Procedures committee minutes Jan 24, 2023

Topics: mandate, budget processes, community work

6:00-7:00 p.m., common house.

Present: Laraine, Marina, Kay

Next meeting:  February 16, 6:00 p.m.  Meeting schedule:  Third Thursday each month.

What is the purpose of the Procedures Committee?  Education is one purpose.  Arranging retreats. Retreats often focus on improving communication skills.

Ask people, especially new residents, whether there are things they would like to do but aren't sure how or if it would be okay.  Do a survey? -- what is working and what isn't?  New people might notice things that people who've been here a while have become blind to.  Review suggestions from retreats. 

Start by defining an issue; starting with a proposal can close off avenues that might have produced more complete solutions. The issues of garden water and the difference between a club and a committee aren't well-defined enough to go to an ad hoc committee.  They need discussion by the whole community.  What are the concerns behind the suggestion of asking gardeners to pay for water -- cutting expenses, fairness?

There's always a tension between people who feel things need more discussion and people who feel they've been talked to death.

The community chose at the very beginning to have income diversity.   We occasionally need to be reminded of that.

Some community tensions arising from pay'r'play work being totally self-defined.  As a middle road between entirely self-defined or strictly regulated, could have an agreed-on list that gets full credit and work that isn't on the list gets half credit.

The difficulty of creating a complete list of community work is one reason why we allow self-definition. A list of community work will reflect the biases of the people assembling it.  Instead, hand out ten or twenty pieces of paper to every person and have them write down community jobs.  Things that multiple people cite go on the approved list.  Items mentioned only once or twice could be discussed for approval.

Research how other communities do things.  Budget processes, ways to fund discretionary spending, ways to decide on annual projects.  Do other communities that require work have a list of jobs, a definition of what is community work, a free-for-all?