Date: Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:14 pm



Whaddup yo?

I am afraid (or, perhaps FUCKING STOKED) that this weekend I am going
to be off in Reno, Nevada. I will be coming home Monday night,
complete with Dianna (yeay!!!!) and 2 truck loads household
materials, plates, pots, pans, furniture, clothing, t-shirts from
rock concerts I went to in high school, Halloween costumes, Batman
collectables, home electronics, and at least one bottle of fine Cuban
rum. Did I mention Dianna coming home? My point is simply that I am
not going be available for a pre-meeting meeting, unless it is (dear
god) by speaker phone.

Anywho, the main reason I write to you, my peers, my friends, my team
mates is this:

We are doing fine. Hell, we are doing fucking awesome. We've been
having somewhat intense email debates about the role of an AmeriCorps
team and the role of team meetings. That's not a problem, as I see
it. In fact, I think that is just the kind of thing we SHOULD be
doing as a team to reflect during this service year. I have looked
on the recent cluster emails as stimulating, even pleasant
intellectual exchanges with people whom I respect. I apologize if
what I wrote as reflective essays, crafted, as they were, to spark
conversation, were taken as anything confrontational.

Furthermore, I don't feel that Lauren's missing a single meeting is a
big deal itself. The message I received from the whole event
wasn't "Let's establish an elaborate cover up to hide Lauren's
absence" but, a simple, really low stress, "Lauren's out today so
she'll catch us up later."

So, my team, let us go forward, continuing to communicate,
maintaining our professionalism, holding fast to our friendships and
remembering that, while anything can be MADE INTO a crisis, almost
nothing actually has to BE a crisis.

Joseph B. Warren
Academic Service Learning Coordinator
Campus Connections Americorps
Bellevue Community College
3000 Landerholm Circle SE
Bellevue, WA 98007
Mail Stop D110
Room A241
425-564-3406
http://bcc.ctc.edu/servicelearning