Summary of the Second meeting (April 25th, 2009)

[Prayas Abhinav]

Hi All,

Sorry for the long delay in writing this up! For a few days I did not
really own my time :)

At the second meeting of the YourTime Club (YT Club) three people
turned up. Four of the earlier There was Meeta, Urmila and Hitesh.
Meeta is an architect and is interested at some point to develop a
temporary structure at the land which allows for varied social uses by
different groups. I am going to open up the land for use by
communities and groups in Bangalore soon. Meeta’s work will be very
helpful for that.

Hitesh has a construction firm which his elder brother runs and he had
dropped in to see if there was anything interesting that he could do.
He had some interesting ideas for beginning to engage with the
neighbourhood. He suggested that we paint some sign-boards which
invite people in the neighbourhood to come to the land and do things
with members of the club. Are all of us meeting at this remote out-of-
the-way land to “work” with the neighbourhood there? This is the
question that came up again and again.

Urmila is a HR professional and she had come to the meeting to meet
and talk to a few people who had been laid off and understand how they
feel. She said she would have guilt if she had to ask people to leave.
She also discussed in some detail the kinds of discussions that happen
before a decision is taken to fire an employee. She said that work is
not less, but the recession has become an excuse for employers to act
rashly.

To go back to the initial concept behind the YT Club “doing things
that we couldn’t do because we were fully employed.” So, to re-look at
our relationship with work and so also with unemployment and society.
There are numerous things which society wants to be done but can’t
afford to buy the time for it - can some of the surplus time of the
unemployed be used for such things? How do we find out what these
things are?

Meeta and Urmila pointed out that starting out with specific
activities while at the same time keeping the possibility for emergent
activity, might allow the members to bond easier with the YT Club. So,
I am including a list of events and activities planned this month and
the next.


>> Activities currently planned:

-- On the 23rd of May we are planning it a party (for about 20-25
guests) for people who own their time at the LAND*. We will all cook
together, enjoy some good music, talk about plans and try to seed a
community feeling amongst us. It will help us network with other who
own their own time in a more informal setting. The party space is
being created by Dharmesh Ghangani, an architect from CEPT working at
CNT in Bangalore.
-- Dharmesh and I will be doing a 5-day temporary architecture
workshop with people from design and non-design backgrounds in June
1st week.
-- A YourTime Magazine which goes deeper into the issues of work-life,
life-work, time, leisure, productivity, unemployment and related
issues is under planning too, expect an announcement soon.


>> Some changes:

As a way of questioning the work-life inspired the weekend culture,
future meetings will be planned on Monday mornings and not Saturday
evenings.


A post about the second meeting is coming up!

best wishes,
Prayas

- - -

LAND = UWA hostel plot, New Thippasandra, Link to the google map:
http://is.gd/rl5p or call me if you need directions (that’s my mobile
number up there)

[Ranjita Bora]

Hi Prayas,

I gather you will be holding a meeting this monday instead of today i.e saturday. Looking forward to the confirmation,

Regards,

Ranjita

[Prayas Abhinav]

Hi Ranjita,

Yes, the plan is to meet on Monday 11th May, 10:30 a.m. Same place [map: http://is.gd/rl5p].

See you on Monday!

Everyone: this is an open google group - anyone can post to it. Just press reply. So thoughts, ideas... let them come... Can everyone pl confirm if Monday morning 10:30 is going to work?


best wishes,
~ prayas

--
Prayas Abhinav
http://prayas.in

[Amrita Ghosh]

Hi Prayas,

 

I’ll be interested to attend this meeting.

 

Thanks,

Amrita

[meeta jain]

hi prayas,

the monday meeting time will not work for me..but hope to see you soon again

meeta

 

[meeta jain]

hi Prayas,

the monday meeting time will not work for me....but hope to see you again soon.

 

Meeta

 

[Dharmesh Gangani]

Hey prayas,
It seems Monday morning is difficult time for the people to attend.
Is it not possible to rethink the timings? and keep it in the evening.
Just a suggestion....

Dharmesh

--
[ DG ]
http://www.gangani.pencilheadz.net/
http://youtube.com/dharmeshgangani
http://workshop-rbe.blogspot.com/