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The following is a proposal to amend the Spokes Council and General Assembly format. Web-team does not usually post proposals, but as this proposal has already been passed through GA and SC (in part) we are announcing the proposals with the new schedule.
Tomorrow (Friday the 16th of December 2011) at the Spokes Council we will be discussing a couple of amendments to the proposal of a new meeting structure. If the proposed amendments do not pass, this new structure will still be implemented on Monday and we can continue to refine the proposal, modifying the mix of meeting types and styles to fit the needs of our movement. The two amendments previously discussed are:
- Switching Saturday and Sunday’s planned meetings (i.e. General Assembly on Sunday, Feather Circle on Saturday)
- Giving the General Assembly on Saturday the ability to call for an extra GA on Wednesday if needed to complete all the proposals on the table. And similarly, giving the Spokes Council on Thursday the ability to call for an extra SC on Monday (to happen before/after the Agenda Setting meeting) if needed to complete all the proposals on the table
The Facilitation Team would like to add the following:
Having a break from Friday 12/23 – Sunday 12/25 during which there would be no facilitated meetings. Many people will be absent for some of the holidays and there are both questions of whether there will be enough participants or facilitators to be present during this time.
Schedule:
- MON – Agenda Setting, Proposal Announcement and Discussion (proposals and agendas will then be posted online for the Thur and Sat meetings)
- TUE – Movement Building / Open Forum
- WED – Open
- THU – Spokes Council
- FRI – Cultural Events (Planned by TUPAC and B-Media)
- SAT – General Assembly
- SUN – Feather Circle (Facilitated by Rumorz)
Additions to the proposal:
- Emergency GA meetings could replace any nights activities (emergency being defined as something that requires action within 48 hours). OPDX email list would be the place where this would be discussed, with facilitation team assisting and would be posted on the website
- This revised schedule would be re-evaluated at the Spokes Council 4 weeks after it starts.
Rationale for the Proposal:
Making sure that our meeting structures and styles are truly meeting the needs of our new and growing movement is important and will require ongoing evolution. Many factors including: decreased participation, less dynamic discussions, facilitator capacity, weather and the holiday season leads us to believe that this is an appropriate time for some changes. Other occupations nationwide are having similar problems and are working to make changes that will facilitate more space for open discussion, connection and affinity building, instead of process heavy, decision making meetings that sometimes stifle new ideas that need a more open space to foster. In light of this the Process and Structure Committee proposes to change the mix of different meeting types and styles. This will not change the time and frequency of meetings. What will change is what happens during the meetings.
Please keep in mind that this will be an ongoing process. The Process and Structure Committee was recently formed and is open to all. It will continue to look at the big picture questions about how to meet the needs of our movement through process. This proposal is designed to meet the immediate needs that have come up, in a timely fashion, with more to come as both our process and our movement evolves.
This proposal was announced at the General Assembly on 12/5 and the Spokes Council on 12/4. It was brought for a decision to the Spokes Council on 12/6 and tabled for further discussion. All were invited to the 12/11 Process and Structure Committee meeting where the proposal was further evolved. The proposal was passed by the Spokes Council on 12/13 and by the General Assembly on 12/14.