ttendance: Laura Weil-Noppenberger {Doors},
Barb Bohn {Community House} ,
Kimberly Gladen {Arts},
Susie Holmes {Wild Edibles},
Rich Ross {H&H},
Ben Barrett {Doors/Camping},
Tony Riedl {Green Earth},
Kelsey Kawders {Little People},
Melissa Kirkland {Wild Edibles},
Laura Ratti {Areas}
Janis Weeks {Int Comm},
Sati Suwinski {Int Comm},
Karla Claudell {Council},
Gweneth Van Frank {4A},
Doug Hoss {4A},
Wendy Nine {4A},
Keith Sheldon {Little People}
John Flannery {registration/facilitator}
Monday April 15th Eligibility Meeting
Booth Coordinator Meeting will be April 18th from 7-9pm.
1) Eligibility: OCF crew coordinators meet once a month. By the June crew coordinator mtg OCF
wants everything in. So the Village registration to needs to be completed earlier by May 19th.
Registration deadline would be the end of April. {It was end of June in previous years}
OCF allows us to do our own registration and they were essentially giving us $12,000 in passes
and we would pay once fair was done but now Fair can’t afford to do it this way. It’s working
capital for them and they are accountable to higher processes.
We have to come up with vehicle pass money, teen passes, SO passes, etc. if the person waits
until the last minute then the pass will go up to $100 after a certain point late June. If we
registered for 90% of our people but were waiting for the last 10% to decide later. Fair is not
guaranteeing this will be allowed.
Can we switch out names? John is still working on this piece. In the past passes used to be based
on work party participation and we can still do that but we probably need to make decisions
around how we track on this.
Jane and John are currently doing registration. Melissa {Wild Edibles} has offered to help with
registration.
Day passes, teen passes, youth passes used to be purchased right up until fair but is now due at
the same time as everything else.
Has the pass cost increased? We don’t know yet but the board is meeting tonight and we will
have more info on this soon.
Since everything is happening earlier this year you probably want to review last year’s work
party attendance. When you collect who participated in work parties it allows for the booth to
pull together booth empowerment.
We will need to hand out eligibility form and camping booth earlier.
Any news about satellite mtg? Action Item: Council will need to discuss this and figure out the
date. This change impacts everyone.
There is booth breakdown on the agenda in Jan.
Are there contributions that can be made earlier in the year by members to gain your work
party hours? To be pro-active? Things such as administrative tasks, helping with council, etc. We
do a number of things last minute. Action Item: Next Council meeting can we discuss doing
tasks earlier?
Action Item: Wondering if Village or Council might consider how work parties count? Such as
de-con would count towards next year’s commitment of time?
2) Booth Coordinator Term: At what point do we need to decide on booth coordinator? Wouldn’t
it depend on the booth’s structure as not all booths switch booth coordinators? Isn’t it at the
first booth breakdown of the year? Which this year will be earlier. Usually first booth breakdown
is in March but this year will be January. Action Item: It would seem that booth coordinator
would need to be decided by Feb.
Ideas: One booth chooses booth coordinator at the Fair for the next year. The same would be
true with booth empowerment. For Green Earth booth coordinator has always been divided
between 2 people. They also decide at fair the next coordinator for the following year.
Intentional communities also has 2 coordinators and keeps one the same and one different. This
way there is continuity.
3) Measuring work party data: The form was put out late last year which asked questions around
how many hours did volunteers work, how many work parties did people attend, etc. It was a
way to track on people’s participation. There was not a flow of info around this, it was unclear
the origin of it, and it was given out late. It was an attempt to gather data on the way each
booth is tracking on work party participation. There was a conversation about people’s
participation and booth empowerment at a council mtg.
Arts booth has always had a sign-up sheet at the site. People sign in at Arts booth.
There used to e a sign-up sheet in the 90’s at general info booth and everyone had to
sign off on it. You signed in your name and what booth you were in. This often created
difficulties when the “Heavy” {person who tracked on sign-up sheet} checked the sheet
and began calling coordinators to ask if “so and so” completed their 2 work parties.
Pass allocation info: Each booth is allocated a certain number of passes and then you
decide what passes go where. We have a set number of passes and we try to give every
booth the same number they had last year, new requests are then looked at, and then
we talk back and forth about all the pieces to determine where passes go.
Areas and Little People both need a certain number of passes to do their job as they
are not set up like other booths. Sometimes council will step in to help with areas
duties.
Sometimes there are exceptional circumstances around a booth making requests. Like
they have a special event happening that year so then the Council will look at those
circumstances.
Booth Empowerment/ work parties need to be discussed further as everyone has a
different understanding around the guidelines. It’s pretty black and white.
Interpretations of the work party guidelines:
a. If someone can’t be at work parties but is doing work outside the fair on a related
project then do others have to cover for them work party wise?
b. Whatever you decide in your booth constitutes a work party then this for your
booth is a work party.
c. We have people who can’t be at fair until the fair, so they work more hours in the
booth, or they do work outside the fair on special projects, or de-con.
d. This is where booth empowerment comes in and someone can do a work party another booth member if they can’t fulfill the 2 work party guideline.
e. Clarity is needed around work party requirement. Is it work party for Village or can your individual projects count towards pass?
f. Green earth does have some people from out of state and they have people do an extra shift after fair. Green earth is blessed/cursed with booth members and they aren’t short on hands. They reward people for the shifts they have pulled throughout the year.
g. 4A is a bit of a high bred. They started in 87. They were the only access booth in the fair but now they are much larger and are part of dragon’s head. They spend a lot of time pre and post fair helping fair family get into their camp sites. They also spend a lot of time going to various areas like the circus and fair central to build relationships with people in individual territories. You can’t demand that everyone comply with accessibility. It takes a lot of time/relationship building and sometimes someone within their crew needs accessibility and this then gives the opportunity to go in and teach them accessibility.
h. The theme that the facilitator is hearing is this is developing into conversation about equity.
i. Concern: The good of the village is that each booth treat the village like a metaphorical body that we feed and promote. Speaking more too when you’re doing individual work in your booth but this doesn’t mean that you aren’t also helping the Village. Propose that we establish a focus.
j. People are there as a group for the focus of the Village but then people can be pulled away for individual tasks. It’s more of a community approach with the priority being to the Village.
k. Re-clarifying the culture. What are the expectations, rules, standards, assumed, expected?
l. Concern: People have asked repeatedly about the expectations and have been told get your booth stuff done first and then join the Village projects. We really need to clarify what is a work party.
m. We need to have a list of needed work party items in a central location so people can see what needs to happen.
n. We get caught in the micro of our booth instead of the macro of the purpose of the Village. We are all part of a family.
o. People tend to think about what’s good for my space which is natural but we need to be focusing on the Village.
p. We need clear direction. 2 purposes happening simultaneously. Things you do for the Village and things you do for your booth. Arts booth takes people out to site for their first time for an orientation and showing them where the bathrooms are, where tools are, who they can talk to.
q. Green Earth has always thought they focus on their booth first then help the village.
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