Dear Carpet-Colleagues,

At the end of our session last Thursday, 8th December we continued our sharing discussion around the actual needs of the collective and our work.

The most important thing we discussed was around attendance, and how to organize it with as many people as we are with constantly changing agenda’s.

1. All sessions open
What Makiko brought up 2 weeks ago, we reaffirmed: Other than having semi-closed cycles, let’s say that in principle all sessions are open to be joined independently. So, you can come in at any point in a cycle of sessions a join the research. Just announce that you are coming, that’s all!

2. Announcing attendance
The idea is that you announce that you are coming to a session by simple putting your name and “I’ll be there on (date)” in the comment to the post that is announcing a (series of) session(s). [click on COMMENTS right below the particular post] This way session leaders will never be surprised by the amount of people showing up.

3. Session leader forms a core group
Next to this, experience shows that it is more satisfactory for session leaders to ask some people from the group personally for their sessions, so that there is a ‘core’ group of people who are doing the session(s) with each other, independent from the rest of people who might join in.
You can find other group members telephone numbers and e-mail addresses through the password protected members page. Contact Thomas if you forgot the password.

4. Session leaders decide how to work
In our 1st discussion on 1st December we talked about the fact that different leaders have been approaching their sessions in different ways: e.g. some chose a topic they were working on in their own artistic process at the moment, some others proposed a topic they thought might be of interest for the carpet collective at the actual moment. Some leaders came up with a clearly predefined structure of exercises etc. that they would hold on during the sessions and others worked from a more ‘open’ source, adapting and re-shaping the session in regard to the actual process and questions that came up while working. We concluded that the potent of the Carpet Collective resides a.o. in the diversity of our different backgrounds, visions and approaches. So, we are not looking for “one way” of choosing theme and way of leadership. It is up to each leader how to approach those aspects and at the same time it might be helpful for the process to share any significant choices with the group of that afternoon.

Other things we said:

– If sessions are cancelled or the space is not used, Carpet Collective members can use the studio with up to 4 people at no extra cost. Just organize the key amongst each other.
– New people are welcome, but always check if these people have a certain understanding/background of instant composition and improvising in front of an audience. Also it is helpful to check with the current session leader before you just invite someone new.

If you have anything to add or comment – please share your thoughts by posting a comment.

Bettina