Michael: suggests we move to talking about a Trial Period
Ron: an example from the Little Grill, if someone wants to become a member, s/he must spend a certain amount of time and do some various things during this time;
Michael: likes Jonathan’s idea, but thinks that less time, like 2-3 months; if someone puts this much time in, seems good;
Curtis: likes the suggestion of 6 months because some people come and go, and this would show stability; this would
Ron: what about this initial group – would workshop members have a free ride to membership; how long would the trial time be; what are some things people would need to do; some things seem obvious – like attending meetings, being involved in a team, and doing a new member orientation;
Brainstorm of what people might do during a trial membership: some kind of meeting attendance, 15 or more volunteer hours a week, code of behavior – adhering to it, joining a team, working on a project, completing new member orientation, presenting oneself for membership, get a buddy/mentor/sponsor, start over if non-adherence to code of behavior, referred by someone who is a member, membership fee, mow the lawn, someone could volunteer more time, go with member or staff member to represent OCP with something outside of OCP, settled outside responsibilities before beginning trial period,
Group: seems like most of the group could get behind a three month trial period
Ron: maybe we could get all of the details together about the trial period and then have a big vote after we get the details set
Michael: if someone isn’t able to meet all of the requirements in three months and it takes four months seems like it would be nice for someone to be able to become a member
Larry: meeting attendance – Wednesday mornings might make it hard for people to make it to meetings
Alex: during the trial period, all of the basic requirements of membership should be a part
Ron: would have some concern about 15 hours per week in light of fairly lengthy discussion – when we realized that someone could come to morning worship, go to a class, eat lunch, wash dishes for 15 minutes, and go out and play volleyball – you would have only volunteered for 15 minutes but you would have been involved in the community the whole day; then keeping track of these details might also cause a paperwork nightmare; seems like having someone be on a team would be enough to have someone be involved enough and the team does its work when it does;
Preston: if someone has a full-time job, how does a required number of hours even possible;
Michael: in the future, once things are set up, these rules for trial period can change as we find things don’t work
Ron: nothing we are creating is set in stone, and we are just setting it up, and then things can go onto agendas and be changed
Ron: what if we said something like – a trial member must attend three membership meetings – this way, if they were monthly, someone could complete a trial period in three months
Philip: what about the three meeting requirement
Curtis: the mentor or sponsor – would this be a member?;
Ron: how do we start with the membership?; at the little grill, we started telling people that if they weren’t involved by a certain date, they would have to go through the trial period;
Larry: what is membership going to mean? Decision making body? Ownership responsibility?;
Ron: we started by saying what it wouldn’t mean – the board is the governing body of OCP, drinking would not be allowed, etc; but, the board is behind this process
Michael: would there ever be a time when someone did something so outlandish that someone would be removed from being a member;
Ron: maybe people during trial period should go to at least one team meeting for each team; about sponsorship – it is an important idea because there might be people who have a difficult time navigating systems, and this might prevent someone from becoming a member – a sponsor would just be someone who could answer questions or help someone by checking in;
Anna: really like the idea of sponsorship, and there is a lot of wisdom in AA’s model of sponsorship where a man is sponsored by a man and a woman is sponsored by a woman
Mark: shouldn’t a trial member be able to check in with any member;
Ron: maybe we shouldn’t use the word “sponsor” since there are a lot of people involved with AA and this is a different thing; would like to see the idea of a helped or sponsor being as non-heavy-handed as possible
Michael: we haven’t gotten to the point where there are set rules; how can rules be changed
Ron: we have a deliverable: “framework for community to govern itself”;
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