic Leader’s responsibilities. As a group, I think that we can allow our members to think for themselves instead of being told what to do. We can’t legislate courtesy or good manners, or know in advance that we won’t be available on a particular Sunday. Also, let’s not forget that unlike f2f meetings that last for about 1-1/2 hours (someone had mentioned that they start on time) our meetings last for one week. This gives us plenty of time to receive and share on a Topic by either the Topic Leader or her replacement. My $.02 tonight.
- Part of the confusion that I see the possibility of, is double posting of meetings. If an overzealous , stickler for the rules weekly leader doesn’t see a meeting posted by the time required, then, in all fairness to her, she would go ahead and post a meeting, That is clearly unfair to the leader who has been waiting for 3 months to lead a meeting, if she should happen to run late of forget, for a moment. This has been an issue in the past, and we have survived with barely a few meetings posted as late as Monday. But its really not fair to give the lead every chance for their opportunity. My two cents.
- I see 8 am PST as a suggestion. I am not intending to hold anyone to this while I am WLL. As long as I know that someone is going to post that day, preferably that morning or midday US time, I am okay with that. It is when I do not hear back from the person signed up that I must find myself with a bit of extra work. Once the business meeting is concluded, I will send out the revised letter seeking backup leaders.
Results of Voting on Proposal 11
Pass 13 agree, 0 disagree
Group Conscience Decision:
Add recommended language to the Weekly Topic Leader Message.