Event:2014/07/22 Governance Meeting

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Details

  • 7pm at Omni (ballroom)

Notes

Facilitator: Sarah

Notes: Jenny/you?

Attendees: Sarah, Ahnon, Jenny, Elizabeth, Olive, Brie, Mara, Matt, Niki, Matt

Agenda

  • Use policy/schedule for common shared space
  • Revisit revised bylaws
  • Working groups: What is their function, scope, etc?
  • Decision making model: Consensus? Modified consensus?
  • Safe space and conflict resolution policies
  • Membership: What are the requirements for groups in the Omni?

Working Groups

  • Existing Groups: Communications, Governance, Challenging Dominant Culture, Finances (not really), Building Maintenance (tomake), Common Space (tomake)
  • Problems we've observed:
    • Bottom Liners not bottom-lining
      • Niki: Maybe remove bottom-liners and just schedule the meetup times?
      • Person can delegate new point person if they aren’t going to be around
      • Check-ins at main meeting
      • Each group should have someone checkin
    • The same people are in all the working groups.
      • Sarah: Maybe this is worked out in defining what is required of Member Groups
      • Olive: Channels that are available for communication are not super productive for harnessing energy that's here for the project
      • Matt: Maybe instead of focusing on meetings and email list, have white boards, etc that make it really clear what is needed as an appeal to the community.
      • small bite-sized chunks of work that has been agreed on and is clear
      • Part of the issue w/non-participation is that there's not been an opportunity for new people to step up into leadership roles. We should be more explicit about who should be bottom-liners / requesting volunteers to bottom-line working groups.
    • Patrick: do we have a place where sensitive information can be stored?
      • DK: Suggested setting up a separate wiki
    • Elizabeth: Maybe it would be good for people currently bottom lining working groups to relinquish their roles as request new bottom liners
    • Sarah: Concern with there being too many meetings, maybe members of working groups can determine how they meet.
  • Solutions!
    • More work parties and fewer meetings!
    • Whiteboards throughout the Omni
    • Contact info to point people in prominent locations
    • Prominent ToDo list / kiosk
      • Tiered by accessibility (how much is needed to know to complete the task)
      • Project management tools available at terminals (with printing stations)
    • Alternatives to incumbent working group meeting schedule (eg; working totally online, meeting monthly rather than weekly)
    • Fold Building Maintenance into Space Ops
  • More authority to the working groups!
    • Maybe more small groups should meet during the meeting
    • Matt: "If you chop up a potato in small pieces you can cook it faster" * Start with a breakout session of all of the working groups
  • Is there a requirement for member-group participation in working groups?
  • How much autonomy do working groups have?
    • Assume all happens in working groups
    • What happens in the general meeting?
    • If a working group is unsure whether or not something should be brought to the general meeting, then they should bring it!
    • Small working group budget?

Proposal

  • What things cannot be done in working groups?
    • Eg; Talking with city officials?
  • Meeting format
    • Start with a breakout session of all the working groups from 7-8
    • More informal, checkin and update the group with what you've been working on / concerned with and set agenda this way, then breakout to smaller groups/pairs to complete tasks
    • Delegate meeting from 8-9

Safe Space

  • Omni has provisionally adopted sudo's conflict resolution policy
  • https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association#Section_3.2_Conflict_Resolution
  • Safe Space policy is largely adopted by the Geek Feminism community and lives here: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Safe_Space_Policy
  • Tacit agreement that groups would respect other groups bans
  • Can adopt 'template' policies from the Omni
  • What about conflict _between_ different groups? Policy should be Omni-wide
  • Patrik suggests an 'Opt Out' possibility
    • Matt thinks this is problematic
      • Individual collectives should make such choices themselves as much as possible - "Assume good faith"
    • Ahnon: This gets back to the problem of member-groups that are only say, 2 or 3 people (who could pass bans based on personal grudges rather than process)
  • Tiers of 1) access to the individual space and 2) access to the building
  • Post Code of Conduct prominently in the space
  • Who can people turn to in an emergency situation?
    • Knowing how to de-escalate a conflict is important, we should have a skillshare
  • Problem: What about conflict between people in two different groups attempting to ban each other?
    • Can group A ban a member of group B, with no reason given and no appeal possible?!
    • Trust in the process
    • Need to have conflict resolution process that involved *both* groups in that case
  • Perhaps an added tier: between conflicting parties & mediators --> to the member-group involved -> to the omni at large
  • Some folks who can volunteer as Conflict Stewards (maybe who've gone through mediation / facilitation training) would

Proposal

  • Safe Space Policy / Code of Conduct to be adopted by all groups
  • Ban reciprocity: Bans made by one group are respected by all other groups unless the ban pertains only to the member-group in question, though any banee can be
  • Groups can ban their own members, and that should be respected by the other groups (not Omni-wide necessarily)
  • Conflict Resolution process defined by each group independently, though those who don't want to do this work can adopt the omni conflict resolution template
  • Tiers of conflict resolution: 1) between Steward / Mediator / Involved parties, 2) Within the member-group in question, 3)
    • In the case of conflicts between groups or those unaffiliated, those conflicts follow the Omni's conflict resolution policy

Action Items

  • Post call for working group bottom-liners and protocol from the wiki to the mailing list: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Working_Groups#Working_Group_Protocols (Jenny)
  • Set up kiosk w/ some project management thingy (eg Asana; do.omni; github; jira; slack)
  • Find out who's bottom-lining all of these working groups and checkins! (Niki)
  • Propose new meeting format on Thursday (Jenny)
  • Safe Space / Conflict Resolution proposal for delegates consensus

Thursday

  • New meeting format proposal
  • Consense on safe space / conflict resolution policy
  • What sort of decisions should go through the Big Omni?
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