meeting mania in machias!

For the past two weeks, I've been squirreled away in the delightful winter wonderland that is also known as machias. And while it was snowy and delightful outside (one night, it got down to -8!), mostly we hung out inside the hive to look back at 2010 and look forward to 2011 (and beyond!).

I neglected to take photos for the most part- so have stolen them from mattie, recent, and matt (thanks!)

On the final travel leg, we had a car full of people (7 of us, i think) and our things- and then stopped at trader joes for a major stock up. So Nikki has some extra cushion for the ride home (only about 6 hours left in the trip at that point).

We created a whole new world- called stickyland- where all bees could make a detailed list of all the tasks we do, so that we can work towards a more even distribution of labor by passing on tasks from people with too many to people with too few.

Making stickies
sharing back with the group about stickyland

new bee caucus

winter time beach! it was a first for me... so pretty.

skipping rocks on jasper beach on one of the few breaks...

Lists and lists...

Note takin' (all the time)

meetings may have killed nate...

Somewhere in between meetings- we managed to have a birthday party for everyone- and had friends from town join us!

Even frida got to celebrate with a catfood cake!

party party!

delightful

The first coal project debrief-- starting with a timeline of the 3 year project! Epic!

meeting smiles.

chattin it up

prepping for the snow fall during a lunch break.

erin not only survived the snow-- but loved it (if she says other wise... she's in denial)

Trying to define out Niche, mission, vision and goals... it's sort of kind of a really big thing.

Outside of meetings, the agenda team had more meetings to talk about the meetings! MEETING MANIA!
Planning meetings on the beach...

such a lovely day!

Reporting back on the what happened in 2010 with the Mesoamerica Resiste project (lots of things!)

we make mind maps--- it's true!

sharing

doing some political alignment work (and yes, that is in fact another mind map)

investigating the magical world that is the poster
reading a list of beehive magic (consider it our secret spell)

Coming up with big ideas... together.

We finished up meetings just a few days ago... with the last two days being a full on, no water breaks sprint to the finish line. And the next morning- many of us split ways. To North Carolina, to New Orleans, to Colorado, to Pennsylvania, to California, to Ohio... and holding ground in Maine. Two weeks isn't enough time to see people- especially when every breath you take involves the word 'meeting.'

And now I'm sitting in sams living room in Pittsburgh- with Recent and Nate- trying to hear whats what with fracking around here by putting our ears as closely to the ground as we can. I'm learning a lot, and being afraid a whole lot, too.

More to come.