Process minutes: 2004-04-14

Minutes:

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Process [[Meeting]] 4-14-04, 7 p.m. at Gail's house
Present: Gail, Sarah, Lisa, and our special guest: Tim

We talked with Tim and then adjourned as we had not enough members to productively discuss the remainder of the agenda items.

Our special guest, Tim Donahue spoke as Grounds committee convener about his perceptions of some recent reactions to the implementation of a couple of Ground's projects. I have highlighted his point here:
- Grounds solicited feedback on the implementation stage of a couple of projects and got some responses that had an undertone of "Can you really do that/who decided that?"
- Tim wonders if a part of what is happening is
"old" members knowing how and when a decision was made and "new" members not having that background/recall.
Or, is there something about landscaping and other Grounds projects that are especially charged for some folks
- Tim is also aware that the community is entering a new "phase" of living together where decisions aren't driven by external deadlines and so our decision making style may be needing to change.
- Tim would like to see the Process committee develop guidelines and maybe even a formal process for what members can do when they have questions or concerns about a community decision long after it has been made. Some suggestions are:
talk to people on the committee who worked on that proposal
talk to other community members about what concerns where discussed/addressed when the decision was made
look for old meeting minutes or check the wiki for other background info
when a committee announces the implementation of a community decision on e-mail include some background info and/or links to BG info
- Tim senses a fundamental (mis)trust issue underlying peoples' questions and concerns
- One way to address this issue on the committee level would be to remind and reaffirm with committee members that committees are a representational body, not an outlet for personal agendas. Then encourage members to trust that committees are working with the community's best interest in mind.
- Tim will be working with Grounds to create a proposal that will empower Grounds to make certain decisions within parameters agreed upon by the community. Perhaps this is a model other committees will move towards
- Tim would like to see the Process committee find a way to address the underlying trust issue as well as give members some info about the transition from the development phase to the actually living here phase and the different kinds of decision making processes/styles appropriate to each phase.
- Side conversations led to the recognized need to do some diversity training. There is more friction than respect or creative problem solving around issues like veggie vs carnivore, differing parenting styles, different participation styles in a variety of community activities, differing communication styles, etc. all of which have dealing positively with diversity at the core.