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Appendix Two – The Methodology in Action - Page A2-10
The meeting also seems to contain expressions of revenge, in that (repeating an aspect
of a previous meeting of this type) a significant sub-group of people who have been at
an external event come into the group and enthuse about that external event in a way
that is excluding of those who were not there. This time, it is one faction, the previous
time a different faction. The repeating and perhaps retaliatory nature of this process
evokes associations to a feud.
Another issue that is salient is the leadership of this group. In the elections for the posts
of co-convenors of the Branch (and hence of the regular meetings), a couple (a man and
a woman) were invited by the outgoing convening pair to put themselves forward for
the posts of co-convenor. They did so, but only to discover that a powerful subgroup
had nominated another couple for these positions, who were (unlike the invited pair)
also relationship partners. This latter couple were subsequently elected, not least
because members of the sub-group that nominated them turned up in numbers sufficient
to ensure that this happened. Some of the process in the current group felt like a re-run
of the election, with opposing camps (those of the invited convenors and of the
subsequently elected convenors) lined up against each other
Despite the difficulties, there is apparently experience in the group of a space where
people who do not usually do so can meet, and where some resolution of tensions and
their enactments can take place. As part of this, a process of ‘naming and re-claiming’
goes on. People own up in the group to their own difficulties with the project and the
task, with some individuals acknowledging their interest in this meeting and what it has
accomplished. A key factor has clearly been the challenge to participants posed by
meeting together and needing to face yet again, “What is this meeting for?”