OCP Workshop 06/26/2013

• Some things left over from last time:  the idea of a comprehensive orientation for new ocp members, new board members, new staff members;  another discussion was about people in jail or people who have been kicked out of OCP;  other items left to discuss
• How do you lose your membership status?  What about people in jail?
• How do people get things onto the agenda
• What about goveranance
• Special “hard core volunteer” exception to initial member definition – ie. Skip, david alleman
• On the 17th, this will be the first real membership meeting and we can discuss when and where we would like to meet;  we will also probably work on establishing teams;  
• Ron:  can a person currently incarcerated become an initial member – one example is Kris
• Ron:  think we should allow it – this is a one time in history kind of thing
• Michelle:  kris when he was here, he more than fulfilled his membership requirements;  with the initial membership, seems fine
• Mat:  agree
• Ron:  if there are no objections, we can move on
• Mark:  love kris too, but as far as being an initial member, if he becomes a member in name only, he won’t be part of meetings, discussions, no planning, no work of any kind
• Mat:  understand Mark’s concern – if ron wrote kris and kris would want to be a part of the initial membership,
• Mark:  if the membership takes a vote, will we wait to hear from Kris
• Ron:  members who aren’t at a membership meeting wouldn’t have a vote later;  the little grill came up with the idea of a “hiatus” so that someone could leave for some reason for up to one year and come back and still remain a member;  if Kris comes back he could jump right in, and maybe it is just a way to reach out to someone – Kris
• Mat:  don’t think we should spend too much time on this – we should first ask Kris if he is even interested
• Ron:  if he can’t be a member, don’t even want to ask him;
• Mat:  agree with Jonathan – write him a letter, find out what he wants, and then we can decide what to do;  kris will consider that he hasn’t been around, coming to meetings
• Michelle:  where is Kris –(ohio)
• Jonathan:  motion to offer Kris Elzey membership if he is interested; seconded by Michelle – unanimous vote for
• Ron:  what about the hard core volunteer exception
• Mark:  david alleman, john rust should be allowed to be members
• Ron:  maybe Roger Thompson too;  the membership is different from the Friends group and these people might want to be members
• Michelle:  skip too;  has done so much for OCP – went to the farm and did a lot there;  he is out in the county now and can’t always be here
• Ron:  yesterday talking with David Alleman expressed interest in the membership but couldn’t be here on Wednesday morning. Other examples – former board members, long-term supports/mentors who can’t be here on Wednesdays
• Michelle:  kind of agree with Jonathan
• How does a person lose membership status?
• Jonathan:  membership should decide this
• Governance and getting things on an agenda
• Ron:  the membership could develop these things, but maybe we should give it some thought – would be have a president, vice president;  who takes minutes;  along the lines of having the meetings when we are closed, no microphones, no one walking in and out making random comments
• Anna:  think it would be a good idea – how to get things on the agenda, governance – the membership meeting could talk about these things, but it would be nice to know some of these answers at the first membership meeting;
• Michelle:  thinking that relying on Ron leading meetings and Jonathan taking minutes, we should just start this way;  like the idea of finding a central spot at OCP and using the internet as a way for people to keep up with what is going on;
• Ron:  thinking about how a lot of organizations start and you just pick some initial people and then the first order of business is to elect new board members – see the argument for continuing on with what we have, but we could talk about if we want to have a president – a presider – been involved with groups having a rotating presider, but don’t like this style – seems like we need to have people who are good at presiding, but we could have room for people to be trained to preside – maybe our goal would be to elect a president, vice president, and secretary and think about how long terms might be – we could work some of these things out now so the first membership meeting wouldn’t have to be so boring
• Michelle:  maybe we could hash that out over the next few weeks;  in three weeks, we could probably come up with a plan;  do like the idea of knowing ahead of time what is going to happen;  people on the OCP board were initially given amounts of time that they would serve – think it is easier if we start with a plan in the beginning;  
• Michael:  to get something on the agenda, would it involve making motions
• Ron:  the workshops have been really geared towards the workshop deliverables;  along the way, there have been lots of ideas – like being open on Friday or a dance night – how do ideas get out there – to the membership;  if a group doesn’t know what to do with an idea or a complaint, people begin to do subversive things to get power – if it is clear what people do with ideas of complaints, the group can be a good functioning group;  we could let membership figure out some of these things, we could make some suggestions over the next few weeks to establish some beginning place;  
• Michelle:  don’t see very clearly the difference between working on something here and then working on something with the membership;  coming in on July 17th with no plan, no one taking minutes, no one leading doesn’t make much sense – think we should figure out exactly who is going to be in charge on the 17th
• Sadie:  agree with Michelle that there should be established who is in charge when we begin
• Jonathan:  would like to make sure we talk about a way for the initial membership to vote – using the next few Friends meetings to talk about this, governance, and agenda issues

OCP Workshop 06/19/2013

Jonathan:  are staff members automatically part of the membership

Ron:  maybe board members would also be members

People who have declared:  Michelle Diehl, Mat Johnson, David Myers, James Rhodes, Greigh Vandevander, Heather Kilburn, Charles Harrelson, Anna Mendez, Jonathan Schrag, Ron Copeland, Sadie Brannon

Ron:  would like a list of current workshop members who might want to be part of the initial membership

Mark:  how does someone get removed from membership

Ron:  How do people get things onto agenda?  What about governance?  Would membership talk about this or would this Friends of OCP group

Ron:  assume that we are talking about staff of OCP building being a part of membership;  there are paid staff and volunteer staff – mark, Sharon m, larry

Michelle:  don’t think that everyone part of the staff would want to be part of membership;  maybe ron, jonathan, anna, Sadie;  seems like having ALL ocp staff part of the membership seems like it wouldn’t make that much sense;  

Anna:  memory of the conversation about staff automatically being members – when we were talking about volunteer hours being part of membership, we realized someone like Sadie could never be a member because she is always here working and never has time to volunteer

Ron:  moved by Michelle’s speech;  Alex might want to be a member, but someone else might not want to be a member – at a membership meeting, it would be about the members not who is staff and who is;  anyone – board or staff – would need to declare their desire to be a member and follow the membership protocol;

Anna:  seems easy now, but when we hire a new staff person in the future, would they need to go through a trial period;  when we get new staff and new board members, what is the process for this?

Ron:  would the ideal be that staff would come from the membership?  But what if we had a counselor come in and we didn’t have a counselor in our membership;  still seems like someone should be around for a few months before being part of a membership vote;  what if being a member somehow becomes prohibitive;  would like to be able to go to the board and ask about having them become members

Michelle:  anyone coming in for any reason needing to go through the trial period;  Rachel Farrell came in and had something in mind she wanted to do for us;  in order to be a member, would one have to

Mark:  kind of assumed that staff members would be automatically part of the membership;  also, if a new hire;  to me it is satisfactory if a staff member now or in the future declares they should be able to skip the trial period

Ron:  we talked about making the volunteer orientation serve also for the new member orientation, and then this week at the board meeting, we talked about board members coming to an orientation, and we have nothing like orientation for new staff;  if we could develop something that could work for these orientation needs;  also, the checks and balances of the US system, these groups all work together and various bodies can block certain things that other groups work on;  there is not necessarily any reason for a board member to be part of the membership;  

Michelle:  really good idea that we have a board, a staff;  we have these things in place for membership, but we haven’t seen it work yet;  Philip is coming up with a brochure about ocp – everybody connected with ocp could benefit from info about OCP’s past even if one doesn’t become a member;  who would object to sitting down for one hour to here about OCP

Jonathan:  maybe people working as staff in the ocp building would be required to be part of the membership

Ron:  interesting idea – we could pass this idea on to Philip;  like that anyone at ocp has to go through the process to become a member so that if a staff person takes a new job or board member leaves the board, they would still be a member if they wanted to be;  

Michelle:  like that we came back around to this;  if you don’t care about being a member – like the idea that working at OCP – volunteer or paid – you are here because you believe in ocp, the community, why we started ocp;  think that someone who has never been in our building wouldn’t automatically be a member – if you don’t even know people in the community;  the reason most of us are here is because we want to make this community a better place to work and live;  I’m here because I love this community;  if you work here, you should be here because you want to do it;  

Mark:  out of appreciation for staff, trust that any new staff would be appropriate – don’t have any problem with them automatically being a member, but if the staff feels like people would need to go through then ok;  board of directors and executive director doesn’t have the authority to require someone to be a member;  if it is decided that a future staff person would have to go through trial period then ok, but it might not be necessary

Heather:  these meetings need to be more adhd friendly, sometimes I need to go outside and sit;  

Ron:  how do we make sure our meetings are welcoming to all people – not just white people – who seem to be the majority of the current group;  

Anna:  Anna agrees with mark;  not really sure where the body is that would require staff to be members;  would love for there to be a professional counselor, and this counselor might need to maintain professional boundaries and cant be a member

Charles:  do I need to announce that I have a desire to be a member

Ron:  seems like if anyone wants the staff or board to have some exception, then that would have to be a motion

Michelle:  liked what Jonathan said about the people who work in this building – they should be asked;

James:  Jonathan said something that made sense – like a resolution that would say that resident OCP staff would be strongly encouraged to become part of the membership

Jonathan:  maybe Philip would say something like this during a hiring process – that we would strongly encourage ocp staff to be members

Anna:  hearing the list makes me think about people who might be in jail;  what about people who are currently banned from the property;  if you are eligible but banned from ocp or in jail, what should we do

Charles:  would like to disagree because there are some people who are wrongly in prison

Ron:  feel like if you are a member of the workshop, like Kris Elzey, - there would be a set of criteria for how you would lose your membership;  getting kicked out of ocp seems like a different case, but doesn’t mean someone should lose their membership

Michelle:  someone would have to do something really bad to be banned for long enough to lose membership;  someone could come back

Mark:  a year deadline might not fix the problem because they might be gone longer than one year;  why would we extend the deadline for people who we be of no benefit to ocp, no discussions, no decision making,

Charles:  in the case of Kris, he is gone, but he could be hearing info about the content of meetings

David:  if someone is locked up and can’t be here;  when you get out, probation, get a job could keep someone away from ocp;  

Michelle:  one of the things that we seem to be overlooking is that you have to be able to volunteer – if you can’t be here, why would you consider it your right to become a member;  when you can be here, come back, declare, and you will be a member in three months;  

Ron:  disagree with Mark or Michelle, this is a one-time only thing – someone who has been with the friends group;  what if someone has been through the trial period, goes to jail or what if anna;  when there are extenuating circumstances;  anyone in prison or banned who declares they want to be a member before July 17, should be able to be a member

Anna:  if the people in jail want to be members they would be here if they could; the reason that someone is banned, the reason they are banned because they haven’t come to talk to us, and mediation is part of the deal of being a member

Michelle:  agree with Anna 100%;  as we start to talk about how someone loses membership, we should be more lenient about people who get opportunities that keep them away;  think that people who have been banned have done something that is already no cool at ocp, and they shouldn’t be extended the same kind of courtesy

OCP Workshop 06/12/2013

Ron – opened mtg with quick synopsis of OCP workshop process to bring everyone up to date.

Ron: how do we start an initial group? Who are people who might be key to the membership that we need to get on board at this point?  How often and when will membership meetings be? Another option is that the workshop can continue as a think-tank that meets once  a week. If membership meetings are once a month using this time for workshop space might be a good use of this time. I don’t know. Any thoughts? Questions for clarifications? Last week I said we might be done and thought the rest of our work would best be done by the membership? Do we dissolve the workshop? Start the membership?

Mat: are we saying that this group is going to be the membership?

Ron: we’ve defined a membership that doesn’t exist yet. How do we start it? And: what do we do with this time? Does the workshop end?

Mat: I hope this time becomes the membership.

Ron: Your idea is continue on meeting at this time, except now it is a membership meeting, no longer the OCP workshop.

Mat: yeah.

Greigh: I have a question. If this becomes the membership how do people become members?

Ron: the handout explains it.

Greigh: sorry! Should have read it.

Ron: other thoughts about what this space/time should look like?

Mark: Who are the members? How do we decide who the first members?

Matt: I didn’t understand everything that was said. You have to pick people to be in the membership and we don’t have that yet. Pick the five best people to start the membership.

Ron: I have a concern with the time. Time management seems to be a problem. Thursday meeting was just a wash no one was really interested. Another issue I have is picking people who want to be a part of the workshop.

Mat: One thing we should establish is set a date and if you want to be a member then they should be accountable that day if you want to be a member, and pick the team before we set a date.

Dinine: It would be great to have the workshop once a month for the members to discuss issues and problems going on at OCP.

Greigh: What powers would the members have when it comes to some cases and issues that is brought up

Mat: the membership would be able to lead teams. Develop activities. It will be a group of people that get together and plan for the community center.

Greigh: a group of people who get together to get stuff done. Its not about disciplinary issues or say that the OCP should be open an extra day a week.

Ron: well we do want the membership to be able to make proposals to the Executive Director.

Greigh: like the members will have a voice and a vote.

Ron: I think Schrags hope is that eventually the membership will run everything and set the budget. We’ve also talked about a judiciary from the membership but have thought that the membership can decide some of those issues. But what I’ve heard from this group, which kinda of surprised me, is that community members seem to believe that at least now the staff is still really important.

Mat: can we set a date for the starting of the membership?

Greigh: I was looking at the proposed teams and saw that it said first times. Does that mean that we can have more teams? Can we have a conflict management team? Someone you would automatically know to go to?

Ron: there is a recovery/spirituality team that could meet that need and at this point the staff are still the people to go to when you need to mediate.

Mark: I think Mat’s right. Lets pick a date to start a membership. Everything else can flow from that. Anything else is putting the cart before the horse.

Michelle: I agree. I think we should set a date. If you want to be part of the initial membership you have to come to a meeting on that date at that time.

Ron: I think it should be by this date rather than on this date. And you need to be a workshop member already and come to a meeting a declare that you want to be a member. I still have concerns about accessibility. I like having membership meeting time when we aren’t usually open so we can all focus.

Mat: I like that idea so much! If it was a motion I would second it. I will make a motion:

“The workshops will end on July 3. Anyone who is a workshop member who declares that they want to be an OCP member by that date, at a meeting,  will automatically become a member on that date. This will comprise the initial membership.” Michelle seconds.

Greigh: is there a way for people who are out of town to still plug in?

Michelle: I think the way we set it up so we know. I think if you tell us today that will be fine.

Ron: I would hope we would have flexibility in general. And I think that was schrag’s concern about letting people know. For that reason July 3 is starting to feel a little soon to be. It is the summer people are in and out. It seems we have teams to discuss and starts. It feels a little abrupt especially without Phil and Jonathan here.

Mat: I think we should discuss teams. Maybe we could change the date if you aren’t happy with July 3. We can’t really establish teams without the membership. What is your idea about a date?

Michelle: My entire month of July is uncertain so lets wait till August. My heart is really in this. Maybe the 3rd really is too soon.

Ron:  the thing that is confusing me now is what do we do with the workshop time between now and when the membership starts? We don’t have much left to meet and talk about until then. Maybe we make an effort to talk to everyone who is a workshop member to let them know. Maybe you don’t have to come and declare at a meeting you just have to declare and we put you on the rooster.

Michelle: if that is the case then I think the proposal Mat is probably still plausible. We can talk to people, email, and set up fliers.

Claude: we were talking about safety issues. I come in here in peace and if people are putting their hands on me I’m going to put my hands back on them. If people are threatening people here that isn’t acceptable.

Ron: We will make a membership to discuss things that you just talked about. And it would be nice for you to become a member so we can really discuss things you just talked about and get a answer for it, and create a goal and prevent those safety issues.

Greigh: We should have a conflict resolution mediation team.

Michelle: All of our conflict things are in the code of behaviors that includes all the problems weve had here at OCP and Claude would have known that if he was here reading. Our community place is not a church but on Sunday it becomes a church where you can talk about you problems then.

Matt: Is there any set date that we have agreed on?

Ron: A couple more days and we will figure it out, get out some emails and spread the word. Are we ok changing the proposal until the 17th?  I would like time to have a conversation with Daniel BK and Melas. I like that it’s a month.  So we’ll change the date to July 17th. Open to people who are workshop members. They will obey rules for membership including being on a team, having a spirit of volunteerism, and trying to attend meetings. That would be the initial membership. From there on if someone wanted to become a member they have to follow the trial period etc. You will need to declare to Jonathan, or come to a meeting, by the 17th that you want to be an OCP member.

Motions passes unanimously.

Who declares right now?

Michelle Diehl

Mat  Johnson

Greigh Vandevander

Mr. Rhodes

David Meyers

OCP Workshop 06/05/2013

Ron:  New Member Orientation is left on our list of deliverables –

Philip:  would a new member even need an orientation after doing a trial period

Ron:  maybe people would need to spend time with each of the teams during orientation;  maybe this is really like a one time session – history of ocp, orientation about all the teams;  recently I did this premarital counseling thing and then went to an official training;  maybe we should give people time to come to some meetings, etc and then offer orientation

Ron:  maybe just one orientation where anyone could come – volunteers, people wanting to become members, people who are just new to OCP;  maybe we would want them to be more professional ;  maybe we could do these orientations outside of the footprint since we aren’t open that much and we would want these pretty regularly

Philip:  my mind went in the direction of a regular orientation that would cover a lot;  trying to create a manual for ocp

Mary:  it is good to know about membership and volunteering;  how do the new people know who is a leader, who has a membership;  what about an id for people so new people know who to talk to

Ron:  interesting question – a little more serious – we have talked about name tags – you would either be member, volunteer, visitor, or staff – what we don’t like about this (or trying to preserve) is that anyone is welcome and that people feel welcome – even if they don’t think what we think;  regardless of where they are coming from, a person would be welcome;  another idea has been to have pictures on the wall of staff, board members, and maybe OCP community members – this might be better than name tags;  if the member is upholding the rules, etc of ocp, a person should be able to trust that person a little more, depend on that person a little more;  

Michelle:  regarding name tags, I have been here since the beginning, but I don’t want to be labeled as an old-timer;  don’t feel like the name tags are a part of what we are trying to convey to people – maybe too much like a hierarchy;  we don’t want the staff to lord power, and we want to make sure that volunteers feel like they are a part;  always loved that we have always felt equal at OCP;  would worry that someone might feel like they cant do something because they aren’t a member;  like the idea of pictures on the wall;  anytime you talk with someone who has been around and don’t know the answer to question, I point people to the right person;  name tags make me think that I am working for money;

Ron:  seems like there is a feeling to consolidate this “orientation” with our volunteer orientation;  it would be good to really look at the content of the orientation with the manual, historical, philosophical, the order it would be done;  what would be take away (a notebook, rules, etc);  maybe the volunteers would be split up from new member orientation;

Philip:  on our staff agenda is to review the manual that Philip has been working on;  it would be fun to have it go out to the members;  took a lot out of The Haven’s manual and made changes to make it work for OCP;  

Ron:  wondering if we can get out of this topic realively easily – maybe we just say that a person will attend an orientation before becoming a member;  we could actually have someone attend a volunteer orientation now before making additions and changes;  

Philip:  can we add the orientation as a requirement to the trial period;  move to include new member orientation in the trial period definition;  seconded by Michelle;  9 in favor, 0 opposed

Ron:  looking at what’s left at the bottom:  community center purposes, framework for community to govern itself, set of rules and regulations, hours/access proposal, plan for programming/entertainment, funding;  regarding community center purposes – do we need to have some purposes that apply directly to the community center outside of our organization-wide purposes;  framework for community to organize itself – this seems like it might be the membership itself – does the membership have the power/ability to govern itself or the community center;  set of rules/regulations – we have done some strong work on the rules listed on our page;  how do we make rules;  what are the limitations of decisions;  hours and access proposal – this came out of some frustration about the current hours and a need for more access to shelter – the idea was that this might become a proposal to the OCP board – how more hours might be achieved – the board could still say no;  

Philip:  we are coming up on two years since the September close – feeling the move towards some type of hours expansion – seems like we are about there;  would love for the members and the staff to figure out how some additional hours might work;  it would be fun to works towards that – knowing that it needs to be sane and healthy;  matt’s had some ideas about this for a while;  

Ron:  hearing this makes me feel antsy to get the membership started – if we are going to be member-run, lets let the membership set this up and then the new decision is held accountable to the membership – accountability seems like it is going to be a big issue;  my opinion might be to dissolve the workshop and begin the membership at some point;  

Mark:  now that we have some free time, how are we going to officially start the membership – we need to figure this out;  

Ron:  this topic might fall under community governance;  plan for programming and entertainment – this seems like team that we have already created could deal with this once we start the membership;  funding was maybe something mike farrand added on – it is related to enterprises;  also it is related to hours and access;  not sure we have the muscle to deal with some of these issues right now;  

Matt:  seems like funding should be left to the staff unless someone has an idea – we should put it aside for now

Michelle:  wondering where to sign up for membership;  could we get behind the idea of funding, hours/access, programming, and rules and regulations all coming off our list;  then maybe we have community center purposes – not sold on having to discuss this topic;  maybe we can focus on framework for governance and how to start the membership;  who is going to chair a membership meeting, talk about the relationship of workshop to membership, agendas – how people can get things on an agenda

Matt:  like the idea of talking about Mark’s topic – who will be in the initial group;  like the idea talking about hours – maybe the first week of October, we could be open on a Friday;  maybe this will be a discussion, but would like not to push this talk off to far;

Ron:  it’s June – we have been working on this for a year – seems like the time to talk about ending the workshop and starting the membership;  seems like we could have things up and running by October and that wouldn’t really be too far away;  

Jonathan:  maybe we need to discuss who might want to be involved in a discussion about who will be in the initial membership