The First Meeting, and why you should come to the Second

[snorkey]

Preeeesenting, what is hopefully the new format for Moebius meetings--and note, I didn't say Board meetings:

Yes, Dan was late (try to looked shocked). Once the meeting started, however, it ran 44 minutes. Count 'em, 44. This means that a Board meeting which started late was still over by 8pm.

(Oh, an aside: make sure you log in and check the "Script Ideas" section of the Forum: our first silly-as-you-wanna-be contest is announced!)

After the Board business finished, we watched a DVD of two Moebius shows, a few people left, and the remainder tossed around bad humor and interesting sketch ideas for an hour or two.

HERE'S THE POINT:

We're trying to hack the Board meeting time down as much as possible, so that anybody who wants to come can be assured of doing fun Moebius stuff, rather than watching ink dry on the latest meeting agenda. It appears to be working.

SO COME! Best recommendation, if you want to avoid the boring stuff, would be to arrive between 7:45 and 8:00* for a meeting with a 7pm start time. And bring your good ideas for Moebish activities, just in case. (Or bring a Ouija board, and we'll fake it.)

*(If you would be arriving later, call ahead out of deference to the host, in case we all get thrown out early.)

Yours in trading bureaucracy for Silly String fights,
Dan

[Kate]

Did you discuss anything regarding plans of Moebius actually doing Theatre? Obviously the script contest was discussed, but what about actual productions?

It's cool to have short meetings. It's even cooler to set goals and work to accomplish them. If the goal is to have a social group rather than a theatre company, then I think you're accomplishing it quite well.

Please - I really do not mean this to be as nasty as it may be coming across. I just want to present my own viewpoint for others to comment on. It will give me a clearer idea of whether my view of this group has any relationship to what the group really is, so that I can decide whether to take my theatrical urges elsewhere or try to pursue them here.

[snorkey]

Short Answer: Hell, no. If you've got something, get it on the agenda and bring it on!

Long, windy, read-it-on-your-lunch-hour answer (and sorry for taking so long to reply):
(I've read it again. Ohgawdit'slong. Apologies. Treat it as beach reading, and go at it in chapters.):

I think the essence of what I'm trying to accomplish with the whole "short meeting" thing is in your statement:

"It's even cooler to set goals and work to accomplish them."

Yes, your next line--"social group rather than theater company"--bothered me, but I know it wasn't meant to. It got to me because I was never a subscriber to the whole "social club vsTheatre Company" debate, because it's irrelevant to my own "production company" view.

The "short meeting" idea came about because of going to meetings where the board members struggled through endless theoretical discussions when there wasn't really anything to discuss, and where nothing actually happened. This isn't to say that the people on the board weren't trying, just that whatever was being tried was, for whatever reasons, no longer working. Also, we were spending eight to twelve evenings a year blowing smoke, when we could have been doing things--anythings--more related to why we were together in the first place. Moebius had been reduced to a self-perpetuating committee. I figured that if the endless circular discussion was cut down--by forcing the meetings to a brisker pace--then maybe we'd have time to do other things we actually enjoyed, and maybe more people would come to the meetings and get the creative interaction going again.

I know that sounds "social clubby", but you have to start somewhere, and I chose to start by taking the wind out of the meetings, just a bit...because nothing was actually taking place. So, here come the "production company" idea....

And truthfully, when I thought of this, the first phrase in my head was "Moebius Theatre Presents: A KG Pollack* production of..." *(or EM Blake, C Ott, C O'Neill, L Golladay, JP Sousa...)

If individuals have good ideas for shows, whether independently or from hanging around together at meetings, they can bring them to Moebius even when Moebius doesn't have an existing bid from a con (or whatever), and we can use Moebius resources to help produce it--since con shows are much harder to get than they once were. (And it absolutely cannot hurt to have something concrete to take to a venue and say "This is the show we're going to do" rather than "We'll do some show or other.")

Maybe not every idea will work for Moebius itself...but you'd get Moebians interested in being involved in whatever form a production eventually takes ("KGP Presents: an EMB production, starring a cast of thousands of Moebians on temporary sabatical") . And the ideas that work for Moebius can only be a good thing, because we'd be doing something. And that's the whole point of the exercise.

I, and I'm sure the rest of the board, would love to hear any ideas you care to bring forward. Meeting is Thursday at Pete's; let me know if something can be made into an agenda item; if you can't attend, but would like an idea discussed, send it forward.

There are no bad proposals, dammit. Our enemies are inactivity and the inertia that results from it.