Process minutes: 2009-04-14

Agenda:

Process Cmtee meeting
4/14/2009
7-8, CH sitting room

AGENDA:
1. Checkins
2. Monkeys
3. Scheduling summer jobs
4. Quorum Proposal
5. Training discussion
6. Old process item - the meeting time change
7. Next Meeting


Present: Gail, Catherine, Jillian

2. Monkeys/Cooler/Freezer items from previous meetings:

MONKEY and COOLER: Process to ask minute takers to come to a process meeting
at the start of each work term to talk about the full minute taker job
description, and talk about the using names issue so they are aware of some
of nuances.

COOLER:
Discussion about how CRC members are chosen, is that working ok?

COOLER: Naming names in committee meeting minutes, periodically reread
current guidelines, make sure they're ok for both committees and plenary

Ongoing MONKEY: CRC should talk about the fact that they can't all to rotate
off at the same time. What are the current CRC members each thinking about
their terms, who is willing to continue? If everyone wants to continue for a
while that's great, its just that when folks do want to rotate off it needs
to be staggered.

DONE: Gail will email renters to make sure they know, that they are
encouraged to participate fully in meetings, that their voice counts as much
as anyone else's, there are very few decisions they can't be part of. (This
should be spelled out in the levels of membership agreement.)

ONGOING MONKEY: when there are new people send them an invite to come to
community meetings.

ONGOING MONKEY: Jillian will remind infoco that: Facilitators should (1)
send out agenda at least 2 days ahead and then a reminder on the day of the
meeting, and (2) consider putting a slip of paper in every mailbox about the
meeting as well, at least a day ahead. Just to see if it helps.

Re-MONKEY: Maybe all think about this for our next meeting. How can we make
the thank-you board more active. Could we make a game out of it, or
encourage people.

Re-MONKEY: Catherine will put hooks and fishing line on the vision
statement.

COOLER: We need to talk about committee-level decisions and how they could
get entered in the BOA - they are not currently getting in.

Minutes:

MONKEYS from 4/14/2009:

Re-MONKEY: Gail will check in with membership and see if they can come to
an upcoming Process meeting, 2nd Tuesdays usually, 7-8pm, to talk about
their new member and potential new member procedures - Process is interested
to know what is the buddy job description, what is covered about
expectations around coming to community meetings, participation in work.
HOWEVER we are fine with meeting at a different time in May, whenever works
for membership.

MONKEY: Gail will send out the facilitation/minute taking schedule; people
should send swap info to Gail so she can post the final version on the work
board and on email to "talk".

MONKEY: Jillian will print out a few more copies of the Quorum proposal
(Gail has 13 already) and bring them.

MONKEY: Jillian will post large sheets of paper with the history of
trainings and people can comment between now and then.

MONKEY: Catherine will intro the training discussion. Catherine will check
in with Mary and Sarah about their plans for the agenda item.

MONKEY: Jillian will email Catherine pieces of the process mandate that
apply to training.

MONKEY: Catherine will email the pieces from the process mandate to Talk and
will print some out to bring to the meeting.


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3. Work jobs for summer

We came up with a tentative schedule, Gail has it.

MONKEY: Gail will send out the facilitation/minute taking schedule; people
should send swap info to Gail so she can post the final version on the work
board and on email to "talk".



4. Quorum proposal

Coming back for decision on monday. Jillian reviewed last community meeting
minutes, some good discussion, no requests for changes.

MONKEY: Jillian will print out a few more copies of the Quorum proposal
(Gail has 13 already) and bring them.



5. Training for Monday's meeting

This is not a process-led discussion, it will be run by the facilitators. We
just will intro it. Hopefully get clarity too about what does GO mean by
training. The Laird weekends got confusing since we called them trainings,
but they were just trainings for the 6-8 facilitators. For the community it
was community meetings with some outside facilitation, working on agenda
items. Important to distinguish between bringing in someone to do outside
facilitation on a big topic, from bringing someone in to do a training where
we learn something. Two distinct things.

Training is about community members learning skills, not about working on
agenda items.

Process was tasked to bring this discussion about training, does GO value
it, what is do we mean by it. The community wanted to talk about it at a
non-budget time.

Infoco suggested that process bring its mandate to the meeting as a starting
point for the discussion, explains why process has created the trainings
that GO has done.

MONKEY: Jillian will post large sheets of paper with the history of
trainings and people can comment between now and then.

MONKEY: Catherine will intro the training discussion. Catherine will check
in with Mary and Sarah about their plans for the agenda item.

MONKEY: Jillian will email Catherine pieces of the mandate that apply to
training.

MONKEY: Catherine will email the pieces from the mandate to Talk and will
print some out to bring to the meeting.



6. Old Process biz - meeting time change

Willie's email about the community meeting time change - proposed in 1/2007.
We talked about it again in April 2007 and extended it to the end of August
2007. Gail looked to see if we did talk about the meeting time change again
after August 2007 and we did not. Oops. Loose thread.

Put it on the agenda as a check-in since we never formally agreed to do the
6:30-8pm meetings on in to the future? Seems like we should, and we should
have a copy of the proposal with the pros and cons, and the minutes. Highly
likely people will want to keep it as-is but we should tie up this loose
end.

MONKEY: Catherine will look into digging up the 2007 proposal and minutes.



7. Next meeting
2nd Tues in May, 5/12 would be our standard, 7-8pm. But 5/12 might not work
for Gail (in Chicago). But maybe we would change it anyway in order to
meeting with membership? We'll see what Gail finds out from Membership.

------------------------------
Process Mandate 2005-01-17 (from BOA)
Summary:
Process Committee Mandate
Proposal:
Are we empowered? No

What is our global task in service to the community?
The Process committee actively supports the decision-making and
communication processes the community uses at the individual, committee and
community level to accomplish it's goals.

i. CONSENSUS SUPPORT
The Process committee actively supports the community's commitment to using
consensus in our decision-making processes by:
- organizing and supporting effective facilitation for general community
meetings, including agenda planning;
- providing resources and opportunities for individual members and the group
to develop and strengthen our understanding of, and participation in,
consensus decision-making;
- keeping consensed-on decisions visible so that the work of the community
is respected;
- supporting the GO committee system by:
o clarifying and educating members about our agreed on structures and
processes;
o supporting committees in clearly identifying their mandates;
o supporting committees in communicating effectively with the general
community;

ii. COMMUNICATION SUPPORT
The Process committee actively supports and encourages respectful dialogue
that provides for the expression of diverse views on both the individual and
community level by:
- providing individual members and committees with resources that enable
them to effectively identify and resolve conflicts;
- providing resources and support to committee and general meeting
facilitators on how to effectively encourage and support dialogue in group
discussion;
- creating on-going opportunities for community building experiences that
support our developing sense of respect and appreciation for each other

What are we responsible for?
- Facilitation of General Community Meetings, including agenda planning;
- Setting the frequency of general meetings based on input from the
community;
- Providing resources for individual members and committees to understand
and effectively use the community's agreed upon processes and structures;
- Providing resources and trainings to individuals and the community to
support effective conflict resolution and consensus decision-making
processes;

What aren't we responsible for?
- The outcome of specific community decisions;
- Approving or endorsing the content of specific proposals;
- Resolving conflicts within committees, between committees, between
committees and individual members, between individual members, or
community-wide conflicts;

What is expected of committee members?
- Intention to work on behalf of the community's well-being;
- Participation in committee discussions - in-person at committee meetings
whenever possible, via e-mail when appropriate or necessary.
- Willingness to take on and follow-through with occasional tasks outside of
committee meeting time; ability to realistically estimate completion time
for tasks; ability and willingness to say "No" to such requests; willingness
to ask for help/support when you need it;
- Respect for confidentiality regarding personal conflicts or other
sensitive issues that may be discussed by the committee;

Objectives: What projects/proposals are we currently working on?
- Drafting a proposal that outlines processes for effective
decision-making/communication at the committee level; ETA: March, 2005;
- Drafting a proposal that will clarifies the consensus terms and processes
we use at GO; ETA: April, 2005;
- Supporting implementation of an electronic Book of Agreements; ETA: April,
2005;
- Supporting implementation of an on-line archive of committee and general
community meeting minutes; ETA: Spring 2005;
- Support the CRC in requesting agenda time (at least once a quarter) during
general business meetings for community building experiences that support
our developing sense of respect and appreciation for each other;

Where do we get our funding?
- We are funded through the GOCA operating budget;
- We submit our budget needs to the community's consensus based budget
process;
- Process line items are dedicated to: archive materials, expenses related
to providing training and resources, and community meeting supplies;

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HISTORY
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>From a 2002 email in the process cmtee about training:

The Process Committee hopes to organize training weekends for the community
every year -- ambitiously, we're thinking of one "big" weekend and one
"smaller" one.

The purposes are at least threefold: 1) to help community members learn
how better to be better participants in meetings (e.g. learning about the
consensus decision-making process, about facilitating meetings, etc.); 2) to
help community members gain skills to make our community healthier and
stronger (e.g. conflict resolution training); and 3) to help us all get to
know each other better.

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Fall 1996, some GOers attended a consensus and facilitation training by
Shari Laystrom and David Lillie for Suwnardians.

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12/3/2001
Vision work with Shari Leach (not really a training, more of a working to
finalize the vision event)

-----------

9/28/2002 training by Beatrice Briggs about how consensus process works,
and what is facilitation. (Sunward invited to attend as well. Took place in
the Sunward common house.)

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May 16-18, 2003
Shari Leach, Wonderland Hill Coho Development Company, May 16-18, 2003,
community building weekend
Purpose:
Dedicating ourselves to the ongoing process of developing trust,
understanding, and cohesiveness to make our community life joyful and help
us work through dissonance.
Content: Friday thought Sunday, held at Church of the Incarnation. Saturday
as a community building day, and include elements such as: community
building exercises, conflict resolution, leadership in community, privacy,
gossip. Sunday an optional skills day (group
process/consensus/mediation/facilitation) for those interested in learning
more. The cost of the workshop leader is $1000/day plus travel, food,
lodging, materials, and childcare which gives us a rough total of $3000
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October 16, 2004
Morning: overview of the consensus process, by Elph and Jillian
Afternoon: Turning to One Another: Communication workshop presented by
Sandra Greenstone

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(Note, from 2005-2007 a number of GOers were enrolled in Laird Schaub's
2-year facilitation training.)

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June 2005, morning training from Laird on Conflict Resolution (before the
meetings about parking in the afternoon and the next day.)

-----------

Nov 11, 2006
Diana Kardia: all day training on Understanding our Differences

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Nov 10, 2007
Diana Kardia and Karen Williams: all day training, When Does Difference
Matter?

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1/27/2008
2 hour training by Annie Zirkel, "Don't Take the Bait", an Anti-Bullying
training for children and their grownups.

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5/7/2008
Grace Potts
2 hour info session (not really a training) about strategic planning

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