Wednesday, November 21, 2012

OCP Workshop 11/21/2012

Proposal currently on the floor – volunteer 20 hours a month for three months
Ideas for what might count as a volunteer hour:  work on teams, membership, or staff
Could people doing required volunteer work, Tuesday workday work, community service, or staff work count towards hours needed to be a member or become a member
An idea to change the proposal to:  a person must volunteer 20 hours a month during their trial period
Mark:  if there is a proposal on the table, we should follow through with the proposal on the table and see that through
Philip:  not quite sure about the procedures for changing a proposal, but seems like if the person who made the proposal has dropped out of the group (Matthew) then maybe we should drop that proposal
Jonathan:  we could go ahead and vote and let this fail if it goes this direction and then move on
Ron:  one topic would be that if someone quits the group, how do they join again
Kris:  clarifies that this proposal is only a part of the trial period
Ron:  proposal that we are voting on now is:  to become a member, a person needs to volunteer 20 hours a month for three months
Heather:  likes the idea of 15 hours but likes 20 hours because it is an even number
For:  4, Against:  7 – motion doesn’t carry
Ron:  lets return to the discussion of what a volunteer hour is
Kris:  does like the 3 months but thinks we should consider 20 hours;  maybe there shouldn’t even be a set amount of hours
Daniel:  without defining a volunteer hour, not sure how many hours a month would be ok with;  Daniel owes court fines, any hour volunteered at a non-profit would help pay off court fines, and would there maybe be a rule – lets talk about some of these details before deciding how many volunteer hours;
Ron:  hopes that Jonathan withholds proposal until we have a package of information to present as a full proposal;   anyone in this building should be able to count hours, no matter what they are doing these hours for;  staff is certainly doing things to further OCP;  the staff has asked the group for help in running the building – inviting people into something – they should be able to count their hours;  if you stick it out for a trial period, you should be able to become a member;  you have to come to meetings, work out problems in mediation;
Jonathan:  would like to see someone present themselves to the membership as desiring to become a member and then all hours begin to count
Ron:  maybe the staff wouldn’t automatically be members – they might have to request to become a member and then those hours start counting – you still have to come to meetings, etc;  if a staff member never came to membership meetings, they may never become a member;  likes the idea that someone has to ask to become a member and then starts counting hours;  thinks that workday should definitely count as volunteer hours
Ron:  the topic is volunteer hours – a proposal could emerge – maybe we should add that the executive director and the board could also create tasks that would count as volunteer hours;  what about tracking volunteer hours?;  thinks that the hours number should apply to everyone and that we shouldn’t be of the mind that once we get our hours, we are done;
Daniel:  likes nice even things – would like to see 16 hours – 4 weeks in a month, 4 hours a week;  if ocp is open 4 days a week, you could make one day be a day that you come to ocp to volunteer;  thinks everyone should be able to come for one day;  if you were here for morning worship, you could start working after that and get in 4 hours;  
Ron:  is 16 hours a month too much;  what about someone with a full-time job;  this draws to mind the idea of participation vs. volunteer work;  someone might be around all day and be involved but only volunteer for 15 minutes and be thought of as totally plugged in;  maybe we just aren’t open enough for people to get so many hours;  
Daniel:  a little misleading about not counting morning worship – thinks that participation should count as volunteer hours;  if its good enough for the courts, it should be good enough for membership;  maybe we should have a form that can be signed – if you help setup, do the event, and help cleanup, maybe that whole time should count;  maybe it is up to the person signing someones hours as to what counts and what doesn’t;  stands behind 16 hours a month – if you can’t be here for 4 hours a week, you just start to lose what is happening here;  maybe there is a week you can’t come at all;  let staff decide what does and doesn’t count
Heather:  schrag is only here one day a week, maybe he can’t be here more;  gary sheets doesn’t come much, be he is part of the play;  it should be up to the staff to negotiate with people about what does and doesn’t count;  participation does seem to count or be important in some cases
Peter:  happy we’ve had this discussion because it has brought to light a lot of various topics – what about people contribute by making you laugh, what about people who are handicapped, what about people who work;  counting of volunteer hours seems to take away a bit;  maybe volunteering and participation are part of code of conduct and we don’t want to have a set hour amount;  
Kris:  totally agree with Peter’s thoughts;  someone who wants to be a member is totally plugged in and wants to be here;  thinks it should all count and should all be about the spirit – this is the way to go
Philip:  keep the barrier low if we do volunteer hours and count them;  we don’t want to have such high barriers that people have to do so much – maybe between 10 and 15 if we go this route
Ron:  really behind the idea of not counting hours – we have already reached consensus on members doing volunteer hours – maybe we don’t count hours;  people involved in these meetings are the group that will probably become members;  this is why ron likes the idea of a member needing to be on a team – a member would be plugging in to something particular in some way;  your involved in something that is moving this place forward;  if we are going to have a say here, we are also going to be moving this place forward;  teams can try to work around people’s schedules;  just the thought that some people – maybe participation is the most someone can do because of where there are at,
Daniel:  definitely get behind the idea of not having a set number of hours but there does need to be something in the case of a person who may not really do anything;  wants to have pride in membership – need to have some standard and if this isn’t a specific number of volunteer hours, what is it;  if there is a judiciary, maybe this is how we address issues of people not helping – not having a good spirit about the place;  
Ron:  looking back over basic requirements;  volunteer hours is really the only thing that kind of sets things apart of a member and non-member;  also meeting attendance seems important;  maybe that is enough;  like the idea that a person would sign up to participate with some team – show up for things that team has going on;  maybe we say that members have a spirit of volunteerism – and every member has signed up for a team;  staff would also have to be on teams;  likes the idea also that there is a membership and then someone presents themselves as having a desire to become a member and then we ask what team the person would like to be a part of;
Zach:  because not everyone can’t meet the requirements of being a member; as long as a person is able to do one of the six things required of meeting basic requirements – that person should be able to be a member;  agrees that maybe we shouldn’t have a total number of hours
Daniel:  agrees that something likes three specific teams:  maintenance, kitchen, clerical(programming) – these three teams have been used in other places with success – likes people being accountable to a team – helps people be accountable to the community by being on a team;  let the team be part of deciding whether someone has done enough with their team to be a member;  could get behind a proposal that someone is accountable to a team without a set number of hours;  for trial period, maybe we have a 90 day trial period;
Ron:  with teams, do we want to say that you have to be on a team when we have really created them yet;  the creative dynamic to create teams would exist if all members need to be on a team;  not totally into the three team style – less inclined towards let make teams perfect than lets try some teams out and see how they go;  someone might have a particular gift for some type of work that could develop a team, so maybe we shouldn’t be limited to only three teams;  
Matthew:  this is what Mike Farrand was trying to get people to realize about teams – everyone was against the team idea last week, now that Mike isn’t here, we are talking about making teams
Zach:  agree with Schrag about having three major teams – starting off small to see how they work;  if we have too much at once, it might be chaotic
Daniel:  lets call is three teams for now, and we can grow from there;  this gives us a place to start and a place to go back to
Ron:  in one way, the insight on Mike’s part might have helped us avoid some time spent, but without the discussion, not sure if we could have gotten here
Ron:  maybe we close the meeting and start working next week on defining teams and then create a proposal about a person having a volunteering spirit and is a member of a team;  seems like we would need to have some discussion about what it takes to be a team;  the initial membership could then join a team;  this would address the concern that someone needs to do something more than follow a code of behavior and come to membership meetings
Mark:  doesn’t see anything about being on a team of having teams on our list of requirements for membership

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