Process minutes: 2016-01-07

Agenda:

Process meeting
1/7/16
7-8:30pm
Present: Sarah, Jillian

AGENDA
1. Checkins
2. Monkeys
3. Next work season
4. New member resources funding request
5. Cmty agreement about participating in meetings in writing
6. Parking meeting needed?
7. Email Etiquette for cmty agenda
8. Next Process mtg

1. Checkins

2. MONKEYS:

ONGOING MONKEY:
Bringing chocolate for the two community meetings a month:
Jillian just stocked up on meeting chocolate at Trader Joe's so we're set
for a while.

COOLER: We could bring up at a community meeting, the idea of if we should
talk about how we each want to be contacted on community business, and see
what people think about it. So many options now for how to be contacted,
and some people seem to only use certain modes, would be good to know.
Maybe add it to contact sheet?

COOLER: Elph says he's willing to be assigned hours to create some process
or facilitation training materials.

MONKEY: At this meeting or next, Jillian could present the Input in
Absentia agreement with a proposal to add a sentence about stand asides and
blocks, and, an additional discussion item, not a proposal, about video
conferencing.

MONKEY: Sarah to draft a google poll around parking, to find out if people
still want to have a meeting to talk about it.

MONKEY: Jillian or Sarah could present the email etiquette policy from 2009
and have time for discussion. And hand out a UM doc as a resource for
people, that was from a Guidelines for Managing Email Stress workshop.

MONKEY: Patti to please respond about Process cmtee meeting dates for Feb.



3. Work season
Seems like all is ok as of now.


4. New Member resources funding request
Patti wants to do a mediation training, two weekends, $995 total, by the
Ann Arbor Dispute Resolution Center. Process can offer $100 now, we only
have $200 total in Member Resources this year. If at the end of the year we
have not had other requests for the remaining $100, we could pay her that.


5. Cmty agreement about participating in meetings in writing

A core principle of consensus, is that you don't arrive at a meeting with
your mind made up about a decision - you state your opinions, listen to the
opinions of others, and to the discussion about all aspects of the issue,
and then work together to come up with the best solution to meet the needs,
that the cmty can live with.

>From 2008, we have a Meeting Guidelines Agreement with New Input in
Absentia Section. It is implied by the language, that all you can do is
submit comments in writing if you can't be there, rather than stand aside
or block, and then the group that is there in person makes the decision;
however, perhaps it needs to be spelled out in writing.

Seems like this would be wise to do. To make a proposal to amend the
current agreement with a simple sentence. This is the agreement from 2008,
plus proposed sentence:

Minutes:

INPUT IN ABSENTIA, OR, HOW TO GIVE INPUT TO A COMMUNITY MEETING WHEN YOU
CAN'T BE PRESENT


1. Some things to keep in mind when you want to give input when you
absolutely can't attend a meeting:

o When there is advance notice about a topic coming to a community meeting
that you can't attend, it's best to go to the committee or person bringing
forward the proposal with your comments first, rather than waiting to give
written feedback to the community meeting as your first communication about
it.

o Things work better when you put your best self forward.

o You should not expect to get your way because you've given written
comments. The group will listen, and will then have its discussion and
build consensus with those in the room. You will miss out on the
opportunity to hear others and change your perspective.

2. How to go about it:

o Write your comments down, and give the comments to one of the
facilitators for that community meeting.

o The facilitator will give the comments to the minute taker, and the
minute taker will read it aloud at the beginning of the discussion and get
it into the minutes.

PROPOSED ADDITION to this bullet: Even if an item is up for decision, the
written comments can not be a stand-aside or a block.

3. Community response:

o The community will listen to the written comments, and will proceed with
coming up with the best agreement they can with the people who are in the
room, which may or may not agree with the written comments.

----

We could be more proactive about creating space for writing comments to be
submitted and read aloud, encourage them more than we do. And acknowledge
the limited capacity for relationship, and problem solving, more.

A reason to be involved in meetings and issues is to build your
relationship with your neighbors. If you're not here you can't have casual
contact, say hi at the mailbox, on the pedway, and at dinner, you don't
have the nurturing building-relationship things. So the nature of engaging
in community meeting work from a distance is really different. Spirit of
community work and conflict resolution, working with each other, building
relationships with each other. Cohousing is about the people who live in
the community.

Also, but what about video conferencing? We've never talked about it
before. Participating by video is tricky. Different than participating in
person - there are emotional, and body-cues parts of the meeting not just
verbal, is harder to get the emotion, harder to connect, if someone is
participating on screen. Plus if we're having an issue we can continue to
meet outside the meeting in small group to work on it together; if someone
is long distance that limits the options to really work something out.
Being in the room helps with someone understanding that people heard you
and understood you, but still may not agree with you; the facilitator helps
with this; so you state your concern and then let it go rather than
repeating it.

Do we make a proposal about this aspect of it or just have a discussion.

We'd need to address the technology of that too, the resources of equipment
we'd need. We'd need a camera on the group, audio. And what if there's
technical difficulties, if the video cuts out, can the meeting keep going
or are we stuck? If the person's image is huge that's really different too
- how to balance. Skype on GOnet is touch and go, it'll freeze or drop out.
Don't want the group to get frustrated or have to stop a decision.
Guidelines could address it - if technology fails the group will continue
to have its process as if the person were not there. Maybe the group will
not want to go there at all but perhaps good to do the work now before it
becomes a hot issue.

We wrote the original participation guidelines more thinking about members
traveling, not about absentee landlords.

Community conversation around the issue of absentee landlords? We have
three right now with three different styles. We don't have any guidelines
for dealing with it? Do we say anything like this anywhere: that the
community has a strong desire that units are owner-occupied; this may not
always be possible due to personal economic circumstances, but as a general
guideline Great Oak expects this to be resolved within an X number of
years? Don't know. Perhaps F&L would know from bylaws and master deed?



6. Parking?
Process cmtee could send out a google form, Process cmtee is following up
on interest in a 2 hour meeting on a Saturday to discuss parking concerns
and modify our agreements if needed. Would you have enough interest or
concerns to want to commit to coming to a meeting to make some decisions
about parking.
Comment box - what do you think the key issues are.
MONKEY: Sarah will draft a google poll around parking to find out if people
still want to have a meeting about it



7. Email etiquette

We read through a doc that Patti had from UM on managing email stress -
some useful pieces in there. Our agreement is pretty good too. Do we need
to add anything to it?

I also like the email Hygiene / expectations / email organization ideas in
the doc Patti shared. "Remember that you run your email, don't let your
email run you."

We should bring the existing agreement to the community for discussion, and
see if there are any ideas of things to add. Could also hand the UM one as
a resource for people to have for their own lives, and in case anything
appeals to people to add.
We could do small group discussion, what do you love about email, hate
about email, in your personal life vs work life.



8. Process cmtee next meeting -
Mondays and Tuesdays don't work for Sarah. Sundays, Weds, Thurs would work
for her.
Patti said Weds/Thurs are hard.
What dates would work for Sarah in Feb? 2/10, 2/17, 2/24 or Thursdays from
6 to 7, or Fridays in the early evening, or Sunday 2/14 - could be brunch
or evening etc.
2/24 would not work for Jillian but other dates could.
MONKEY: Patti to please respond about Process cmtee meeting dates for Feb.

-end-
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