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Spokescouncil Planning Meeting 12-13-2024

Results of this meeting: 

 We made the following decisions:

  • A Spoke is:     - a group of >5 people AND     - the group has access to Woodbine's physical space (i.e. can unlock the door) or Woodbine's resources (e.g. website, Instagram, lease, funds)   - What if your group is <5 people?     - Identify a larger working group that you can caucus with. Perhaps the group that grants you access to the Woodbine space/resources     - Still come to the Spokescouncil meeting to observe and recruit members   - What if our group doesn't have the door code or its own access to Woodbine resources?     - Your spoke is the one that grants you access to the space.         - For example, if Gym people unlock the space for you, you caucus with Gym

  - The proposal contains no opinion on how Spokes decide on a Spokesperson

  • this is how to announce a proposal   1. hang proposal physically in the space   2. post somewhere linkable   3. send to all groups via groupchats

  • we will use this template for proposals https://basement.woodbine.nyc/spokes-proposal-template

Agenda

Vibe check (5min - 7:05)

What version of you are we getting this evening?

Previous meeting action item check-in (10 - 7:15)

-  Ella demarcate reproduction vs. project working groups (in Ella's summary of WGs)   - group map added to Briar's "who is a spoke" proposal

  • Frankie to add chat-addition protocol to Signal group description
  • [someone] make the agenda for next time. topics to include:     - Plan for the spokescouncil council to meet with outside groups and have a  research debrief meeting
  • Ella to add a link to Spokes explainer to Signal description (or Lippy and Ella to collaborate)
  • everyone: make proposal(s) about the following things:     *
  • Ash to make a date poll for next meeting
  • Frankie and LP continue research on language acessibiliy, determine spokes language needs, reach out to interpreters     - https://basement.woodbine.nyc/spokes-multilingual-research#
  • everyone: ask Frankie for access to the hopes and fears Mural, contribute to said Mural

Goals/Levelsetting (10)

  • What do we consider a good outcome for this meeting? Do we want to have another meeting before the Spokescouncil meeting?

Proposal review and discussion, 11 proposals (75 - 8:30)

        

  1. Prioritize proposals via dot vote     * How to decide who gets a Spoke     * How to make proposals (meta!)     * How to vote on them     * How WGs should select spokespeople     * Spokescouncil goals      * Woodbine points of unity     * How often should the spokescounil meet? Bi weekly? Monthly?     * How to approach accountability via spokes (one idea: include spokes reps in notes to track which WGs are at meetings as part of accounatbility system, key  holder access idea)     * Cleaning project (what would the cleaning project be?)     * Agenda of 1st spokes meeting + how it'll be run     * Strategy for approaching WGs to get Spokes, craft the messaging     * Spokescouncil Signal group proposal (how it will be used, who can be in it, norms/protcols, conflict culture, admin access)     * Spokes/Fishbowl explainer with a decision making flow chart explainer and fist to five explainer (could be one explainer doc we hand out)     * Who from the spokescouncilcouncil should attend the 1st spokes meeting? And how should they participate?     * Research debrief meeting proposal     * +1 proposal*

  2. Discuss prioritized proposals

  3. (15 mins) how to edit proposals and agree on them so we don't have to have another meeting. via chat?

New proposal ideas before 1st meeting (10)

  • Proposal flyer for invitation and explainer     - invitation     - what is a spokescoucil?     - fishbowl format diagram and explainer      - Fist to five explainer
  • Proposal ideas for basic write-ups to prep for agenda for 1st meeting (Ash):     - how did we get to this point historically at wb?     - what are the basic expectations/hopes of participation (6-12 months)?     - how do proposals work?     - how did we decide on which groups to invite to the spokescouncil? how can more groups be represented?     - who is the spokescouncil council? what have we been working on? what is our ongoing role in the spokescouncil? how can new people get involved/what are the expectations in participation?     - how do ppl add to the agenda in advance? document?

Timeline and procedure to edit proposals and get votes from ppl not present (10)

Action item roundup (10)

  • (Paul) Write agenda for next time
  • (LP) Set poll for next meeting time
  • (LP) Combine Ella and LP's existing explainers, on LP's wiki page and BEEF IT UP
  • (Frankie) evaluate which groups would be inlcuded/excluded from spoke representation using the criteria we setlled on  
  • (Ash) use the new proposal template for the new proposals above in the New proposal ideas before 1st meeting (10) section
  • (All) Reformat existing proposals into LP's proposal template, for discussion next time

First spokescouncil meeting date (5)

    New proposal ideas before 1st meeting (10)

Notes

what are we trying to get done today?

     these are the necessary decisions we have to make in order to move forward:     

  1. who are the spokes?
  2. how are proposals made?
  3. how do things get voted on?     

do we want to have another meeting before the spokes meeting?

    

  • maybe one more to allow for outreach and smoother rollout

proposal review

    

  • we probably won't come to final decisions on these proposals today and we'll have to figure out how to do that     

Proposal Group 1: who gets a spoke? (10 min)

Briar's proposal

  • everyone gets a spoke

Frankie's proposal

  • a spoke is a group of 5 or more people that has access to WB's space or resources.
  • if a group doesn't meet these critera they can caucus with a recognized group
  • these critera define what spokes will exist initially but also are applied for every meeting, such that if a group changes in a way that they no longer meet these criteria, they will not have spoke representation at the meeting.

concerns about key access

  • people could consolidate power by people being able to reduce the number of people who can unlock the door
  • the MOUs equate key access with recognized group existence? do we want to follow this example?
  • we could possilby just limit spokescouncil membership to groups we deem in actual need to the key code     

how do we change how the spokescouncil works once we start it?

  • we can create a proposal just like any other

the initial groups can be decided via Frankie's criteria, but further groups would require an explicit proposal?      we're starting from a place where we don't fully understand who has key access and what is going on in the space     

TODO: look at which groups would be included and excluded with the current criteria

    

frankie's revision

  • removes language related to space access and allows for groups to self-identify as being woodbine-affiliated
  • we could ammend this to allow the council to vote on allowing new groups to get spokes
  • pushback on this because it puts too much responsibility on the spokesconcil in allowing them to decide who is a working group
  • clarification: it's not about who is a WG, it's about who gets representation in the spokescouncil. also anyone is welcome to attend as an observer (?) and they can then decide if they want to join
  • concerns about malicious groups created for explicitly wb-political or obstructive purposes 
  • giving the council voting power for new spokes perpetuates the gatekeeping that already exists

voting on frankie's revision vs changing it to also require the council voting in new groups

  • it seems we are willing to try the former- frankie's revision     

Proposal Group 2: How to make a proposal

    

LP's proposal

  • make a document for the proposal that includes:     - list groups and people it effects     - list money and resources required     - try to create variations on the proposal that anticipate likely objections

should also include who (person or group?) is creating the proposal, and the date it was submitted      having a template for this is a useful thing: https://basement.woodbine.nyc/spokes-proposal-template      blocking concern on using this template is that it should stress who will be bottom-lining the proposal (it could be everyone) because we already have a lot of problems with accountability.      a concern is that this addition will allow a group to "voluntell" someone else to do some labor.      adding a strong recommendation that any proposal that asks for labor from a particular person or group be written in consultation with them     

  • we will use this template for proposals https://basement.woodbine.nyc/spokes-proposal-template     

Violet's proposal

how to announce a proposal  1. hang proposal physically in the space  2. post on website  3. send to all groups via groupchats

should we ammend this to include advanced notice (1 week?)? no.

[discussion about how to get it to the spokescoucil in the first place for dissemination, but we can figure that out later]     

TODO: use the new proposal template for the new proposals above in the New proposal ideas before 1st meeting (10) section 

using input from the chat for quorum?

     should we be getting input from people who aren't here in person when we're making decisions?      the decisions we've made aren't long-lasting and are easy to change so maybe we can just go with it this time and use the new system going forward.

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