GA Agenda - Mtg Minutes/Template

[James]

Did I spell it right? Someone post some kind of coherent summary of the agenda!

EDIT (Mireille) - Here is what was decided at the Facilitation Work Group Meeting 03/24/2012. You can access the minutes/template here: occupymelbournefl.org/docs/FWG_minutes.pdf

I am copy/pasting the content with some changes/corrections based on my recollection of what was decided, below for convenience:

Volunteer Appointments: facilitator/time keeper, moderator/stack, secretary - 2 minutes (1 facilitator/time keeper, 1 moderator/stack, 1 note taker/secretary - for now)

Community Announcements: ongoing activities in the area 2 min/ visitor (visiting groups/individuals can announce their activities.)

Status Reports: WG reports and announcements
5 min/working group (WG report on upcoming and event progress.)

Review GA Process: review hand signals, process for presenting proposals/ 2 min - facilitator (assist new members to understand how the GA works. See handouts)

WG Proposals: current proposals that need to be reviewed
2 min/proposal to be announced by facilitator and/or proposer.
Discussion 5 min/proposal

General Proposals: new proposals for current meeting
2 min/proposal to be announced by facilitator and/or proposer.
Discussion 5 min/proposal

Format of Proposal:
What- I have an idea or a solution to a group concern
Why - Why should the group support this/how does it benefit the group?
How - What actions will be necessary to implement this proposal?

Recess: break to discuss blocked or tabled proposals 20 min group (members break from group process to discuss any blocked proposals and allow everyone to express their opinions/resolve conflicts)

Tabled Motions: review tabled / blocked motions 30 min
(proposals once again reviewed with group and moderator assists with watching for consensus or blocks)

Roles:
Facilitator/Time Keeper: ‘leads’ the meeting, keeps group on task, announces proposals, encourages participation from all group members. Sets pace of meeting, keeps group on time.

Moderator / Stack: assists members with bringing proposals to group, help facilitator ensure group participation, monitors group for consensus or dissension.

Minutes/Notes/Secretary: keeps record of meetings, type notes up and turns into web working group within 24 hours.

General flow of proposal portion of meeting:
Facilitator announces proposals for discussion and leads discussion. Facilitator encourages all members present
to participate in group discussion. Moderator
assists facilitator to encourage participation
and watch for signs of questions concerns blocks
or consensus. Moderator/stack also assists people with
bringing proposal forward, reviews proposal
before stacking for facilitator. time keeper
notifies facilitator when time limits met. Secretaries
take notes and send to web working group within 24 hours.

Let's discuss any corrections/modifications.

[lisa friddle]

Ok, Im not sure I know how to do this but here goes.....
From watching the video it seems to me you were right merril the proposals should be formulated and ironed out in the working groups and brought to GA just as an announcement sorta. The GA is the place to work out what we as a functioning group are all about. Like our constitution or purpose what we want to achieve and so on. That's what it sounded like to me. If this is the case than our agenda may need to be reviewed. I think things will change as the group gets bigger and more defined but I think it is important to at least come to terms with all members what exactly is Occupy of Melbourne, what do we want to promote how do we want others to see us and what is our goal.

[Mireille]

Lisa, I saw the video back in October so I don't remember exactly what he may have discussed about proposals, but it is important for you to know that we don't necessarily have to do it exactly how any other group might do it, just as long as we follow some guidelines and then go with what works for us.

One place I found helpful to research the whole process was Occupy Seattle. They seem to have it together - as they should - they have 4 GA's a week! When you have time, go there and look at some of their GA resources, maybe read one of their minutes. This is their GA sequence:

occupyseattle.org/document/general-assembly-sequence

Additionally, on the left hand side of that page they have links to their other GA resources.

I personally think proposals should only come from working groups, as do many of the big occupies, but we haven't had a lot of involvement and/or interest in people taking ownerships of the groups we had formed. Probably for our current size it is ok to have general proposals coming in, if we can moderate well enough to ensure the proposals are not too open ended and vague. The catch 22 is that when you have these general proposals with lack of focus, although you may be increasing individual participation, you may also be putting off people who don't like these long meandering meetings where issues keep coming up over and over and never tightened up and finalized. I think that is what happened last time when our numbers went down and we ended up having people spliting off so they could avoid the whole GA process altogether.

I think what we have above is good enough to start.

As far as our goals and mission, this is what we have written in our "about" page on the website:

occupymelbournefl.org/about/

I hope this helps...