Facilitators Working Group - November 20

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Notes taken by hand, with varying levels of detail, all dialogue is paraphrased -- MH

Introductions

[Daniel is facilitating]

[Agenda items are proposed and prioritized by straw poll]

Announcements

Public speaking course, tomorrow (November 21) at 8PM in Dewey Square

Non-violence workshop, tomorrow (November 21) from 6 - 8PM, led by Cathy Hoffman

First Priority Process Proposal, tonight (November 20), Non-Violence Working Group Proposal

[Jorge explains PPP requirements]

Main agenda

Reporting back from the Friday night Consensus Process workshop

Greg: spirit and design of new process is good, though not necessarily a more efficient process -- this is not necessarily a problem

Daniel: perhaps elements of this process, if not whole process can be brought into the current consensus model

[Daniel discusses means of altering concerns and amendments portion of his proposal]

[Jorge concurs that it isn't more efficient]

[Sue, Bobby, Suzanne ask questions about how recent GAs have gone

  • number of attendees
  • quorum
  • number of facilitators used

Exporting facilitation practices to other occupations

Sue from Occupy Salem: I've tried to get facilitators to show up or help from OB

G: I would be interested in helping

B: Are there electronic, online resources we could use for things at BU, etc.? We have a pretty consistent attendance at our meetings of about 15 people.

Noah: Here at OB we have good small-group models but bigger groups are hairier

Anna's proposals [see email to FWG]

Announcing the proposals agenda the night before (by midnight)

G: I support this, let's also put it in the Info Tent, a calendar on the wiki would be useful, in conjunction with Priority Process Proposal

Alex: This could be put on current OB calendar

[Greg gets clarification from Daniel that Anna suggests only that group proposing and a summary of the proposal are posted]

N: For this, we need calendar access and dedicated whiteboard

A: Onsite campers are hard-pressed to access phone or internet quickly and thus pursue a proposal immediately

J: Some great proposals have been written right before a GA

A: Some poeple have trouble holding onto an idea for very long, we shouldn't exclude them

D: Only the bare-bones description is necessary

N: This can work in tandem with the Priority Process Proposal

[Disruption: "FIFO LIFO - First In First Out, Last In Last Out" the group is told by someone passing through]

N: What happens to bumped proposals?

G: Before Priority Proposals [?]

D: What about stack online? This is just putting stack online ahead of time.

B: This is just a way to provide more info about the General Assembly beforehand

General question discussed: Is it really a benefit for the GA if someone can decide whether or not he or she wants to show up based on interest in the proposals?

Secondary question: Does it lead to "gaming" the system?

Proposal: To request that proposals be added to an agenda whiteboard, and that these proposals be

  1. sent to facilitation by 8AM same day of GA
  2. include contact info of proposers
  3. include summary of content of proposal
  4. include copy of proposal if available

Proposals will be posted on whiteboard and online

G: What about priority?

All: Just like stack

D: Let's make a proposals stack whiteboard

G: We need both whiteboard and a digital stack

[General discussion]

Amended proposal: Contacts onsite will be made available to put things on whiteboard; at 8AM an onsite member of Facilitation copies whiteboard content to online , public location; Stack Aide that night will begin with whiteboard stack; PPProposals have priority; then proposals on the stack that have rolled over from the previous evening

[Lots of discussion on how to make this work, do we like whiteboards or paper, who will handle onsite whiteboard, do we need to police it, how do keep a place online to add proposals to stack, how would we manage the priority of both online and whiteboard additions simultaneously?]

[Proposal is offered for consensus, is blocked]

Roles for the night's GA:

[Noah chosen as facilitator, Pattie is stack aide]