06-14-2025 3-5 pm

Agenda

Greeting

When folks arrive, they should be received by greeters who will: set up a big circle of chairs, say hi and ask what working group people are in, people can sit anywhere. Set up music, bring snacks, finish proposal board decor. light ice breaker? 

Start at 3:15 pm

Small group activity: Why are you here? (10 mins)

All attendees form small groups of 4, ideally with people they don't know. In small groups, attendees:

• Introduce themselves (name, pronouns, where-ish they live)
• Share what brings them to Woodbine as a space/community
• Share what brought them to the Spokescouncil meeting

There is no "report out" after the small groups chat.

I'd expect that the small group discussion would take about 6 minutes, and that directing people into and out of small groups would take about 4 minutes.

Introducing the Spokespeople/Coming Together (5 mins)

Spokespeople from the various Spokes simply go around and state their name, pronouns, and which Spoke/Working Group they represent.

Explanation: How will this meeting work? (10 mins)

A spokescouncil is an organizational structure resembling a spoked wheel. It’s designed to allow for connection and decision making to be distributed non-hierarchically across large groups of people. Each group is represented by a rotating speaking delegate and a silent note-taker who agree to bring the will, interests, and needs of their working group to spokescouncil meetings. They also agree to communicate important information and decisions to their working groups after meetings.

Establishing a spokescouncil will be an evolving, experimental process. We may not get it right the first time, and that’s part of the point! Even this document is an ever-evolving work in progress.

A “fish bowl” format is a type of spokescouncil structure that allows all group members who are not delegates and note-takers to observe the meeting and perhaps pass notes and/or other materials to their delegate. The point of the fishbowl is to allow everyone to learn how these meetings work and develop trust with each other. The delegates are the only people allowed to speak during the meeting! This is a measure to keep meetings efficient because we will have a lot to cover and hopefully a lot of people participating. The note-taker is responsible for taking notes on the meeting and discussion and passing this information along to the rest of the working group. It’s important to note that the delegate does not make decisions for the working group! The delegate can speak for the working group but can only vote on proposals as the working group has decided prior to the meeting and cannot make any decisions for the group that was not already decided upon previously. This is the format we’ll be experimenting with for the first meeting.

Facilitators explain the agenda of the meeting, and who will play what roles in the meeting:

• Agenda wrangler / Facilitator: guides the group through the sections of the agenda, transitions from one topic to the next (ash)
• Timekeeper -- tracks how long is spent on agenda items and people talking (briar)
• Stacktaker -- tracks who's up next to speak (ewa)
  
• Vibes (will be ash and briar in this meeting)

Agenda:

• Directorship Speaks! (30mins)
• Explanation: How did this meeting come to be? (10 mins)
• Break (5 mins)
• Explanation: How to make a proposal (8 mins)
• Mock proposal (10 min)
• Closing: Summary + Next Steps (7 mins)
• Q/A 15 min if we have time and Aunt Ginnys after

Facilitators explain useful hand signals:

• jazz hands, for agreement without interrupting
• raised hand + eye contact for stacktaker, for getting on stack
• other ones?

-Facilitator intros the agenda

Directorship Speaks! (30mins)

-Andy talks (10 min)  

-Ash (5 min): This news is really exciting but also a little scary. This presents some big opportunities for us co-creating a space together and shape it collectively from the ground up. It's up to folks in working groups to ask themselves how they may want to be apart of this future. If you are interested and imagine you have capacity to help brainstorm ideas and take on tasks and roles, there will be a follow up meeting after this one at Ginnys for anyone with the stamina to keep going and then a more formal meeting on Monday at 7 pm and another on Wed at 7 pm. We have to move fast to get this going by the end of June but we can do it! A lot of wheels are turning already and we just need to keep the momentum going together.

We will announce the follow up meetings in the spokescouncil announcements chat as well. Please share this information with your fellow working group members who couldn't make it today!

- q/a from community (15 min)

Explanation: How did this meeting come to be? (10 mins)

Share information about how and why the Spokescouncil has formed, addressing the questions (briar):

• Who set this agenda ? who is the spokescouncil planning WG? (we are not an authority)
  • The agenda was set by the Spokescouncil Planning Working Group. The group was started in October of last year as an effort to democratize Woodbine and improve communication across the working groups. Ash started this project, sending out an open call to Woodbine working group members at the first working group assembly so that anyone who was interested could participate. After that, we met roughly half-a-dozen times to research and discuss governance models, and then through consensus decision-making created a detailed spokescouncil model to suit Woodbine.
  • Moving forward, the Spokescouncil Planning Group will continue to meet with the goal of further honing the Woodbine spokecouncil model. We do not see this working group as an authority on how the spokescouncil will function. We are more of a maintenance and research crew who can nudge things along and help provide a broader scope when issues come up. The planning group remains open to anyone in a working group of Woodbine, though in order to participate, members need to remain actively engaged and both attend meetings and fulfill action items. Please speak to Ash or I afterwards if you’d like to plug in.
• who set up the spokescouncil structure (aka us), and how’d we end up with that role? What motivated the creation of the Spokescouncil Planning group?
  • So, what is a spokescouncil? It’s a way for organizations and projects to make decisions together. In the case of Woodbine, we have numerous groups and projects that use the space: there’s the gym, there’s the research group, there’s the basement, food pantry, screening group, and so on. Each of these groups makes decisions on their own about how to manage their own projects. However, sometimes we have to make decisions about how to manage the space as a whole. Currently, those types of decisions are made by the Directors and a lot of conflict has arisen with that structure.
  • At Woodbine, a spokescouncil will hopefully allow all these different working groups to make decisions together about how we organize this space and help shape a culture of accountability and conflict support. These decisions could range from how we keep the space clean to how we use the space to mobilize a response to a crisis.
  • How does a spokecouncil make decisions together? First, any member of Woodbine can post a proposal over there. Ash will go into more detail about how to submit proposals, but for now, know that everyone can submit them. Then, the working groups meet independently to discuss these proposals and decide whether they support them, want to make friendly ammendments, want to block them outright or step aside and not vote. Once they’ve arrived at their decisions, they send a representative and a note taker to the Spokecouncil meeting. During the meeting, the proposals are discussed again, though this time the representatives don’t express their personal opinions, but rather their vote conveys the decisions of their working group. If a proposal achieves consensus minus 2, then it passes and goes into effect. Ash will explain consensus minus two later. 
• How did we decide who counts as a “Spoke”?
  • Who counts as a Spoke? Any working group that actively uses Woodbine and has 5 or more members. If your working group has fewer members, you can form a coalition with a similar working group and send a representative together.
    

Break (5 mins)

Explanation: How to make a proposal (8 mins)

• what is a proposal?
  • Proposals are forms that communicate what an individual or group would like to add or change to existing Woodbine structures and culture. They should be well thought out with enough discussion happening with those who might be affected by the proposal in advance. There should be a good reason for this. Maybe it’s a fun way to fundraise for Woodbine because everyone has to pay a dollar to play. A few issues need to be considered to make this work. The people who want the pinball machine should decide where it will live. If it will live in the basement, Basement working group folks should be consulted in advance to see if they want this in their working space. Other important questions need to be asked in advance. If the pinball machine needs to be found for free online or fundraised for, who will do that labor? Who will do the heavy lifting to bring it in? Who will maintain it if it breaks? Is there anyone who is an expert in pinball machines at Woodbine to consult? Anyone expected to do labor for a proposal to come to be will have to be consulted in advance or expect your proposal to get blocked.
    

• when do proposals need to be submitted?

  • Proposals should be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting to give enough time to choose which ones to discuss at the next meeting and for working groups to discuss in advance. Urgent proposals can be submitted within 2 weeks but the folks submitting it should alter the announcement chat admins to alert the wider community to act on it. Proposals will be posted physically on a board in Woodbine and folks can individually indicate their preference for what proposals they want to see in the next meeting. You can use the printer in the space to print it out. The Spokescouncil Planning working group will tally them and add them to the meeting agenda.

    Remember, everything is subject to change via proposal, even how the spokescouncil is structured. If it’s not working, we are not stuck with it! We can change it to fit our needs as a collective body.

• Show the board, template, remind people of explainer document
• What is a decision for the spokes v. other kinds of decisions?
  
  • Ask questions introducing each thing, and ask audience to shout out if its a proposal or not. 

  • Rule of thumb: if you can solve the problem with one conversation, it doesn’t need to be brought to the spokescouncil. Large decisions that would impact multiple working groups are suitable for spokescouncil meetings, while small decisions that only impact you or your working group might not make sense for them. There are certain decisions that are delegated to Woodbine’s directors for legal and liability reasons. Director’s will break these down at the first meeting. Not sure if something you want to do is appropriate for a spokescouncil meeting proposal? Ask one of the Planning crew members.

  • Example 1: The roof is leaking, urgent actions need to be made to fix the immediate problem.  (proposal?)
    • This should not be brought to a spokescouncil. People should just go and do what it takes to get the water leaking under control. 
  • Example 2: long term the roof needs renovations. This might require large amounts of Woodbine funds to be directed to this. A working group or two would like to initiate a fundraiser drive instead of using internal funds and recruit a team of people to run this fundraiser (proposal?)
    •  this is a decision to bring to the spokescouncil via a proposal.
  • Example 3: The reading group wants to pick a new book for the next month. (proposal?)
    • This is for the reading group only to decide, this isn’t a spokescouncil issue.
  • Example 4: the reading group would like to build a wing to the current library and stock it exclusively full of copies of Stirner’s “The Ego and Its Own”
    • that would be a proposal the reading group would write.

• who can help?
  • Spokescouncil planning group can help answer questions you have and you can refer to the explainer document and proposal archive website we have built

Mock proposal (10 min)

• Explain basic concepts of voting:

  • “Friendly Amendments” are comments offered to improve a proposal before a vote. They should be quick and small in scope and can be written into a proposal after it is passed. A friendly amendment can be offered when you are in support of a proposal or have some reservations but are generally ok with it.

  • “Withdrawal” is when the group who put forward the proposal decides to withdraw it or delay voting. This might happen because they realize they need to make more amendments to make the proposal better or because they realize it’s not a good moment to offer the proposal as is.

  • Voting in-meeting will be conducted using “Fist to Five.” “Fist to Five” is a quick visual to see how a delegate votes on a proposal. The delegate raises their fist high in the air and when he vote begins, they can vote by keeping their first close or raising a number of number of fingers that indicates their level of agreement for the proposal:

    • Fist (0 fingers): Does not agree at all (a Block)
      • 1 finger: Hold on (a Block)
      • 2 fingers: Reservations, but could be convinced
      • 3 fingers: Okay with it
      • 4 fingers: Sounds good
      • 5 fingers: Total agreement
        
        

  • After votes are counted, the proposal is then passed (or not) using “Consensus Minus 2”. This means 2 “Blocks” (a Block is shown by either a fist or holding up one finger) will keep a proposal from being passed immediately. Blocks mean you are extremely against a proposal and want to prevent it from passing if possible. Delegates who block will have to justify their block and further conversation and possibly a withdrawal or new vote with amendments may follow.

  • “Stand Asides” are when delegates choose not to vote at all. This shows a neutral feeling and means the working group doesn’t care whether the proposal is passed or not.

• Woodbine Pony script:
  • audience roles: questioner/Friendly Ammender (?), Blocker(?), stack keeper (whoever is already doing that), facilitator (ash), introducer (briar), delegates/voters (?)
    • people to ask: shahrazad, caroline, iris, yousef, sarah, ewa, andy
    • hand out script for friendly ammendents, block, stand aside, questions
      
• Proposal:
  • Ash: "Ok, next on the agenda we have the proposal titled "Woodbine gets a Pony" submitted by the Food pantry working group."
  • Briar:
    • "We in the glorious, luscious food pantry working group want Woodbine to have a pony. Why? A pony can do so many things! It can carry groceries from TJs, boost morale b/c ponies are so pretty and not last but not least, its poop can be used as fertilizer for the gardening club! We got the buy in of the gardening club on this in advance."
    • "This proposal groups this affects everyone except the Gym because pony couldn't fit through the door. "
    • "who would do the labor? The pantry would raise funds to buy the pony but anyone who smells poop has to clean it and anyone who hears the pony whining for food has to feed it"
  • The money required for this is $10,000 because that is how much an award winning pure bred named Arti costs and we already love her. Here she is! (Show pic of the pony https://www.dreamhorse.com/ad/2291271.html)
• Response to proposal:
  • Ash: " Ok, we've heard the proposal. we have time for quick round of questions now.
  •  questions:
    • 1. FA asks: "so, what color is the pony?" 
      2. blocker asks: "is that against sanitation regulations for the pantry to run?"
      • briar's answer: "hmmm...good question! we haven't finished our research on this yet."
    • ash: "any more questions? ok let's move onto friendly amendments. "
  • call for friendly amendments:
    1. 1. FA: "my FA is I think the pony should be spotted instead of cream"
       • briar's response: "great idea! we can change her name to Chocolate Chip!"
  • Ash: "any more FA? ok we will move onto a vote. Remember your vote is what your working group collectively decided in advance, not your person opinion. ok lets vote. one two three shoot" "
    • FA votes 5, blocker votes 0
  • Ash (speaking to blocker): "you voted a fist, thats a blocking vote. Can you tell us why you decided to block this proposal?"
  • blocker says: "I believe having a pony pooping in the space will force us to shut down the food pantry, it's not sanitary, we'll be bridled by the city!"
    • • briar's response: "fair point! maybe we didn't think about this enough. i think i should withdraw this proposal. but wait!... i thought of a friendly amendment that might help it pass. 
    • Ash: "ok, what is your friendly ammendment?"
    • Briar: "what if we used those funds to commission a giant stuffed animal pony instead. It's cleaner and we can still pet it!"
  • Ash: "Do any food pantry folks who worked on this have any concerns with this change to be added right now? ok great, is that enough for everyone to call a new vote?  ok let's vote again. one two three shoot" 
  • everyone votes, above a 3
  • Ash: "great, that propposal passed. Food pantry, please form your crew to get this going, we will ask for progress report at the next meeting. "

Closing: Summary + Next Steps (7 mins)

Facilitators summarize decision(s) or action items for next meeting.

Facilitators shout out what attendees can expect to happen next, for instance:

• choosing delegate and note taker for next meeting
• delegates getting added to the spokescouncil signal chat
• writing/reading proposals (+ where to find them)
• when the next Spokes meeting will be (thurs, july 10, 6-8 pm)
• how to get involved with making the next Spokes meeting happen
• get volunteers for various roles
• offer training and collaborating in pairs to prep for those roles
• make sure to sign up the announcements chat
• offer proposal mentorship/help in writing
• expect the invitation to the follow up meeting in the next week for the "future of the space", different than the next spokescouncil meeting

Q/A if there is time is leftover (15 min)

• keep questions brief, redirect people to written materials or post meeting conversations if longer
• ask everyone to clear out at 5 pm, allow next group to prep for rental

Meeting Highlights

Attendance

<spoke name + delegate: name + note-taker: name> , <spoke name + delegate: name + note-taker: name>, ...

New Action Items

• action item 1 - name of individual or groups bottomlining
• action item 2 - name of individual or groups bottomlining
• action item 3 - name of individual or groups bottomlining

Uncompleted/ In progress Action Items from Prior Meetings

• action item 1 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status (ex. stalled due to vacation, halfway done, need supplies)
• action item 2 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status
• action item 3 - name of individual or groups bottomlining, notes on status

Proposals Discussed

Passed

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Did not pass

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Withdrawals

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Proposals We Didn't Get To Discuss (will flow forward to next agenda)

• proposal name
• proposal name
• proposal name

Detailed Meeting Notes

• notes