OpCom Agenda October 11

[Hava Edelstein]

Hi OpStars and others,
The meeting this Monday is a little longer than normal -- however, there has been less individual work going on this week in general (with a couple of notable exceptions). In theory, everyone does 5 hours a week on non-board weeks, and this week is a little heavier on meeting in person and less heavy on individual tasks. There's also just a lot to cover.

There is lot of background information to read I know -- if everyone reads through this entire e-mail before the meeting, we'll make more progress in the meeting itself.

If you're on opfeed and have any comments or questions about these things, please feel free to shoot them by way. Everyone is also welcome to attend the meeting in person (7:10 at Central Office). If you plan on attending in person for a particular discussion, you may want to send me an e-mail and let me know, so that if we re-arrange the meeting items at the last minute, I'll make sure not to re-arrange what you're coming for.

Cooperatively,
hava



7:10 - 7:20 Introductions
7:20 - 7:25: Talking about new task that's been sent our way from Cabinet -- ConCom investigation template
7:25 - 8:00 Substance Abuse Discussion / Good Samaritan Policy discussion
8:00 - 8:20  Central Level PNG policy discussion, working draft
8:20 - 8:40  Conditional Contract policy discussion, working draft
8:40 - 8:55  Meeting Minutes policy discussion, possible vote
8:55 - 9:05 Brief discussion about workshift termination process, ending in straw poll
9:05 - 9:10 Break
9:10 - 9:25 House-Level IT discussion, create preliminary minimum requirements document
9:25 - 9:40 house-level operations finance tutorial
Adjourn
9:40 - 10:10 CK subcommittee



Details:
ConCom Investigation Template
Every semester, OpCom is sent multiple tasks in the middle of the semester by various stakeholders, and this the latest example. We've been charged with creating an investigation template for the Conduct Committee to use when investigating conduct cases, to ensure that information is complete, fair, and logically presented. Kim and/or will explain more.


Substance Abuse Discussion / Good Samaritan Policy discussion
As y'all probably know, one of the main tasks OpCom has been tasked with this semester is redoing our Substance Abuse Policies.
Gaby and Kristen have both done research in relation to GSP/Substance Abuse Policies, and will share this research.

There are a several problems with the substance abuse policy as currently written:
(1) It's not followed and hasn't been effective.
(2) It contains statements that seem to contradict each other and thus are confusing, for instance, it says both:
"Any member who abuses drugs will be subject to BSC disciplinary measures up to and including termination" and also
"As a cooperative entity, the BSC strives to help any co-oper end a problem with substances."
Ok, so if I'm caught doing substances, will the BSC help me or terminate me? Because they seem different.
(3) It doesn't distinguish between substance abusers and substance sellers/manufacturers.
(4) It makes no provision for drugs with the use of medical documentation.
(5) It does not make any provisions dependent on the different legal ramifications of possessing certain drugs. For instance, possessing a small amount of marijuana in California is currently an infraction (similar to getting a traffic ticket), while possessing a small amount of heroin is a felony.
(6) The definition of substance is overly vague: "A substance is any chemical that causes physical, emotional, or behavioral changes." Like the chemicals in coffee and chocolate and antidepressants?
(7) While we forbid the growing of marijuana, there are no stated punitive consequences for doing so aside from loss of manager compensation. Ergo, a house caught growing 200 plants would currently be asked to stop, and their major managers would be fined 5% of their salary each. Period. Depending on the members of ConCon or Cabinet in a particular semester, there may optionally be additional consequences. But that hasn't been the practice.
(8) The house/central level distinction makes it difficult to know what to do if a member of one unit approaches the central level about the behavior of another unit.

We'll review these problems, talk about any others I missed here,  and determine next logical tasks in the creation of better more usable policy.

Central Level PNG, Conditional Contract, Minutes Policies
I sent out the new minutes policy, but not the other ones yet. That will be done this weekend.

Workshift Termination Straw Poll
This might not last ten minutes. Here is the background: when a house has a member that is down workshift hours below a certain amount, the house is mandated by policy to figure something out, such as a conditional contract. And then if the member breaks the conditional contract, the member is terminated.

Workshift Termination Appeals are currently treated differently from all other types of adjudication appeals, in that the member who is terminated gets the explicit right to appeal the workshift termination twice: once to adcom, and once to board. I view this as a little insulting to house autonomy, and also, a drain on house-level managers who possibly have to appear both before adcom and the board. This is after the managers have appeared at numerous councils and spent lots of extra time working with the member. "Member rights" extends to the right of house-level managers to not have to deal with multiple appeals for members who are clearly not following the member contract.

This item has been a "nice to do" item for several semesters now, and it's quick...the purpose of this discussion is discuss the pros and cons of having the appeal body be (1) only adcom (2) only board, or (3) both (like now), and take a straw vote to direct actual future policy.

Here are pros and cons of the first two options:
Pros of using Adcom only as the Termination Appeal body for Workshift Terminations
(Kim favors this option)
(1) Adcom is designed to be an exception to policy for individual members. Doing workshifts is a requirement for members; not having to do them would be an individual exception to policy. This type of termination appeal clearly falls within adcom jurisdiction.
(2) Unlike other conduct issues, workshift termination appeals are fairly regulated: the workshift manager presents the workshift history, and the member responds to it. They are routine enough that an administrative body other than the board can comfortably handle them. And, in fact, Adcom has already been handling them.
(3) Adcom is the time of about 10 people in the room instead of 40.
(4) Workshift termination appeals at the board level takes away from other board business.

Pros of Using the Board as the Termination Appeal body for Workshift Terminations
(1) Termination is a serious issue; it could be argued that Board should hear any and all termination appeals regardless of the reason.
(2) See 1.
(3) See 2.
(4) See 3.

House-Level IT Discussion
Efforts are being made by various committees to improve house-level IT, and in the interest of space, I won't list them here. However, one place OpCom can play a part is by creating a committee recommendation about the minimum recommended requirements for every BSC member. These recommendations will *not* be part of the member contract, nor will they be mandated policy, at least for now. They will however help to possibly prioritize house-level IT goals (and the time and money they will take) with other organizational goals.

Below is a list of items which could be possible minimum requirements. I'm thinking of discussing these items in relation to program delivery and our mission statement (the dialectical balance of low-cost and quality), passing around these items on a sheet of paper, having people check off the ones they think should be requirements we should aim for, then compiling this into a formal recommendation for the next meeting from OpCom to other committees.

Choose one or more:
- Each BSC member should have some type of internet access in his or her room (wireless or wired).
- Each BSC member should have wireless access in his or her room. (Wireless is more convenient than wired.)
- There should be enough internet jacks in a room for each member in the room. (Wired is faster than wireless)

Choose one:
- If internet is broken for a member or more than one member, we would like to fix it within the same day.
- [ditto], we would like to fix it within two days.
- [ditto], within one week.

Choose one or more:
- All units should have at least one working unit computer with internet access.
- All units should have at least one working unit computer with internet access for every _____ members.

- All units should have at least one working unit printer that connects to the house computer.
- All units should have at least one working unit printer that can connect to individual members' computers.

Choose one or more:
- If the printer is missing toner, we would like to address this issue within a day.
- [], within two days.
- [], within a week.

Choose one or more:
- Common study areas of the unit should have wireless internet access
- All common areas of the unit should have wireless internet access

Choose one or more:
- If a unit cannot afford a computer or equipment to fulfill these goals, that's really tough for the members of that unit
- [...], a house loan from the central level should be considered.
- [...], a central-level fund should be established for these purposes

House-level Operations Financial Tutorial
Later in the semester, we will be analyzing house-finances from a program delivery standpoint, but we'll be doing this over a few separate meetings, since there's a lot to cover. The net result is that we make recommendations to FiCom or other committees. We'll be starting this week with a brief tutorial. I'm creating a member's guide about this stuff, so the questions you ask will help the guide be better.
You may wonder why FiCom isn't doing this. Well -- they are, kind of. Their goal is more overall finances, and how to balance all financial areas. Our focus is whether the way unit-level finances are arranged by the central level meets the needs of units, as far as having the right amount of money for the right things and in relation to fulfilling our mission statement.

CK Subcommittee
Anyone is welcome to join us for this part. We'll be formulating some exact survey questions for some research areas, amongst other things.


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Hava Edelstein
Vice President of Operations
Berkeley Student Cooperative (http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org)
v...@bsc.coop
Celebrating over 75 years of affordable, cooperative, student-run housing!

Graduate Student in Instructional Technology at San Francisco State
http://www.sfsu.edu/~itec/

Previously: Undergraduate Degree from UC Berkeley in Cognitive Science
ha...@berkeley.edu