Cleaning Proposal Prompt

Cleaning Proposal Prompt

Hi! The Spokescouncil Planning Crew would like to invite everyone to develop proposals! Cleanliness is a constant pain point in collective spaces and we are making a call for proposals from working groups to explore how we can make Woodbine cleaner more sustainably and long term. This is also intended as a way for us to practice developing proposals and voting on them. 

We are asking for the cleaning proposal to be answering either question below (or both if you are feeling inspired!):

• How will your working group commit to keeping the space clean (in areas that you tend to use often)?

• How can Woodbine as a whole community keep the space cleaner? This is a big question but you can break this down into areas or tasks that need to be done.

We are asking you to do a little extra work on top of your usual busy load, but we hope the Spokescouncil, as a collective decision making project, will allow everyone to connect and problem solve more easily. This bit of labor will help get it going!

You can learn more details of how a proposal is crafted and voted on here in the explainer document

Questions to ask yourself to get started:

• How does your working group interact with the physical space of Woodbine? What areas does your group tend to touch? How does it get dirty during usage?

• Example: Tuesday reading group uses the couches at the back and sometimes the kitchen to prepare snacks. We could get crumbs on the floor and on the couches. 

• How can your working group commit to keeping these areas clean? 

• Example: Every other Tuesday when the reading group meets, we will vacuum the rug where the couches are, check for food scraps lying around, clean dishes we use and wipe down the table. 

• Do you see places at Woodbine that are consistently unclean/untidy? What working groups tend to use those spaces? Are they spaces where working groups tend to ignore?

• Example: the bathroom that everyone uses is constantly dirty because no one group takes responsibility for it but everyone uses it. What are some solutions to make sure it’s cleaned frequently enough and the labor is shared fairly?

• Example: dark corners of the room tend to accumulate trash, random storage or food scraps. How can we keep this from happening or can we clean these spaces more often collectively?

• Example: clean rags and towels we need to clean the space are always lagging behind the need. How can laundry be solved more collectively? 

The proposal template is here - An example of real proposal the Planning crew wrote is here

We recommend your working group spend some time discussing the prompt and craft it collectively. We emphasize discussing IRL because chats can become clogged and texting can be easily misunderstood. We also recommended figuring out the process of how you want to work on it collectively in your own way, given your unique structure. Hopefully it can be connective and fun!

When you are done crafting your proposal, please print it out (you can use the Woodbine printer) and post them to the board (need guidelines). Woodbine working group members will then vote on which ones they want to discuss in the next meeting. 

Deadline:

We need your finished proposals pinned on the board ideally 2 weeks before the next meeting to give people enough time to vote on them and discuss prior to the first meeting.

Who does the dishes after the revolution? We all do!