Convenorship
OK, I have an ego. I know that. But I do like to learn from others and was very disappointed by a meeting this afternoon.
Years ago we joined a synagogue in Seattle. This community has a long and honorable record of social activism. Founded during the intense years of civil rights by young, socially active Jews, the Temple has a number of very impressive members with real talent.
As our kids grew up, the imperatives of Jewish community became less imperative but we continued the membership mainly for high holidays and for our admiratiion for the Rabbis.
The rabbis, a couple, are among the "best" I have met. Rabbi J is a wonderfully thoughtful guy, tolerant of my didactic approach to Judaism and wiliing to listen to any idea. Rabbi B brings a deep knowledge of Jewish mysticism that transcends the all to often sterility of ritual. Both care deeply about society.
I have talked a number of times with our Rabbi J. of finding a way to be useful to the Temple while serving causes that interest me. He keeps encouraging me so, this afternoon we attended a meet-up convened by some neighbors who are Temple members.
The ostensible purpose was to bring together members interested in social activism beyond the usual charitable activities of a liberal Jewish synagogue
Sounds good? ……….not so good.
Somewhere, someone has written a manual on how to assure that a meeting stifles discussion. I suspect the title is “Convenorship” or “Meeting Management for Middle Level Naval Officers” or “Maoist Manual for Communal Discussions.” The room had a number bright people but we were all treated like children scripted for a high school performance on MLK day.
About 30 folks so …we were led by the convener in the usual go around the room to say, “Who Am I?”. Pointedly missing was any invitation to say what causes interested us. Two exceptions to this rule .. politely and subtly, it was made clear that a major agenda for the hosts was universal health care. I was, by this time pretty certain I was not having a good time so I mentioned my interests in crossing the racial gap and promoted this blog.
Next on the agenda? All the students were told to choose a pair. Not four or five folks, but pairs of folks new to each other. I was forced to remember reading a leadership manual someplace (Navy?) about not letting groups larger than three get together if you wanted to maintain control.
Of course the pairs were given, well prepared, written instructions. For ten (not 15) minutes we pairs were supposed to trade a history of our families and how that history led us to be socially conscious Jews. One member of thr pair was supposed to record this on a yellow Post-It. I am not sure why they wanted us to use the Post-It, the ancestry shtick never came up again and notes were not stuck up the wall for the class to read later. I think the intent was to release a few drams of serotonin-blocking endorphins in each of us. It was pleasant.
Following step 3 of the Manual, each member of each pair was then supposed to list up to 4-5 things that kept them up at night. This was to include BOTH personal issues and issues that might be appropriate for joint action. A few folks asked why the personal issues were relevant, but I suspect they (including me ) still had not reached the correct level of serotonin.
My pair volunteered his urinary problems and I countered with worries over my brother. Then we each rolled out our personal causes. As it turned out, Walter is a Professor Emeritus of presidential governance. An interesting guy! Walter and I share some ideas about the decay of participatory democracy, global corporate statism and need for a reversal of Bush-Clinton era classism. A lot to find out in 7 minutes , but by then .. somehow, we also realized this was not the place? We agreed to tal;k later.
The convener then had each pair do a show and tell. You remember the drill? Each student in the class explained what they had done last summer. Our meeting was not quite that divers. The pairs’ lists were as predictable as one might expect of a group of largely over 60 middle class, reform Jews: healthcare, retirement, violence against (women, people of other classes), Israel, drugs, schools, bad social effects of twittering, the decay of our aging minds ……… I was tempted to raise my great concern about hungry pet bears but thought better of it. On the other hand, we just finished Passover so maybe the idea was to recite the ten plagues?
As is usual for such meetings, there was only about 10 minutes left. Most of that was taken up by the host’s husband making his spiel about health care. He is obviously knowledgeable. Naturally, there was no time to explore other ideas. Even if there were, the convener told us The Committee would use the data from the Post-Its to decide where to direct the Temple’s efforts.
One or two folks tried to offer other suggestions but were assured that they were not necessary. Ourm two hour meeting ended on time.
Sad thing is that the host seemed unaware that there were a number of people in the room who probably actually could have been recruited to bring some good ideas to the table. My ego aside, I suspect several folks left the room unlikely to do much more that join in the TBA Task Force of Universal Health Care.
Disappointing!
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