Re: 7th principle status

[Jocelyn Furbush]

Hi Scott and everyone,

Yep, Amber brought a brief reportback/next steps conversation to the August board meeting. We had discussed the first draft of the proposal in June, and then a revised version at July's meeting where we had a rich conversation thanks to the presence of Francesca and several collective managers (see notes copied below.) The main concern was the wording in the proposal requiring the board to approve a proposal for how to structure the donation distributions by a certain time. And, some concern from about this getting into operations and the legitimate use of the donations budget for marketing purposes in addition to mission/ends fulfillment.

Russ and Amber were going to try to work over e-mail on a further revised proposal to come again in August, but we didn't get new proposal language for the meeting.

Amber suggested developing this as a working owner governance participation project more broadly focused on ideas for how the co-op engages in the sustainable development of our communities, including but not limited to monetary donations. Theresa H. had e-mailed the board and talked with those of us at the agenda forming meeting about whether it might make sense for this project to return to and keep its home in the Community Engagement Committee. So, we talked about those two possibilities briefly at the August meeting. Gianna and Anthony committed to following up with the CEC and Theresa, and "keeping the ball rolling" as far as board involvement.

I think everyone on the board is really interested in seeing this effort move forward. If you all think it makes sense to have a formal board endorsement and board link to this project, then a working owner governance proposal is probably the way to go.

Hope this helps.

-Jocelyn

p.s. Sorry August meeting minutes aren't up yet. They haven't gone out the board list yet either. I'll e-mail board admin Steph for a status report.

------------------------------
July Board Minutes:
2. Decision: 7th Principle project proposal
Sponsor: Russ
Russ presented the revised project proposal for implementing the 7th Principle – concern for community. The Board discussed the proposal and information.
Question: The proposal references an attachment – where is that attachment? Response: The attachment is the third page of the document for this item
Concern/question: The proposal seems to overlap with operations work - is that intentional and does that create any problem?
Response: Yes, the proposed committee would take some operations work into a different workflow. Likely not a problem, and open to the Board’s direction on advancing the proposal or not.
Question: Can the Board provide more context about the proposal? Agree that the proposal is more operational than policy, so more information would be helpful to clarify.
Response: Concern was for transparency and missed opportunity to engage members in the process, not how the donations were run. Also would offer more opportunities for diversified donations program – the current program provides a large portion of funding to one specific program.
Discussion     Donations are connected to the Cooperative’s marketing work, and the proposed
committee may limit that connection     Donations budget has been subject to a lot of fluctuation recently – the committee
proposal would establish a more consistent and predictable level of donations funding     General agreement that member involvement is desired     General agreement that more structure is desired     Request for questions to be answered and brought back for Board reconsideration:
o    What are the challenges/concerns with current donations process?
o    What level of involvement will the operations team have for any revised process?     Support for the Board approving the creation of a committee     The proposal would change how the Cooperative does donations, and specifies several
desired outcomes that direct certain actions by staff and Collective Management. If the
proposal is approved, would like the Board to codify the changes in its policy documents.     Would feel more comfortable approving the proposal if it were a more general 7th
Principle committee Based on discussion, the Board agreed that:
    Amber and Russ will meet via email to prepare a revised proposal or discussion for the August Board meeting.
The Board took no action on this item. It will revisit the discussion at the August Board meeting.

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 8:35 PM, Scott Sheldon <scottb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Jocelyn,

The last Russ knew, Amber was taking this to the August board meeting.  Could you determine the status before the CEC mtg?  Is there a draft of the August board minutes I could see?  (None on the ACG site yet.)

Thanks,

Scott

--

------------------------

Jocelyn Furbush
503.956.0672
jocelyn...@gmail.com

**********************************
Dear compañeras y compañeros, I care about you and all the important work we are doing together. I aspire to be responsive to you through e-mail, and my system for timely processing of e-mail communication is a work in progress. If you don't hear back from me, please send me a text or give me a call! I also love to talk with you face-to-face. Let's meet for tea, a meal or a walk soon! 

With love and respect, Jocelyn

Save our in-boxes! http://emailcharter.org

[Theresa Hilinski]

Thanks Jocelyn!  After the updates from tomorrow's meeting, I'll work with the CEC folks to get an ARF prepped for September.  Gianna did touch base with me about meeting - I think we were looking at late August.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ACG Community Engagement Committee" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to acg-community-enga...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

--

Theresa Hilinski, I-CUDE | Community Manager, The Cooperative Trust | trust.coop | facebook.com/thecooperativetrust | @trustdotcoop | 503.567.9824

[Scott Sheldon]

Yes thanks much, Jocelyn. 

Russ' message read to me like he wasn't expecting to do anything more with the 7th principle project.  He was a super contributor or a long time (and has always had difficulty saying no), but has moved to Arizona and is starting a new life.

Scott

At 04:51 PM 8/14/2013 Wednesday, Theresa Hilinski wrote:

Thanks Jocelyn! � After the updates from tomorrow's meeting, I'll work with the CEC folks to get an ARF prepped for September. � Gianna did touch base with me about meeting - I think we were looking at late August.


On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 7:10 PM, Jocelyn Furbush < jocelyn...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Scott and everyone,

Yep, Amber brought a brief reportback/next steps conversation to the August board meeting. We had discussed the first draft of the proposal in June, and then a revised version at July's meeting where we had a rich conversation thanks to the presence of Francesca and several collective managers (see notes copied below.) The main concern was the wording in the proposal requiring the board to approve a proposal for how to structure the donation distributions by a certain time. And, some concern from about this getting into operations and the legitimate use of the donations budget for marketing purposes in addition to mission/ends fulfillment.

Russ and Amber were going to try to work over e-mail on a further revised proposal to come again in August, but we didn't get new proposal language for the meeting.

Amber suggested developing this as a working owner governance participation project more broadly focused on ideas for how the co-op engages in the sustainable development of our communities, including but not limited to monetary donations. Theresa H. had e-mailed the board and talked with those of us at the agenda forming meeting about whether it might make sense for this project to return to and keep its home in the Community Engagement Committee. So, we talked about those two possibilities briefly at the August meeting. Gianna and Anthony committed to following up with the CEC and Theresa, and "keeping the ball rolling" as far as board involvement.

I think everyone on the board is really interested in seeing this effort move forward. If you all think it makes sense to have a formal board endorsement and board link to this project, then a working owner governance proposal is probably the way to go.

Hope this helps.

-Jocelyn

p.s. Sorry August meeting minutes aren't up yet. They haven't gone out the board list yet either. I'll e-mail board admin Steph for a status report.

------------------------------

July Board Minutes:

2. Decision: 7th Principle project proposal

Sponsor: Russ

Russ presented the revised project proposal for implementing the 7th Principle � concern forr community. The Board discussed the proposal and information.

Question: The proposal references an attachment � where is that atttachment? Response: The attachment is the third page of the document for this item

Concern/question: The proposal seems to overlap with operations work - is that intentional and does that create any problem?

Response: Yes, the proposed committee would take some operations work into a different workflow. Likely not a problem, and open to the Board’s direction on advancing the proposal or not.

Question: Can the Board provide more context about the proposal? Agree that the proposal is more operational than policy, so more information would be helpful to clarify.

Response: Concern was for transparency and missed opportunity to engage members in the process, not how the donations were run. Also would offer more opportunities for diversified donations program � the current progrram provides a large portion of funding to one specific program.