Six Week Summary 08/09/2012

Our first order of business – What are the initial Rules of the Game for the Workshops?

Rules of engagement 

• Make sure there is someone to fill following roles
• Facilitator- leads meeting, holds others accountable 
• Reminds people at the beginning
• Try not to repeat their ideas
• Keep it concise
• Twinkles= I agree
• One person talks at a time
• Once an idea is on the floor, it is the group’s idea, not the individual’s
• Think beyond yourself – What is best for the group?
• Uses Stack method and other methods – go around – small group discussion, etc.
• Respectfully terminates long monologues (if no time keeper).
• Minute keeper – records the discussion in an organized and understandable way
• Time keeper
• Times sharing – Four minutes?
• Says “time” or “minute” so that its neutral and not attacking anyone personally
• Change amount of time based on subject/ number of people present
• Vibe- keeper – Makes sure meeting is fair and healthy – keeps an eye on meeting as a whole – some examples:  Are more shy people other groups free to share?  Is one person or group of people dominating the meeting?   
• The people who aren’t participating need to be quiet and go somewhere else to talk
• Post meeting minutes weekly

Then we looked at Positives, Negative, Visions 

What OCP has been to its members - POSITIVES

• Life-changing experiences
• A place to live, love and grow
• A place to be accepted, no matter what
• A place to come when you have nowhere else to go, open doors to all
• Socializing, fun, building interpersonal relationships
• Broaden horizons
• A safe place
• Resourceful; provides some basic needs (i.e., food, shelter, clothes, receive mail)

What OCP has been to its members - negatives

• Challenging to mediate all the diversity -> conflict
• Lack of order; chaos
• Staff
• Grounds
• Programming
• Community
• Boundaries
• Rules
• Our positive characteristics end up becoming our pitfalls; want rules, but not too many or too stringent ones; moderation

Visions – What would we like OCP to become?

• Growth oriented; more learning
• Promote personal growth
• Intellectual growth
• Life skills
• Practical skills
• Spiritual growth
• More Activities/ Classes/ entertainment
• Open more
• Workshops always
• Respectful, orderly, cohesive
• Outward reaching – teaching people to serve others  

 

Certain polarities or tensions were discovered

Tensions

• Everyone welcome / Unmanageability
• Everyone welcome / Place for Homeless Folks 
• Everyone Welcome / Christian place
• Mercy of Christ  / Rules and Tough love
• Send People Out  to the world with skills to survive on their own / Build Community

Examined other public places where everyone is welcome

Examples of places where everyone is welcome…

• Wal-mart, Public Library, AA, Church, and OCP
• How is this relevant to OCP?
• Each place has a focus, rules and consequences for certain behaviors, people are generally there for the same cause (which makes for cooperation), staff to uphold the rules
• What makes these organizations run smoothly and what it is that has helped to make OCP a success in the post-September world?
• Set hours
• More focus
• More staff present during operating hours

Examined existing purposes and unofficial Vision Statement

OCP is a Christian organization that seeks…

• To accommodate, foster and provide activities and programs related to personal growth and community well being
• To be a resource in the community for individuals seeking information or services already provided by other organizations
• To educate and empower individuals towards self-sufficiency, thus creating social capital for the community at large
• To nurture a community that appreciates diversity and sees differences and conflict as opportunities for spiritual growth

There was a consensus around the power of the statement: 

Personal Growth and Community Well-Being.  This sounds right. 

• The other purposes seem to be bullets points off of this idea. 
• Number 3 seems to simply repeat number 1.
• Seems like more bullet points could simply be added . . . to number 1

OCP’s Vision

“We seek to build an atmosphere of love, safety, education, spiritual awareness, healing and fun – a community center where anyone in the world is welcome to help or participate. OCP is dedicated to breaking down barriers that tend to separate humans from the joys to be experienced in loving community, and particularly dedicated to including in its activities those struggling with poverty and difficult life circumstances. Over the years, experience has revealed that incredible healing potential, for all parties, exists in the simple act of sitting down and eating or socializing together across social barriers.   There was concern about the last sentence – is it really true? If so, is it really “incredible”?

Made a list of “Deliverables”

Deliverables

• Possibility of monthly meetings 2^nd Thursday of the month
• Community meeting Thursday Aug 9 (after dinner)
• Process for workshops  
• People who have attended three meetings are eligible to vote.  
• 80% super-majority required to pass a vote.
• Anyone who is part of the 20% opposition has the right to block until the next meeting (once),
• In order to determine 80%, we will round – anything below .5 rounds down, everything else rounds up
• Community center purposes  
• Should we have an emphasis on homelessness?
• Code of behavior / Personal responsibilities
• Framework for community to govern itself
• Set of rules and regulations
• Rules of empowerment
• “Do” Policy
• Hours / Access proposal
• Membership – For or against / plan?
• Plan for programming/Entertainment
• Revisiting teams?

Left Over: 

• What constitutes a quorum? 
• Set minimum time limit on reintroducing a topic that does not pass.
• Lingering concern about folks who cannot make the Wednesday meetings but who would like to be a part of Workshops.
• Should the style of the Workshops be examined, reimagined, and or varied in order to make them accessible to as many personality and learning types as possible?   

Other topics that have emerged:

• Need for some kind of grievance system
• Need for Community Meetings separate from Workshop
• Tuesday workday ideas
• Programming improvements