[cgfc] Board Meeting Minutes from 3/14/03 (late)

[Bob Cook]

I apologize for the lateness of these minutes:

Coop Board Meeting Notes
3-14-03

Agenda:
Facilitator Recommendations
Reports
Current Topics
    Communication with Coordinators
    Bylaws
    General Membership Meeting (April 6)

Attendance: Bob, Sehvilla, Tanya, Eric, Karina, Tim,
Mike Ullman, Beth Simpson (facilitator), jamie the pirate (notetaker)

Announcements:
Sehvilla did food for the first movie night at the IDF; food cost
$13.48, there was some food to spare, most eating was done after the
movie, an announcement was made that the food came from the coop: it
went well. Bob also did a movie night, and spent about $13.

Karina is going to be gone for 5 weeks, and will miss 3 meetings. Should
the board get a new member to take over her position in April? The
general consensus was that Karina should stay on the board, and that
since there will be two new members by then, it won.t feel like the
board is short-handed. Sehvilla suggested that a policy be made on this
issue.

Facilitator Recommendations:
Beth recommended the following:
-   The agenda should be finished before the meeting and no additions
    should be made to it.
-   Nothing on the agenda should be shorter than ten minutes.
-   Reports should be made before the meeting and sent out to the
    mailing list. Reports should not be made at all, if possible, during
    meetings.
-   When the group meets, the time should be used exclusively for
    discussions of proposals and questions. Every agenda item should
    have a sponsor who has an idea of what kind of outcome the discussion
    should have, i.e. a question answered, a decision made, a person
    appointed to a task, etc.
-   The board needs to decide how long the meetings will be and if it
    intends to start on time (or wait for people who are late to
arrive.)

The recommendations were accepted, after some discussion. It was also
decided that Bob would make the agenda. The Friday before a meeting a
call for agenda items will go out, the completed agenda will go out
Monday, and reports and proposals from board members will be sent out by
Wednesday (to the mailing list.)
Eric will continue to make sure Tim gets pertinent emails.



Reports:
Coordinator Liaison
Eric: The board needs to wrestle more with the question of our role .
even though we think we know what our role is, other people don.t think
that we know (i.e., we haven.t communicated our role clearly enough to
the coop at large). I think it would be helpful if we had something to
go to the coordinators with. There.s lots of tension, some of which is
historical, between the two groups. Part of the reason for this is that
we are newly formed, and, up until recently, the coordinators have not
been tightly organized. I feel like we need to define what our role is.
I discussed some things with Clint about how he has been organizing with
the coordinators.

We need a way to communicate between the board and the coordinators.
We need to have a process for dealing with proposed changes and make
sure that everyone is involved in the process and what comes out of it.

Bylaws are connected to this tension. Since the coordinators have worked
on them, we need to talk to them to find out what they.ve accomplished.
There.s a feeling that we will make the same mistakes and duplicate
their accomplishments.

Accountability is something that the coordinators are talking about,
which will have an effect on our relationship to them.

Outreach Liaison
(Sehvilla) I.m going to write an article for the IDF Voice, other people
can work with me on it or on their own. What I found out about the coop
newsletter is that it has an editor, a couple of staff, and a time that
they meet. Tim still needed to do his self-description for it.

(Tim) There.s a worker-run coop conference happening in Madison in a
month. I think we should send Sehvilla. The idea is to network with
other coops. Sehvilla is interested in going. Karina will write up a
proposal, and inquire with Lisa about if there.s enough in the budget
for it.

IDF Liaison
Movie nights:   April 3, Karina April 10, Tanya and Eric    April 17,
Tim
Sehvilla will make a sign that says .food provided by coop., and Bob
will bring a tablecloth and brochures.

Bob: Clint said that money and sponsorship is not an issue

Karina: Lisa will allow $20-30 per quarter. Meredith said that there are
two levels of sponsorship of IDF events, both of which are appreciated:
(1) minimal . spreading the word, (2) doing food for the event. We don.t
have to do level 2. I checked with Lisa about how much was budgeted last
year for IDF sponsorship, but she didn.t know.

Tanya: It comes out of the education and outreach budget? Karina: Yes, I
think so.
 
Karina: We have to make up a report by next week, of coop activities for
the PIFI (Public Interest Fund of Illinois) . it has something to do
with taxes. Tanya and I will work on it.

Treasurer
Tim: I went through several documents with Lisa. I.m slowly figuring out
exactly how to make myself useful.

Bob: For the board.s purposes, a treasurer report once a month would be
good, that answers the following:
What financial issues are we currently dealing with? 
What is the state of the coop financially? 
Are we adhering to our budget? 
Are we below or above it? Why?

Communication with Coordinators:
Why is there tension between the board and the coordinators? What should
we do about it, if anything? Here were some possible reasons for
tension:

Here are some quickly brainstormed ideas for the beginnings of
solutions:
-   We need to have a document (or set of documents) we.ve reached
    consensus on which we can refer to as the definition of our role and
    purpose, structure, and process.
-   It.s important that we meet with the coordinators, both for
    one-on-one conversations and, eventually, for a meeting all
    together.
-   Personal conflicts need to be distinguished from political
    conflicts.
-   We need to focus on our goal, which is to have a vision for the
    coop, not to .resolve the tension..
-   We need to make sure everyone.s on board; we need to be inclusive.
-   If there is a problem we can.t work out, it should go to the
    membership.

Bob made a start at writing documents that attempt to clearly define our
role/purpose, structure, and process

Board members will email Bob with additions and changes, and can think
some more about the board.s purpose and structure on their own. One way
the documents might be divided is by role, process, and structure; or
mission, principles, and process.

The board needs to carefully define its role in creating policy for the
coop. Since several important policy decisions are upcoming (hiring an
Outreach Coordinator, as well as accountability structure that the
coordinators are working on), this is an immediate priority for the
board to at least create ad hoc processes that can be used as a
structure for creating/reviewing policy that affects the membership.

Bylaws Discussion of People.s Coop Bylaws
Tabled until the next meeting.

General Membership Meeting April 6th
Tabled until special Board session . Wed, March 19th.

Next meeting: April 4th 2003 4:30pm in the General Meeting Room




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* Bob Cook              OJC Technologies                 *
* bobcook at onthejob.net  Engineering From the Right Brain *
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