What’s the bare minimum, the very least you require from a student and a community? The things you have to have for a community to be viable?
Present, on-time, and civil.
If you have these three things, you can build almost anything. I can’t think of anything else that represents the very least you need to start a group moving forward.
You can take each of these apart. Present might includes being on-time but I’d argue that needs to be explicitly stated. It also implies a kind of engagement — you have to be involved to be truly present – but it also explicitly contains things like preparation. Sad to say, it also ought to mean things like sobriety.
Civility means listening to others, being respectful, and disagreeing appropriately. It’s also small things like taking your headphones out when you’re in a professional situation. I like civility over professional because there ought to be moments where you can let your hair down without losing a sense of civility.
I’m trying to define a bottom line for us to consider how we’ll build a foundation for our culture. In other words, what’s non-negotiable before we begin negotiating how we’ll be known next year.
