OCP Workshop 11/14/2012

·         Ron:  right now we are in the middle of a discussion about membership – things that people might have to do to become a member – we have had consensus around 6 of these topics:  volunteer hours, trial period, code of behavior, meeting attendance, mediation/honesty work/conflict resolution, new member orientation

·         Proposal on the floor:  teams:  1. Have a coordinator – a staff member or OCP member, 2. Approved by membership – name, function, and parameters, 3. Report to membership regularly

·         For:  12, Opposed:  2; neither opposed want to block – passed

·         We are trying to decide where to go next

·         Mike:  why not figure out a few that we want for now and then we can figure out what to do with these couple;  before we leave the team topic, we can let people know that if there is a team idea, it could be brought to this meeting

·         Ron:  lets get the membership idea hashed out so that we can begin use some of our new ideas

·         Matthew:  likes Mike’s idea, and why can’t we just talk about them now so that we know what we are looking at for the future a bit

·         Mike:  nothing is really clear right now – maybe we can have the Friends be the membership

·         Ron:  we have talked about melding the two:  membership and Friends, but Mike has been so opposed before – why does he want to make the two one for now;  if we mesh the two, so that we can talk about teams doesn’t make a lot of sense

·         Mike:  things are just confusing right now, because we don’t have a membership – if it takes 5-6 weeks to get the membership piece hashed out, we could have a provisional decision making group about teams

·         Heather:  what if a few people here started a small group to work on teams for now – this group could still talk about these topics with the staff

·         Peter:  doesn’t see any problem with a group of people getting together to talk;  why has membership been jumped over and now we are talking about teams;  if we need membership, why not go back and talk about this

·         Ron:  the reason we jumped to teams is because we were discussing volunteer hours – and we started to get to a teams discussion – so we were trying to help us define what counts as volunteer hours;  agrees that if anyone wants to start functioning as a team, that is great, but there is no membership yet;  the next thing we might talk about after membership, is what might we do with this group of people;  5-6 weeks is a tiny amount of time, we should continue on our track

·         Matthew:  thought we established that this group is Friends of OCP and maybe this is the beginning of a membership

·         Ron:  Friends of OCP set out to discuss how we could run this place and how this place could/should function;  during the discussion, some people felt like Friends was the membership and some people said no this was just a workshop to figure out OCP;  some have suggested that when the workshop has done its task, it would end, but not everyone might agree

·         Mike:  there is a lot going on around the holidays, and there lots of potential volunteer hour opportunities;  Mike would feel more comfortable have a provisional set of core teams – so that people interested in membership could have an idea of where we were going;  when the membership vote comes down, we would be pretty close on teams at that point – maybe one of the first matters of business would be to officially establish teams

·         Peter:  if we went this way, the last team name should be “all the other teams” so that we weren’t blocked off by a limited set of teams

·         Ron:  creating a float team or building a float, the float will get done;  ron would like to see where the room is, so he would like a show of hands for who wants to talk more about core teams or who wants to talk more about membership requirements; 

·         No clear direction after a show of hands

·         Peter:  maybe a way to break the impasse – how about having a group who wants to talk about a core group get together and talk and then have that group come back a present something to the main group

·         Ron:  what do we mean by volunteer hours – definition, how many hours, how do we track these, volunteering vs. participation;  just because someone is washing dishes doesn’t mean someone is on a team;  doing teamwork is one thing a person could do to volunteer but being on a team is currently not a requirement for being a member

·         Matthew:  thinking about volunteer hours without thinking about teams seems crazy because the teams could really help track

·         Anna:  in terms of what counts as volunteer hours, hopes that ocp would always be a place for college students to come and do volunteer work for class, or where a person with court needs to do certain hours  - this doesn’t count otherwise we end up with members who might not really care about OCP but just needed hours – hours people need for community service

·         Peter:  expiration – you don’t get it for life – you have to continue

·         Nick:  does workday count as volunteer hours – you should have to do work to get fed

·         Mike:  in terms of the grid about what it takes to become, to stay, and to be removed from membership, mike has come up with another way to think about this

·         Philip:  doesn’t see a problem with people doing some sort of required volunteer work wouldn’t automatically have their hours counted, but they would have to come to the group and make a case for why they should count – legitimize their desire to become a member;  how many hours are we talking about

·         Mark:  if there was a college student coming in to help, or someone doing community service, ask them if the person would like to have hours counted; 

·         Ron:  agree with this line of thinking – anyone putting time into ocp should be a member – agrees with Jonathan’s staff idea of staff automatically being a member;  Kris and Ron have made different lifestyle choices – Kris’ choice is cool, but Ron chooses to maintain a house – because of the trial period (3 months is Ron’s idea) – want the folks in the building to have a say;  membership can even help define the role of staff – anyone who does any work for ocp, as long as it fits in our definition of what should count, should count;  maybe we use the word “contribution” instead of volunteer hours so that anyone’s hours count;  maybe we can trust the membership to track their own hours;  if someone doesn’t seem to be counting their hours properly, maybe the person gets called in front of a judiciary group;

·         Daniel:  as far as self tracking, most people might not remember what they have or haven’t done – we should have sheets so people can write them down;  staff should be members, but maybe staff need to be a member before being a staff;  probably would have other membership requirements

·         Todd:  doesn’t matter about keeping track of who did the most hours, but who helped is the most important, and maybe someone who gave 5 hours might be the most important hours of their lives; 

·         Kris:  would hate to see us get to the point where we get our hours and then we just sit back and don’t do anything;  maybe this would come back to the idea of spirit;  maybe someone couldn’t do all the volunteer hours but can really give a lot when they are here – maybe the minimum should be low (or maybe high??)

·         Heather:  if something needs to be done, even if your hours are done, you should still help;  20 hours a month – one day a week each month;

·         Matthew:  don’t agree with daniel’s idea with staff having their hours count;  work and volunteering are different;  what about people who have been around for a long time and have volunteered a lot in the past – would these be counted towards being a member;  workday should not count because you are sort of be required to work if you are here

·         Mike:  previously there was a word about 15 hours a month or 3 a week – which would take some math;  staff issue is a tricky one;  to the degree that staff is involved in membership or team meetings, this might count towards hours;  the idea of being taken to the adjudication board, this fits in with Mike’s idea, if someone challenges your membership standing;  this also relates to if one puts in more hours one month, can these hours carry over

·         Ron:  we see our hours as a low threshold minimum, but we want people to come to meetings;  setting this up now could be the basis for some idea in the future like housing – a low threshold to be a member, but maybe a larger number of hours for housing or something;  spirit could be a big issue;  staff should be a member – a lot of hours are given;  it is hard to volunteer where you work; 

·         Nick:  agrees that staff should always be members;  what if a staff person is lazy one month – are there consequences for this?

·         Peter:  doesn’t like the sound of membership having benefits outside of having say about how this building should be run – no extra cookies or coffee;  you have a say in how things operate;  its ok for people to participate without this responsibility

·         Matthew:  really disagrees with the idea that staff would automatically be a part of membership;  what if we look at hours in the past for people that are currently staff – people who have continuously volunteered over the years that OCP has been open

·         Proposal:  volunteer 20 hours a month for three months

·         Heather seconds the proposal

·         Matthew:  a total of 60 hours over 3 months (20 hours a month), during a trial period

·         Heather:  staff shouldn’t automatically be a member, but staff might have to evaluate others

·         Daniel:  comments about staff being members àwhoever is here should be members, mostly people here should be members no matter why they are here;  might mean that staff that are not here are not members; 

·         Kris:  staff does do a lot in terms of volunteering – there is a lot that the staff does that could be considered volunteer even when the building isn’t open

·         Peter:  during the discussion, we are trying to clarify the proposal – can we just modify the proposal to just be 20 hours a month during a trial period and we can determine the length of the trial period later; 

·         Ron:  Michael Campbell and Christina have some strong opposition to staff being members, but the staff currently has an idea to involve more community, but right now, the staff could cancel the process;  staff isn’t trying to get anything over on people, but they are intimately involved in the process; 

·         Anna:  agree with Matt in some ways – but would want to know what the definition of a contribution hour is first – does it need to be something done when the building is open – Philip could never do a volunteer hour because every hour the building is open, he is doing work for ocp, but not in the building –

·         Ron:  feels like Anna’s point is what has caused confusion – we have been trying to define the definition of a volunteer hour – without this definition, how can we vote on something before we have defined

·         Kris:  agrees with Jonathan;  also doesn’t think you can cuss and people and walk out and then be welcome back to the group like nothing happened – not fair to the rest of the group of us who are sitting through these; 

·         Mike:  the ones of us who haven’t stormed out are probably in support of ron’s facilitation;  we want to hear people’s disagreements; 

·         We will carry the proposal over until next meeting to talk more

Does count hours:  work on teams, members, staff

Doesn’t count:  court appointed hours, community service hours, school required hours, workday