This and that

[luzula]

1) Anyone want to beta-listen to a podfic of my Yuletide story, about an hour long? You probably need to know the basic worldbuilding of The Left Hand of Darkness, but it's all original characters.

2) sage wrote me fic! In fact, she wrote me the Bob/Buck/Caroline fic of my heart. ♥ ♥ ♥ Do go read it, and then tell her how wonderful it is.

3) I posted a podfic of my femslash story The Hills of Iowa for the Triangle challenge on fan_flashworks. Now I just need to write an entry for the current challenge, too, and then I get an author tag! This is ridiculously motivating for me for some reason, and I have a halfway-written fic for it already. I love how these kinds of challenges make you write things you wouldn't otherwise have written.

4) Am down in the south for the annual meeting of the environmental organization of which I am a board member. Oof, all-day meetings make me tired, and on top of that there was someone snoring all night in my train compartment, so I didn't sleep well. *yawns*

Comments

[luzula]

Well, I am on the board, so I did pay attention--I mean, I found it all interesting, but tiring. Also, there was a bit of a clash of meeting cultures. Some people like free-wheeling discussions with people talking all over each other, which are great in some contexts, but sometimes there's a reason you have more formal meetings with people waiting their turn to speak (I usually prefer some sort of structure to a meeting). Ah well.

[jesse_the_k]

Congrats on maintaining your focus. Sadly, I've nodded off at boards I was chairing. /o\

That lack of shared governance methods can be frustrating. I was part of a 40-person coop household (an old sorority with many rooms) and we were able to fix chaotic meetings by identifying the ten people with the strongest feelings about the "right way" to run a meeting. Of course 10 people = 12 opinions. Anyway, each one had to run the meeting once. That taught everyone the goods and the bads of different styles.

There's an exceptionally rigid and technical system called Robert's Rules of Order, Revised which governs most public meetings (particularly governmental meetings) in the U.S. If you understand all of its details, you can grab control and effect whatever change you desire. It's pretty loathesome, and widespread: I've seen it used in high school governments, public hearings on city planning, National Association of the Deaf meetings, and many more. The rules for Congress are a little different but follow the same general pattern.

Is there any standard system for group decision making in Sweden? (Rules which surely could precede 1066.)

[luzula]

I remember the bit from "One Good Man" where Fraser just talks and talks and for some reason nobody can interrupt him. I suppose that has something to do with meeting rules? I never really got that bit.

Is there any standard system for group decision making in Sweden?

Oh, hmm. Sweden has a rich history of non-governmental, not-for-profit organizations such as the workers' movement, the temperance movement, "folk universities" and various educational organizations, etc. And of course there's a legacy from there of how things are usually done.

I have to say that the best meetings I've ever been in have been in Nature & Youth Sweden, which I am too old for now, but which had the best meetings ever: there were clear rules but it was still not rigid, and we were always striving to be democratic and rework the rules if needed. Two of us on the board come from that organization, and we are basically in agreement on how meetings should be run and in any case always very aware of the structure, but some others are all "aaaah I want no structure whatever, it just restrains and oppresses us and keeps us from being spontaneous and creative". So yeah, a bit of a conflict.

ETA: Er, I didn't mean to sound dismissive of their POV, because obviously it's frustrating for them, too, and I get that there is no clear right and wrong here. I was just kind of venting at you, since you are an uninvolved party...