Community Village Minutes September 2010 – 2011

September 2010 / November 2010 / January 2011 / February 2011
March 2011 / April 2011 / May 2011 / October 2011 / November 2011

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Community Village Minutes, November 2011

Circle of Love for Janet, Amira, and other departed loves

Introductions. Didn’t record most, but at the request of the gallery one introduction is recorded: David says he is an elder and he doesn’t do anything.

Village Evaluation.

Presentation: Think about the past year, or years past, and things or areas of concern or interest that you think would be good to work on to improve the village in this and coming years. Hopefully we create a list of topics that we may not discuss tonight, but which Council and the village can look at over the coming year.

Discussion: Round Table Format for 20 Minutes.

A brother says his feedback is simple in two parts. He wants to make sure that we keep training people for different jobs, and keep changing and being flexible in our staffing and logistics. He also suggests that we put extra intention into goofy magic.

A sister would like to see us have more participatory stuff. We used to do skits, like the council or people from different booths. It seems that we’ve moved away from some of that.

A brother says that this year he thought Fair was fantastic, low drama, and no major problems. He hopes we repeat that every year.

A sister says this year’s fair was lovely. She had a lot of fun, it flowed well and was cohesive.

A sister says she thought the fair was excellent. It was really fun because it’s big.

A sister says she thought it was an excellent fair, she was a little low energy and totally drained herself. There were some bumps to smooth out with youth power and the only other thing was it went by really super fast. The only SNAFU was that Diane and Karla there was a decision made about changing the allocation to youth power that didn’t involve the coordinator or liaison, which could have been avoided with better communication.

I say that the less drama we have during the meetings, the less drama during the fair. Also, I want village info to be better tied in with OCF info without loosing its uniquely village identity

A brother was thrilled that our path was done, our fence was built, and it worked out really well. He also wants us to have a Cobb oven, tied in with the restaurant or just available. He had no idea what would happen with his bicycle generator, and it was a big hit, and he wants to incorporate it into the village in a way that works better.

A sister says the pathway to shady grove was beautifully done. Heard a lot of kudos from 4A about it. Thanks to the people in the campground, everyone jumped right in to make room for her friend who was kind of freaking out. It was really well done, and very welcoming.

A brother says he used to make the really big bubbles at dawn, and now he’s able to make more bubbles for the kids, who loved seeing and popping them. Bubbles inside of bubbles inside of bubbles seven feet tall.

A brother says that this fair was different for him, because he’d just come from his first rainbow gathering. Came back with insights about the fair. He spent much time on council selection process, which crashed and burned. We aren’t much closer than we were before hand.

A sister says that she remembers having a great time. She would like to have the evaluation closer to the fair next year, because details get lost between fair and the November meeting.

A brother was glad a lot of things faded from his memory. He remembers several things that were tried and didn’t work out. A lot of energy went into getting Shakespeare onto our stage, and it conflicted with an extraordinarily loud hip hop show on main stage. A lot of energy went into welcoming jules graves, which also fell through. We shouldn’t put so much energy into things. Take the easiest path, is the lesson.

A brother says all the village meetings last year were really well attended. We didn’t have so much falloff in attendance once people’s requirements were met. There were all kinds of people doing useful stuff at the work parties. Sweep coordination; Thursday sweep may not have gone great. This year, we’ve had some comments that our new booths are kind of square and blocky. They are also very sturdy. Can we carve faces, decorate, do arts on the booths and make them look better? Also, how can we do more things together as a village?

A sister says that what was really fun, 4A had a party along with the Green Earth party which spread the party around the village. Could we add entertainment to that event?

A brother says he liked part of the shakespere. With the canopy, it was nice.

A brother says he really enjoyed the campfire, it was a lot of fun. It was one of many things that brought us together. It goes so fast, but doing things together makes it last longer.

A sister has some concrete areas to look at. A good part of saturday, she tried to get an act from the parking lot to the village in time to perform. They needed three carts, she spent all of saturday afternoon working on that. If bob is communicating with performers, if they know what their requirements are going to be to get in. If we can have better communication ahead of time to avoid being caught in a stress moment. Looking at the history area, it looked sparse. It could be much more dynamic. Kimberly’s laminated strung up photos could be extended and made part of the history area, interspersed with poems, writings, memories. Making an inviting, fun, engaging space. She took on herself to make new curtains for the entrances to our camps. Looking at other areas where backstage needs to be hidden, we can make painted curtains in the spring. The bamboo dance was interesting. A lot of people appreciated the yes or no. We realized that we may need more bamboo behind the tipi and pyramid because it hides our campground. Otherwise, people appreciated that process.

A brother says it was too late this year, but next year kids with their sprinkling cans may use the hose spigot from the shady grove hand wash instead of the drinking water tap. Energy park is interested in doing a water system like ours at their water fountain. There was talk of getting the bean counters to pay for it rather than us.

A brother says he wants to echo that this evaluation needs to happen quickly after fair when things are fresh. It’s been tried sunday after teddy bear. Why don’t we try to do it mid day before teddy bear. Likes the idea of it being earlier.

A brother suggests and potentially offers that the evaluations are important in a group meeting setting, and some people have pressing things really close to fair. What if there was a way to submit evaluations right after fair, and discussed at the meeting.

A sister says we can have reduced shakespere, that might be fun.

CONSTRUCTION

Presentation: This is a capital budget year. Having had discussions with our construction team, and looking at the front half of peace and justice, we have the ability to build a non square timber structure. We have some large yew poles, and there is a concept that’s more treehouse than square booth. If the budget is approved, the restaurant will rebuilt, more pagoda like than anything else with a proper roof. Carving 6×6 timbers decreases structural integrity, creates places to rot. Attaching masks, however, would be awesome. We could hang masks from the booths, hiding the timber. The history plaza is also on the radar, and needs to be reconfigured from the ground up. This is nonstructural, and simple. We will be able to enroll non carpenter villagers in this task. We have blueprints and jigs to build benches, and we may build several of them. Lets try to build what the booths need under the guidelines we are required to follow. Our structures go up sturdy, and come down easy. We’re moving toward cloth roofs. The restaurant may be a solid roof. Construction is evolving, and the village will stay informed, but look forward to the front facing portion of Peace and Justice, which will be really cool.

Questions: Are we going to rebuild the history loft, or put a loft in the restaurant? The history plaza will not have structural area. As we rebuild the restaurant, a loft needs to be included because camping and storage is needed. Drawings will be coming to later meetings. The drawings are made way in advance to get approved by fair.

Point of Information: in part fair construction guidelines are to meet county code, and if we built a loft that wasn’t going to be taken apart, we would need to be pouring concrete.

RESTAURANT COMMITTEE REPORT

Presentation: At the last meeting the first two of four proposals were agreed to by consensus. Tonight we’re looking at the second two. The village agrees that CVRSC conducts the evaluation… (see proposal language, which is on the drum, the site, all over). There was disagreement at the last meeting about whether or not to open the process up automatically every eight years.

Discussion: A sister says it’s great.

How is the selection committee chosen? That’s the next proposal. What month do we call for consensus? September. What if the restaurant committee comes up with a suggestion either way and we start from that? What if the recommendation of the committee were the default? In essence, we will be voting on which restaurant to choose, could we vote at that time on whether to keep the restaurant or open it up. We also have seven years to make this decision. If we set this aside, we may forget about it. With the last restaurant, there was a question of whether we could achieve consensus to oust the restaurant, or to continue the restaurant. We need to have the 7 year thing address the automatic default. There are some times that voting makes a lot more sense than trying to achieve consensus. It’s about personal preference. A discussion about voting might take us off topic. Could we separate the plan from the method of implementation? Could we consent that this plan will workout, with a voting fallback?

The proposal is passed with a fallback to 75% majority in the event that a decision can’t be reached at the September meeting.
(consensused proposal will be posted soon)  

PRESENTATION: The last proposal is about the appointment of the CVRSC. The CVRSC consists of no more than 8 CV members, including the current council liaison to the restaurant. Members can’t be affiliated. This proposal is tabled to the next meeting, because we need to talk some more.

If you have questions or concerns, please address them to the selection process working group.

SITE REPORT: Since the site floods, beavers chew on the trees. We’ve put chicken wire around the trees. Next week, leaves will be falling in mass. Not enough hippies with rakes volunteer, plus its easier on the grass, so we use backpack blowers. A few more pier blocks could go in on the downslope of the Shady Grove path. The hay bales are in at several places across the path to slow the flood and deposit soil. There was a really big misconception – no vehicles or bikes pre-fair unless they’re service vehicles. After the fair, this rule is no longer in effect. It takes the site crew putting in irrigation, core plugging, and lots of work to regrow the grass. Just past the fair, the ground is as hard as asphalt. Site looks good. Gates open 9-9 daily. Come take a walk. If you’ve never been in the autumn/winter, it’s a different world. People often say it seems smaller, and they can’t find the booth they’re looking for. It does flood, in full flood which is rare you can canoe. Mostly it’s walkable, the grass is high.

Discussion: is there a website that we’re supposed to look at to see when we can canoe. It’s the USGS flood gauge, long tom near noti. It requires a lot of continuous rain, followed by several days of heavy rain to get it over 10 feet on this gauge. This creates flood conditions on site. If it’s really flooding, you can’t even drive up to the ware barn because of the dip.

Call For Facilitators

PRESENTATION: Jennefer keeps a list of people willing to facilitate general meetings. Starting in January, meetings get bigger. Council people don’t facilitate bigger meetings. If anyone wants to be in this group. If you’re not on council, please consider signing up.

Straw Poll Regarding Moving Meeting Time: 

PRESENTATION: Taylor recommended that the meetings should come together from 6:30-8:30 instead of 7:00-9:00 because they’re on school nights. Is this something the village wants to consider? Straw Poll – how many people would like to see this change.

Discussion: If we change the meeting to 6:30, we can not use our normal space at the Church.

As an example, tonight is a very small meeting, and at 7:00 there were only 8 people upstairs. People are often late to our meetings. Earlier starts will be a challenge.

There is concern for folks who drive from Salem or Corvallis, which means that people need to leave super early.

This is just a straw poll. Is there a proposal? No.

It was initiated by a desire to get families home and people who have earlier bedtimes out.

The results of the straw poll are that we’re nowhere near a consensus.

More interested in seeing the needs of the families met in the fall and winter meetings, summer not so much.

OCCUPY EUGENE:

There was a discussion regarding the social change commonality between the Community Village and the Occupy Movement.  This is a global movement for justice.  Can the Village walk our talk?  There are some Villagers helping out with the Occupy.  Can we make a group statement of support and find some ways that we can be in support of this massively important movement?   Both also use consensus.  Some folks from Occupy asked the OCF board for donation and there was OCF support.  Proposal: Can the Village make a public statement in support of the Occupy and publish it in the Fair Family News?  Occupy is not a 50C3 non profit.  The Occupy needs volunteers to hold signs, help with sanitation, peacekeeping, etc.  The Occupy provides a safe place for some people who have fallen through the cracks.  Can we declare solidarity with the movement?  Is the Village the social conscious of the Fair?  The Village is in solidarity with the OCF and the Occupy?  The Village stands with the Occupy?  We want to encourage Villagers to come down to the Occupy.  Do we want to all come down on a certain day?  Do we want to hang our CV banner at the Occupy?  What happens when the Occupy ends?  There is not end date to the Occupy.  (It will not end?)  This is an occupation of public space.  We can’t make it a private space, so everyone is welcomed.  There are lots of committees in the Occupy and there are so many different ways Villagers can help out.  The Occupy needs you.  The Occupy is really like recreating the Village.  It would be nice if we could all dissolve our boundaries and meet more people who are in our community that we wouldn’t really interact with.  Statement: The CV as an essential part of the Fair social mission wishes to  express our profound support and solidarity with the global movement of Occupy. (Something like that, Sam will draft statement.)  A message will go out to the Drum with Occupation help needs CONSENSED.

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October 2011

Hellos.

Agenda Review

            Taylor’s Item

            Village Eval

            Restaurant

            —

            Financial Report

            Call for Facilitators

            Unfair Announcements

            Goodbyes

Fair Announcements,

Meeting Care ming Up Soon (??)
271 Days Until Fair

Taylor’s Item
Didn’t bring the numbers. Taylor is going to step down as childcare. She took it over 12 years ago from someone who didn’t show up one day. She’s added snacks, projects, record keeping. The monthly meetings are too much for our kids. Taylor recommends that the meeting be moved to end at 8:30. She recomends that Lyn be the new childcare person. carlyn.meilan at gmail.com. 485-4591. Lyn Verdia.
Jennifer suggests finding out if earlier meeting is possible.
Taylor receives huge standing ovation from all present. Letter will go out to Village Drum shortly.
Everyone present agrees that childcare crew consensus is that Lyn will replace Taylor, pending new background check if necessary. Lyn will check with Mermaid if check is required, and if so, what kind of check, criminal and/or child abuse.  Jen Lin will check with Mermaid.

Sam proposes that we accept Taylor’s resignation and replace her with Lyn, pending any required background check. CONSENSUS SO AGREED.

Restaurant Committee report:

            FOUR proposals are brought to the meeting (see here for initial proposals)

First proposal deals with contract length. Generally, we look at one year of evaluation, possibly another year of evaluation, then three more years for a total of five, and revaluation that year and every three years thereafter. Question: what are the the evaluation criteria? We will draft an evaluation form based on the OFC tasting evaluation form (taste, relationship, business, service, all sorts). It would only be fair to let everyone (restaurant and village) know what the qualifications for success are ahead of time.

If at any point, they were to be found grossly negligent or in violation of a policy, the contract could be terminated.

Add a bullet point  “If the restaurant is found to be in gross violation of OCF policy, the contract may be terminated or placed on probation at the will of the OCF Food Committee”

Are there mechanisms for accountability as far as price and selection of food once the restaurant is in place? Can we require the restaurant to “open their books”? Discussion ensues.

A proposal, based on the history that the restaurant used to have an agreement with the village to share profits, that the contract limit be shortened to eight years with no automatic renewal.

We can generate a contract however the village wants it to be, but if we write a contract in legal language it will never get consensus. When we did the contract last time, there was agreement that “every three years the village consented on the restaurant or it was opened up” with no evaluations. The evaluation gives the village a tool to see if the majority of the people like the food, service, price, and etc. There will always be, because food is a very personal thing, people who don’t like things about the restaurant.

Ensuring that there is an evaluative component. The sticking point is that there is concern that during the three year renewal process, not only are we concerned about the cost capacity of the restaurant, but drift in the quality and communication of the restaurant. The concern is that a strong evaluation is included all along.

The committee discussed that consistent pricing is very important.

In the current proposal there is a substantial evaluation after five years, and another after another three. If we want to change the restaurant if it passes the evaluation. The village should have the option to have a no-fault termination.

A new bullet point. “After the eighth year, in the addition to evaluation process, the village may come to consensus to open up a new restaurant selection process if it chooses”

One stand aside, because it’s effective.

PROPOSAL TWO

Change “simple majority” to “most votes” 

PROPOSAL THREE and PROPOSAL FOUR tabled until November

FINANCIAL REPORT

The bills are mostly paid. The Council will address the budget next tuesday. Karla is sick, else she would be here.

Table village evaluation to the next village meeting.

There is much concern that the evaluation should be during the summer, so that fair is fresh in our minds. The council had a little evaluation, sharing some feedback. At the next meeting, the booth liaisons will communicate that information specifically.

UNFAIR ANNOUNCEMENTS

Free, museum of natural and cultural history (parking is going to be a bear) a weaving exhibit tomorrow night with the weaver.

Tomorrow at 5:30 at the West Coast Dog and Cat Rescue Occupy Eugene General Assembly meeting.

All weekends night there is a Kirtan yoga meditation weekend at Just Breathe Yoga at 29th and Willamette

This month, the board voted to direct the personnel committee to update and revise the general manager job description with the intention of promoting Charlie to the job.

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May 2011 Village Meeting

Childcare; this is offered as a service to the village – donations go toward snacks, first aid, art supplies, cpr certification, and the gifting of youth who work thorough youthpower, and passes for childcare helpers

Fair Announcements
Several announcements are made.

Raps
Host – Be respectful, park right, clean up.

            Consensus – in this model, everyone agrees on our decisions, or at the very least everyone feels that they can support the decisions that are made. Objections should be made early and often. Please, don’t block unless you really, really have to.

            Camping – Please turn in camping forms, they are online, you can get them from your booth coordinator. You can always just call Nathan, or send it by mail. Forms are due by the 25th of June. Nathan likes Dark Chocolate.

            Registration – Turn in your eligibility forms to your booth coordinators tonight. Once pass allocation happens, you will give all your money to registration and the booth coordinators will make appointments with the registration coordinators to register. Put your legal name and birth-date on your registration form. All the eligibility forms need to be turned in tonight, or by Saturday at the latest. Registration runs through June 20th. The Eligibility meeting is Monday 5/16 at 7:00pm at Growers Market at the little conference table upstairs.

Fill out a tally sheet about passes needed.

Parent consent forms are turned in at registration or if not then, at the sticker booth. To be filled out by the parent of the child who needs permission.

            Workshops-Demos – Fill out a form and turn it in by tonight for the Peach Pit, or if you don’t care about the peach pit right up until the fair. dougnlaura@cvcable.com

Reports

            Site – There is a down tree laying in the path. It’s safe, but not wheelchair accessible. The women’s urinal issue is personally important to David Hoffman. The site is nice and wet with lots of flowers.

            Construction – There is a nice construction crew, two coordinators, two carpenters, and a civil engineer. The intentional communities booth is being rebuilt as a twin to the arts booth. Also, there is help available for other repairs as needed. A huge trail restoration project is being done between the village and the shady grove 6 pack. We are forming a drainage type trail that will not wash away. By using a trail building technique called bunkering, we are going to build up, but it will be labor intensive pushing lots of wheelbarrows and doing lots of tamping. At work parties, put tools away, don’t misuse tools, and don’t cut tiny pieces of firewood.

Saturday theme – (unless it’s a Friday theme). By voice vote. The winner is “Almost Naked with Birthday Hats”

Greenspace – The last meeting had absolutely no one attending it. Next Monday, same place. 228 main street, an upstairs gallery space. At the moment there is a moratorium on any new planting in the village.

Council Selection Process – The village has been preoccupied with reconsidering the council selection process. Committee was formed to create a proposal, which was not passed. The village is not happy with they way we select council. Jennefer is making a committee. Drake and Sue want to be on the committee.

Restaurant – There are folks who want to be on the restaurant selection committee. There are a bunch of decisions to be made. Go to the Community Village Ning site to discuss the length of the contract, the selection process, and other sundry items for consensus and concern.

The question is how often we want to go through the restaurant selection process.

Archeology – we are the custodians of one of the most important archeological sites in the whole fair. The Fair has some of the oldest archeological sites in the whole Willamette Valley. The fair site has always been a gathering place, and today it is rich in archeological resources. What does this mean?

ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND DISTURBANCES.

This means that we are not to dig, but it also means that we are not to shove soil around, not to jigger posts out of holes, not to shuffle loose dirt with our feet. In short, it means

ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND DISTURBANCES

Archeology crew is a partner in figuring how to make projects work, coming up with ideas, and helping people keep in line with our archeological rules. The ENTIRE FAIR is an archeological zone or a legal buffer zone.

BOOTH BREAKDOWN

Tee Shirt Announcements – Shirts will be offered in three colors of tie die, with a two color design and iron on transfers. Shirts will be $12 apiece at the next meeting or order online. Deadline for an order is by fair.

Song
Non Fair Announcements
Evaluations
Bye Bye

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Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the incredibly belated and probably misspelled,

April 2011 Community Village Meeting Minutes

Hellos
Childcare
New Agenda Items
Agenda Review
Fair Announcements
Raps
Host
Consensus
Theme
Construction
Council Process Meeting
Green Committee
Restaurant Selection Committee
Process
Womens Urinal
Booth Breakdown
Unfair Announcements
Singing/Dancing/Goodbyes

Fair Announcements.

Sunday, Highway Cleanup, 10am at Warebarn

Signs and Banners – talk to Scott, otherwise you’ll just get blank wood. babyboyajian@ scottaboy1@hotmail.com

Spring Fling is May 7th, in years past the raffle has benefited the Spring Fling. This year, the raffle is bigger, better, and for a real cause (Culture Jam). Tickets are available at Sue’s Saturday Market Booth *near the food court. Tickets are $1 a piece or 6 for $5

The village has a bunch of web information. All the forms, contact lists, and other guidelines are online at our various sites.

If you have a teen who wants to volunteer through the fair, not the village, forms are at fairfamily.net and deadline is this Friday.

Host Rap

Please, treat our hosts with respect. They’ve been very kind to us.

Consensus

Consensus is a way we build community. An exercise was done where four different archetypal roles that we bring to the consensus process.

        Meaning – Why are we doing this?
Structure – what are the steps, process
Caring – is everyone okay?
Action – let’s just do something

Note that each of these modes of understanding is needed for the community to make good decisions. Awareness of our approach is helpful.

Theme Day

There is a survey form in this month’s Theatre Of Change newsletter. The highest vote getter from last month’s survey was “almost naked”  – new survey results are being accepted tonight.

Construction

Two projects; intentional communities, and rebuilding/restoring/moving the trail to the shady grove 6 packs.

Two wood construction guys, Steve and Thaddeus, will also be handling booth maintenance structures (rotted posts, and etc). Ryan will be civilly engeinering the new trail. Questions? Keith quackerbacker1@msn.com

If you’re wondering what people can do at the workparties, benches are not really needed. What can we do for more prettiness? We need a screen to screen between the meadow camp/council camp. A fantasy vision is to do big cloth and fabric paint screen with trees or something neat to block the view into our camp. Another area where something like this would be useful would be the entrance to the swamp between wild edibles and doors

We could build bleachers

Site Report

We strive to be barefoot safe, but there’s some sharp gravel on the ground. We have permission to delicately remove the sharp stone, using nothing bigger than a chopstick. After the stage and arts booth were rebuilt, a bush ended up inside the booth. No transplanting around (no digging). The bush has been cut to the ground.

Three ash trees were planted in the wild space behind the stage. Archeology has permitted occasional slice hole planting.

There is green flagging

Bamboo – it’s a long story. We have not had an increase in bamboo for years. There has been some controversy. There is a new policy; if people want bamboo in the village, they can bring it down. If you want it, go to the warebarn and bring it. If no one wants it, it’ll stay up there or go elsewhere in the fair.

There is the idea that at the onsite meeting, we’ll do a bamboo dance where people will stand in for bamboo and we will have a group discussion of where the bamboo is.

Last year on Monday there were booths behind the teepee and there were some neighbor issues.

Construction – could we build a wooden raised walkway between village and shady grove that’s wide enough for access? Never muddy? Sectional and removable?

Workshops and Demos

If anyone wants to do a workshop give a form to Laura. May 13th is the deadline for the Peach Pit. 1st come 1st served. Form also on website.

Camping Rap

This year’s camping form is online. They need to be turned in by the June onsite meeting. The email and snail mail addresses are on the forms.

Registration

Forms with booth coordinators at breakdown and online. Register – submit one form per group, or individual who is not part of a group. Registration will be open until 10 at night, not 9. All kinds of forms are available to explain and assist. If you’re camping on the farside, everyone is losing parking there. People who camp in farside in vehicles will get 1st priority for stickers. There’s a new fee for large rigs.

Council Selection Process

(541) 514-9487 Only three people are interested. Contact Jennefer about april meeting date. jenneferharper@yahoo.com. No show. No change. No whining.

CV Drum!

The village has an email list, if you’re interested in communicating on village issues, it’s a place we share information and have discussions about things. You can message Ben about getting on the list, or ask your booth coordinator to forward you a message from the list (which has a link to sign up)

Green Committee

Had a meeting the Monday after last month’s village meeting, not too well attended. More participation would be advised so that we can come up with a plan that is desirable to the whole group. More wattle to protect green space? Live wattle? Can we create spaces from natural features. We’ll meet 5:45 Monday the 18th 228 main street.

Slowly we’re replacing dead wattle with live wattle. Still putting in some new dead wattle. If we want to change our own wattle, tell the wattle people, and we’ll do it? Are we reclaiming and defining green space? That was the idea anyway.

drake@efn.org or 606-6351

Restaurant Selection Committee

An issue was raised last month; can the village agree on who the restaurant selection committee is. The committee will consist of no more than 8 community village members including the current council member liaison to the restaurant. The other seven seats, if there are more applicants than seats, are drawn from a hat. No one who is affiliated with a restaurant should be on the committee. The decision will be made in March or April. An evaluation will happen in September, and a new committee will be empanelled in each restaurant selection year.

The process will be started August or September of this year.  Applications will be available until January, when we will review applications. Tasting will happen in February. If possible, we will ask the top three applicants to do a “by reservation tasting” where villagers pay a nominal fee and get to taste. We don’t know if this is possible, but it’d be great. Once we’ve gone through the selection process with the fair, the top three options will come back to the village based on Menu, Hours, Profit/Nonprofit status. This is enough time to keep us ahead of the Fair’s process.

Someone suggests that since it’s a new restaurant, could we back up a month or two? A lot of infrastructure has to be assembled. Unfortunately, as close as we can get is March to work with the Fair’s process. The fair committee is moving their process already, to accommodate us.

There are several proposals about how long the restaurant is approved for. The fair’s thinking is a 2 year probation plus a 3 year contract. That’s not what we’re discussing right now, though.

Hands are called for.

Sue
Karla
Jules
Greig Thompson
Peggy Johnson
Adam Wilson

No additional volunteers.

Our food liason met with the fair food committee, and they asked about vegitarian versus non vegitarian menus. There is no consensus one way or the other, and it’s clear that this is a long discussion.

Women’s Urinal

Many people come to the village to use the Uriunal. The fair is renovating six packs. We need a Womens’ urinal at the south end of the 8 this year. A request is made that the community village consensus to ask for a women’s urinal at the main camp six pack this year. There’s room there for both urinals. There’s money set aside for the project. There are carpenters willing to work on the project.

A sister says, respectfully, this isn’t a village issue. She says she’s heard the money came from Phoenix Rising, and they don’t know about money donated specifically for this. If it’s not that, then it’s a capital project, which means the appropriate time to raise it is next January.

A brother says that the sister speaks his mind. He would feel very uncomfortable if energy park consensusd on something the village should do, and we shouldn’t push main camp around.

Several months ago Hillary, one treasurer, informed a brother there is money set aside in $500 for this item. He says this has been going on for years. If the village could give a hint, since we’re pioneers in this earea.

A brother says that the moon lodge came to the fair, and they said “go to community village” which was a good thing. The women’s urinal generated out of the community village. He says it’s our responsibility to support that in the greater fair.

A sister says this isn’t about us being responsible for it, but it’s about us showing our support for it, and it’s a good thing when women aren’t ashamed to pee in public.

A brother says that it’s okay for us to support infrastructure developments that we think of as positive. He suggests that we ask that the work be done as soon as possible, instead of this year.

A sister asks that the sister who brought the proposal get in touch directly with phoenix rising to make sure this information is correct.

A brother asks if anyone is opposed? Ca we offer our testimony and suggestion as informed innovators.

A sister says that as a woman, the village is her group, and if the village can’t speak for women in the fair, who can?

A brother suggests that we offer some help if they decide to do the project?

A sister wants to agree that this is a letter of support, a voice for women, and it’s a recommendation and encouragement, and it’s important that we’re not demanding or ordering.

A sister says that aging women can’t stand in line a long time.

The sister who brought the proposal says that what she’s hearing is that we’re going to check in about the facts, incorporate those, and request as soon as possible rather than demanding it right now, and sharing a little bit about what how we’ve stewarded this and how much success it’s been.

If it’s not built this year, any group of individuals can make a capital projects request in January and ask the fair to put the money up.

A brother suggests that Oblio write this letter for the council meeting next Tuesday, and the council would send the letter with edits from tonight’s meeting.

A brother says that politically, endorsing this project is not appropriate for the village.

A sister asks if the brother is opposed to going ahead with the letter, because he thinks that the village being the pioneers of social change within the fair is important, but is not sure that we should consent.

A sister asks if it would be useful to do this with name by name petition?

Two stand asides and no blocks.

Booth Breakdown

After booth breakdown, there were many empty seats. Some people have obligations that take us away early. There are things at the end of the meeting.

Arts

Many new people. New workshops, if you want to participate in an art project, take a photo from the fair and laminate it and give it to Kimberly to string up in and around Arts booth.

Café

Meeting at 6:30 next week Tuesday at the Blair Housing Co-Op

Intentional Communities

New energy in the booth. New Booth. Very excited.

Coop Fruit

The booth may be doing a performance on the stage.

Spirit Booth

Meeting went well. New people, new energy. Thursday the 28th at 7:30.

Green Earth

Lots of new faces in the booth. Very loud. Discussed the future of the annual Saturday Cocktail party. Everyone has to bring their own cup. Come one, come all.

ComeUnity House

All the usual people returning. Birds, food preservers, gardeners (alive and well).

Health and Healing

Old and new faces, discussed what everyone brings to the booth. Good health and healing talk.

Info

We’re all coming back this year. We’ll all have such a good time Saturday, that our theme Sunday will be Zombies.

Little People

They make an oasis for kids in the fair. A lot of old standbys, including elders, and excitement about the Shady Grove path to build the path up a little to maintain booth space.

Doors of Expression

One new group coming in, two or three groups around. Many friendly faces. Trying to set up an outside meeting. Some rehearsed theatrics.

Peace and Justice

They are excited with new groups coming.

Wild Edibles/Medicinal Plants

Smaller than expected group, all the regulars returning, maybe a new person or two, lots of beautiful flowers. More information this year about bees? The beekeepers will be back, may be someone else talking about bees.

Lifelong Learning

Good meeting and turnout, with some new groups and some old groups returning.

The Roving Park Players
Will perform the Tempest on Saturday on our new stage, Dress Rehearsal Thursday evening for Fair Family.

Unfair Announcements.

Turn in your surveys
The email for Jen Lin on the contact form is her old address, but the new address is –

Monday at 7:00 is the new time for the green space committee [bring this back up to the top]

This Saturday, there will be an autism film festival from 11-3 at the David Minor Theatre

On Thursday the 28th Autism Rocks is having a fundraiser at Opus 6 downtown, featuring Chris Edwards.

Please put your discussion about the restaurant on the NING site.

The next rollergirls bout is the 23rd. Get tickets from a league affiliated person. There’s a juniors league.

Good news – Jair just got accepted to a PHD program in communications at the UO.

Corvallis co-op First Alternative is having an earthday celebration with a lot of recycling. Free recycling.

Saturday May 7th is the Wellsprings Friends School Peace and Justice Festival, Community Response to the Roots of Violence.

Friday night, Cesar Chavez middle school a square dance to benefit school garden project.

Next part of now workshop coming up soon. Monday night special intro for people who work with a lot of people, a way to set boundaries, communicate, feel good.

Meeting evaluation;

It was generally pretty good.

Song and dance.

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Village Meeting, March 9, 2011

There was not time tonight to digest the written material meant to be added to the minutes, but quite frankly it may be a few weeks before I get around to that as the family and I are moving into a new home this weekend and I anticipate falling behind in many of my commitments as a result. Therefore, tonight with minimal editing are my minutes. If any fragment sentences, half formed thoughts, or Bob Dylan lyrics snuck their way in, I appologize.
Sam Rutledge

—
Village Meeting March 2011

Childcare Announcement

Om

Introductions

Agenda Review

Host rap
Consensus rap
Fair announcements
Council confirmation
Passes for Jules
Restaurant committee update
Restaurant selection
Booth construction/maintenance
Workshops/demos
Site report
Wattle announcement
Booth Breakdown
Booth Reports
Potluck review
Meeting evaluation
Postfair
Unfair announcements

Host Rap – We have a lot of respect and thankfulness to St. Mary’s for allowing us to use their space. Please don’t park in the neighbor’s spaces.

Consensus Rap – The language we use informs our perceptions and actions and is important. The term ‘amendment’ even a friendly one implies a single proposal. We usually shouldn’t say move, movement, motion, vote, floor. We do say modify, concerns, seasoning, and etc…

Consensus is about dialogue and agreement, more-so than about coming to decisions. A seven or eight stage process is put forward to describe a model for consensus. Oftentimes a decision has to go through three meetings before a good decision can be made.

Fair Announcements –  A lovely jacket (Columbia) was left last meeting. Talk to Paul Sass.

Some teen passes are available from Youth Power. Talk to Rosalie. There are jobs involved. Phone 541-914-7346. The teens would need to have existing camping places.

Photo prayer flag montage is being created for the Arts booth. Talk to Kimberly, or bring in printed, laminated photos to be included with your favorite OCF pictures.

It’s a big job to do the “bulldogging” (to check that folks coming through our camping areas are village people) and we always need more kids to do this job.

Camping forms are not available until April, and will come with the coordinator’s handbook .The online form is not yet updated, but still okay to use.

May 7th is the OCF Spring Fling at WOW Hall, doors at 7, music by Eagle Park Slim. There is a fundraising raffle, which this year will be bigger and better and will benefit Culture Jam. Craftspersons are donating handmade goods as prizes. Tickets are available in advance from Sue’s booth at Saturday Market. Booth #321 near the stage (or at the April Village Meeting).

Sue Simon (Amira) is in surgery tonight. We are to send her healing thoughts and prayers. She asks to be held in pink and golden light.

CV Website, on EFN, has been down 4 out of the last 8 days.

Karla broke her ankle and is not here tonight. The council contact list is with her and will be here in April and online when Tim returns from vacation.

We must carefully practice “no trace meetings”

Registration for Culture Jam begins April 1st and fills up within a day or week.

Saturday March 9th is a OCF new website town hall at Hilliard community center designed to gather input about the site.

New assistant manager is former BUM Tony Clementi.

Booth cords need to respond to Jen-Lin ASAP.

Council Confirmation –  Jennefer has been confirmed for council, and this year’s council is all confirmed.

Passes for Jules –  Topic for decision tonight is for CV to offer camping and attendant pass for Jules Graves, a singer songwriter who had her first OCF performance in CV. Was a popular entertainer for a long time, and her music speaks to the values of the CV. She has headlined at multiple CV benefits, and due to her contribution enabled us to raise several thousand dollars to rebuild. She wants to come from Seattle to play one show at the fair, but needs a camping pass for herself and an attendant. She is willing to put on a workshop, which she has done in the past, called ‘if you can talk you can sing’. Do we want to skip the process of going through eligibility, where we wouldn’t find out until May.  Do we want to pay for those passes? The con here is that we use up two of our passes. We were going to see if the fair could provide the attendant pass.

Can entertainment camp require her to play other venues? No, because she’s coming to play the village.

Can we give her an SO? It’s still a pass.

Midge, who is part of main camp AAAA over the whole fair, has been asking for more passes because as boomers age there is more need for pre/post assist and accommodation. We’re not sure how far she’s gotten with this. AAAA mostly consists of temporarily able bodied people who do the heavy lifting.

We would have to waive our meeting/work party requirements.

She brings so much, and the MS was such a tragedy, and it’s very powerful to have her requesting to play a show in the village.

It would be great if we could vigorously pursue getting passes elsewhere.

Another crew has volunteered a vehicle pass.

A question; would she need to camp in the AAAA area? Yes. There would be room.

The proposal is approved by consensus of the village with NO concerns expressed.

Restaurant Selection Committee Update – Jen Lin 541 485 3768 jenlinjo@gmail.com reads out a suggestion about the restaurant selection committee.

The committee will consist of 8 members including the council restaurant liaison. If more than 8 people want to be on the committee, we’ll draw names out of a hat.

Members of the committee must not be affiliated with the applicants, and should not speak for the committee.

The committee will review applications, attend a tasting, and bring a recommendation to the village.

The committee will conduct an evaluation next year after the fair.

A new restaurant selection committee will be appointed in April of each restaurant selection year.

Does the proposal talk about criteria? No, this is about forming the committee. The committee will form the criteria.

Does the restaurant go for certain years and has to change, do people resign? There has been confusion about this in the past. This will be brought up to the village for later decision.

The selection would take place March or April of 2012, the evaluation would take place September of that year.

A concern is expressed, that it sometimes takes three meetings to make a good decision. If we started the process in March, is that soon enough? The committee would like to return to the way we selected Park Street and return to a “voting” system for restaurant selection in perpetuity.

The proposal will come for discussion and possible decision at our next meeting.

Booth construction and maintenance – Our construction crew will be returning this year, and will come to the April village meeting to take questions. There is at least one booth rebuild happening this year.

Workshops and Demos –  Please return your workshop/demo form as soon as possible, first come first serve.

Site Report –  Bank material is sloughing at Shady Grove, worried about the stage for future years. Three trees on Shady Lane are settling down the bank and are tethered.

Green Space Policy Committee meeting on the 14th. This process is not part of David Hoffman’s past process or any other village issue, and independent of any previous attempts to manage or map village land. David will not be at the meeting. He doesn’t want his presence to confuse issues, and does not want his presence to be an excuse for getting nothing done.

CV Shady Grove Path is in the concept stage, for AAAA access. That means Alter-Abled-Access and Advocacy. AAAA started in the village and has spread throughout the fair. A team including David from CV, Midge from AAAA, Gweneth from AAAA, Archeology, Site Management, etc have been working on this. Two years ago when it flooded many people have fallen down the slope where CV connects past the 6pack to Shady Grove. This is about evening that area and making it wide enough for a cart, wheelchair, or Gater. There is concern that little people might lose some space. Whatever fencing might be moved will be compensated on the other side.

There is a line at the bottom of the slope and a line 7 feet into little people for a visual aid for concept only. This will affect the neighboring booths, the line of sight to the six packs, and we must involve ourselves in the plan.

This is not about inconveniencing anyone, but about safety and liability.

The idea is supported by Keith from Little People. The path may be up to 7 to 10 feet wide, and there are a lot of pieces of this plan still in the air. This is a proposed change for THIS year.

Well Shakespere, he’s in the alley with his pointed shoes and his bells speaking to some French girl who says she knew me well. And I would send a message to find out if she’s talked, but the post office is broken and the mailbox is locked.

Another option on the table is to raise the level of the lower part of that path by bringing in fill dirt. Site manager suggests this. We’re not allowed to bring down the level of the high part of the path, but we might be able to raise the low area. There’s a lot of live overhead brush, and Vegimanics are involved. There are a lot of variables and suggestions under consideration.

Is this a village construction project, or a fair construction project? The fair seeks to get the input of the locals and we are all involved in this. There isn’t an us and them. We are the Oregon Country Fair. We all need to participate in the meetings, board meetings, etc…

Who will decide this issue? How will the decision be made? The site manager, veggies, village will decide collaboratively. It will probably come back to this meeting for discussion, but the decision is not ours in the end.

Wattle Announcement – Because of the previous issue, this issue is moot. We are not planting live wattle until this is decided. Live wattle tree planting this Saturday at 10am at the warebarn Trees will be planted as live fences. Not in this area, though. Arch on site, site manager, and everyone will play nicely together. Planting, potluck, party, sauna, and music.

Booth Breakdown –

Booth Reports – Arts, Master Gardners, Spirit, Green Earth, Intentional Communities, Peace and Justice, Café meeting march 23rd at park street if interested in volunteering, wild edibles plant walks at 1 and 3, lifelong learning, little people, info, areas, Doors of expression, health and healing, fruits and nuts (march 17th open public meeting for interested persons growers market upstairs 6:30) are all doing quite well. There is some, but not too much, turnover throughout. Orientation at 6:30 prior to the April meeting, things to be learned, bring paper and pencil.

Potluck Review –  favorability or unfavorability of potluck. Be sure to bring silverware, plate, and cup, and bring an extra for someone who forgot. Be sure to take leftovers and containers. We were impressed by how quickly the potluck finished and converted to the meeting. Thanks had for respecting the kitchen and not using all their stuff. We want to honor the church and facilities and if we want to do this again we need to respect. Pleasant surprise that there isn’t a big nasty mess.

Postfair evaluation meeting –  Some of us find evaluations useful. We used to have more people attending now we’re in conflict (timewise) with the fair evaluation meeting.  Do we, as a group, want the evaluation meeting? If so, when do we want it?

Having the evaluation the day after fair evaluation at picnic is hard for folks with in-town commitments. It would be nice if it was more accessible. Typically it is not well attended.

Could it be in town, in a park, maybe a month after the fair, make a picnic of it?

Green Space Meeting, or EcoSustainability of the Village, is at 228 Main in Springfield a short walk from the bus station at 7:00 on Monday night.

Meeting Evaluation – The meeting flowed very smoothly. We used time very well. It is slightly surprising to see council confirmation happen so quickly. Everything flowed really well, especially out of booth breakdown.

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Community Village Minutes, January 12, 2011
Tim Mueller, note taker, corrections by Jen-Lin and others
Facilitator, Percy and (for Council Selection Process discussion) Judd

Intros

Childcare Report
Taylor says they served 82 kids during the 2010 season, though attendance at work parties was small. $430 was raised in 2010 to pay expenses. The hat was passed for 2011.

Agenda Review
5 minutes – Intros
2.       20 minutes – Fair Announcements (Jennefer)
Here we will announce formation of these committees:
a.        Village Drama Troupe (Diane)
c.       March Potluck (not really a committee) (Jennefer)
d.      Create a Theme for 2011 committee (Tim)
3.       5 minutes – Raps – host (Tim), consensus – who?
4.       10 minutes – Restaurant Committee report (Jen-Lin)
5.       10 minutes – Greenspace Committee report (Drake)
6.       50 minutes – Council Selection process committee report (John) with a decision point possible on first part of proposal
7.       15 minutes – Stand for Council – facilitator
8.       5 minutes – Non-fair announcements
Addition – A discussion on limiting Council size
Expansion – Time should be available to expand the Council Selection Process time allotment

Fair Announcements
– Master Gardeners will continue at the Fair in 2011-2012. Their office is now at 783 Grant St. OCF donated $1000 to fund a Master Preserver.
– A position is open in site crew for Poison Oak Eradication as David is no longer able to keep up.
– OCF work session Saturday Jan 15 10-3pm at the Hilyard Center regarding website feedback
– OCF path planning work session, Sunday 1/16 at Alice’s 12-2pm   (there’s an ongoing discussion about opening the front of dragon plaza and whether the next expansion will be into craft lot or gypsy way — you can find Path Planning notes on the oregoncountryfair.net site
– An OCF board work session on growth (should we and how?) is scheduled for Monday, February 21, 7pm, place tba
– Other sessions can be found at http://www.oregoncountryfair.net/Pages/News/FullCalendar.php Get involved.
– Consensus Project: John Flannery would like to meet with interested folks in talking about Consensus and the Village
– OCF meeting May 31st 7pm at Central Presbyterian Church regarding the budget.

Opportunities in the Village
– Drama Troupe: Wanna put on a show this year? Contact Diane (Dianne Albino 541-933-2584 iriedi@yahoo.com) to join up.
– Create a Theme for 2011: Should we all wear clothes that are theme (our 35th birthday celebration) related Saturday at the Fair? Should booths develop an activity related to that theme? Possible theme ideas so far: Cowboy, Circus, Naked, Birthday (it’s the Village’s 35th), Renaissance (Shakespearian), … Contact Tim (Tim Mueller 541-521-7208 tim@gwproj.com ). NOT TO BE CONFUSED with the theme Janet Planet will have for the ‘Beloved Community’.
– March Potluck: Arrive at 6:30 for the March meeting for a brief potluck before the meeting starts. Contact Jennefer (Jennefer Harper 541-514-9487 JenneferHarper@yahoo.com) to volunteer to clean up or otherwise coordinate.
Some folks expressed misgivings over this event, concerned that we would make a mess and lose the church as a venue for meetings, as well as possibly delay the start of the meetings business. Some suggested we do a potluck on a Saturday at Growers. Others said let’s give it a try. The village decided to go ahead and try it.

Raps
– Respect our Host: Be quiet, be respectful, park in the right place, help clean up, don’t make anti-religious remarks.
– Consensus: Keith talked about consensus. I missed what he said. Sorry, Keith. Read about Village Consensus here: community-village-guidelines/#Consensus

Restaurant Committee
No meetings have taken place, none scheduled. To reconvene or restart, contact Jen-Lin (Jen-Lin Hodgden jenlinjo@gmail.com 541-485-3768)

Greenspace Committee
In 2010 a committee was formed to inventory present Village Greenspace. The work was not done, however. The hope is to create process, policy and inventory that preserves our greenspace in a consensus manner. To participate, contact Drake (Drake Ewbank (541-606-6351 drake@efn.org ) so we can get this done this season.
David asked about replacing the tree that was by the stage, looking for input from the village… (Note, toward the end of the meeting Kimberly (Arts Booth coordinator) stated that with the way the stage and the adjacent booths were rebuilt last year, there is no space to plant a replacement tree.  Nathan agreed.

Council Qualifications/Responsibilities/Perks – What is needed in and from a Council Person?
– be at all the meetings
– are Fair staff, have staff responsibilities, interact with Fair on Village’s behalf
– liaison for booths, coordinator meetings
– divvy up passes
– on shift at Fair, do all sweeps, always on call
– Should be previous coord somewhere at the Village, maybe shadow Council for a year first
– See the qualifications from the Village Guidelines, “Council members should be a participant of several years in the Village, preferably with Booth coordinating experience, and be familiar with both the operation of the Village and the Fair. Coordinating experience, and be familiar with both the operation of the Village and the Fair.” community-village-guidelines/#CoordinationCouncil
– Council responsibilities/tasks are all listed here: people-jobs
– Perks: camp in Council Camp, get food vouchers, parking pass, t-shirts and higher SO ratio, all as Fair Staff

Council Selection Process (Judd facilitating)
See the proposal and present process here: https://communityvillageocf.org/2011-proposals/

Background: A committee met several times beginning in May to craft this proposal. It was discussed at length at the November Village Meeting and the proposal presented today is the amended version following that meeting. Tonight we are asked to come to a decision on each of 3 elements of the proposal: 1. Creating the 4C group, 2. Determining the makeup of the 4C, and 3. Determine where in the present process the committee would begin and end its work. In addition, if we reach consensus, when would this go into effect – this season or next.
Prior to discussion of the proposal, an option to revert to “the old way” (Council self-selection and self-confirming) was discussed. A straw poll was taken indicating most folks wanted to discuss the presented proposal, a refinement of our present process rather than a reversion to the old way.

– there is lots of support for this proposal
– shouldn’t the whole village consense, rather than just a small committee?
– Why does consensus not always work? The change in process over time has moved toward the individual and away from the group. Prefers confirming the whole council as a group.
– Would be better if we were all more mature
– This is about finding effective council people
– Think about the process leading us to where we want to be instead of finding a process to take us to
a specific place
– Remember anyone can go to a council meeting and participate in the consensus there, but not get the perks.
– all meetings are open to anyone, EXCEPT the 4C meeting in this proposal.
– This proposal will save a lot of hurt feelings and wasted time.
– Some concern over going to the 4C first before talking with a candidate you have a concern about.
– Everybody should have a say
– This is about trusting a small group.
– If it is gonna be messy for a candidate, don’t stand for council
– What’s the difference between the 4C deciding and the Council deciding? Let the Council do it.
– The story was told of how it broke down a few years ago, and a personal vendetta plus a lack of discipline in the process caused a horrible meeting.
– Clarification, the 4C would decide by consensus
– Trust the Council to take care of itself. No need even to ask the Village to consense except as a formality.
– Lotsa work went into this new policy, designed to improve what we are doing. Thank you. The intent was to save the Village grief and let the Council do Council work to create the Fair.
– So many villagers do not understand consensus and can abuse it.
The Call for Consensus occurred and there were too many stand asides. Consensus was not reached.

Stand for Council
All the members of the previous Council stood except Ben and Janet. All spoke briefly of their history and accomplishments. No other candidates stood. All their contact info is below.
Villagers have ONE WEEK to contact them with a concern. This MUST be done if the Villager  has a concern that may lead to a block. Concerns not resolved MUST be brought to the next Council meeting, which is January 25, 7pm at Growers Market upstairs.
See the full process here: council-selection-process-2012

Circle, no time for non-fair announcements.

Council Candidates

Keith Herschberger quackerbacker1@msn.com cell 541-513-1238
Tim Mueller 541-521-7208   tim@gwproj.com
Paul Sass psass731@aol.com 541-689-3709         
Jen-Lin Hodgden jenlinjo@gmail.com 541-485-3768        
Lois Inmann 541-836-2670
Nathan Greene 541-852-0627  spuddygreene@yahoo.com
Dianne Albino 541-933-2584 iriedi@yahoo.com
Karla Caudell 541-337-5319 kjcaudell@yahoo.com
Jennefer Harper 541-514-9487 JenneferHarper@yahoo.com
David Hoffman 541-484-9204 fixit@efn.org

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Community Village Minutes, November 10, 2010

Notes taken by Tim Mueller, who had to type them all up after the meeting. Is there anyone out there willing to take minutes on a laptop so re-typing isn’t necessary? Anybody!?

About 35 people were there, Michael Omo facilitating.

Fair Related announcements:

1. Village will be 35 in 2011. Think about it.
2. Thespian group from Eugene’s Shakespeare in the Park would like to perform “The Tempest” on our new stage. Stay tuned…

Intros:

For some reason, people said their name and then described their underwear, until someone said “none” and then we stopped talking about underwear.

COUNCIL SELECTION PROCESS Committee Report and Discussion
(the only agenda item)

(See the revised proposal HERE, and the present process HERE)

John Flannery explained the proposal for a new council confirmation process and handed out copies. The proposal is much the same as the present process. Presently, candidates for council are self-selected at the January village meeting. During the next 7 days, village members who wish to question (and perhaps stand aside or block their confirmation) candidates must contact the candidates themselves or with an advocate with the goal of coming to an agreement that would result in the candidate withdrawing or the villager and candidate coming to some other agreement allowing the candidate to be confirmed.

If no agreement is reached, the candidate and villager must attend the next Council meeting to attempt agreement there with the help of the council.

Presently, the next step is to hash it all out at the February village meeting. As some of those meetings have been horribly painful both for the candidate and the village, this next step is new.

In this proposal, a committee(“council evaluation and arbitration committee” or CEAC – say ‘the seekers’) would be chosen in October that would be prepared to arbitrate an agreement between the candidate and the villager.

Between the January and February meeting, the CEAC would “meet to consider the concerns. The date of this meeting is announced at the January village meeting and must be before the February village meeting. The meeting is open to members of the committee, the concerned villager, the candidate in question, and others invited by the committee. The committee may issue a written report; it may confirm the candidate, and if confirming it may work with council to define the duties, benefits, and/or scope of decision-making of the candidate. If the committee does not reach an agreement to confirm the candidate, the candidate will not be confirmed.“

In addition, the proposal goes beyond the council confirmation process and empowers the committee to mediate and arbitrate intra-council conflicts, and establishes a CEAC led council evaluation process in October.

Omo led us around the circle a few times for questions and comments

– Having a conflict resolution process is good.
– the selection of the CEAC itself is left a little vague
– some HISTORY: Council used to stand as a group for confirmation, and continue to serve until a new council was confirmed. The village moved to individual candidate confirmation in the late 90’s after a delay in confirming that year’s council.
– How would the CEAC members be chosen? What does “active village members“ mean?
– Support expressed for the confirmation stuff but not the evaluation stuff.
– Who is the CEAC accountable to? Reviewing their decisions could be a village agenda item.
– How to avoid people self-selecting to be on the CEAC who have an axe to grind?
– Concern expressed for this text (in the last paragraph): “but the committee may amend its procedures as it sees fit and set precedent which binds the committee in future years“. Where is consensus then?
– This is a step toward losing consensus.
– Issues may go too soon to arbitration and not help build trust among villagers.
– Proposal committee member says he wanted to find a proposal responsive to village talk on council confirmation. Voting was considered. Some past meetings have been petty and hurtful, and this is an attempt to avoid that.
– In this proposal, anyone could be on the CEAK.
– Rather than have the CEAK membership be self-selecting, why not have it be made up of Elders, perhaps 3 or 5 of the most senior and willing elders? This would simplify the membership choosing process, prevent someone from joining just to grind an axe, and populate the committee with people well versed in village history and experience and would be more likely to have the respect and trust of village members.
Also, please consider dividing the proposal into two parts for consideration separately, so that one doesn’t bog down progress on the other and we can better move forward. One part would be just the council confirmation process changes (and the CEAC formation and arbitration elements of that process), the other part would be the CEAC’s role in council evaluation.
– Many, many people expressed thanks to the committee for working on this proposal
– Evaluating council should be a village wide process
– CEAC would be ‘activated’ only after a concern goes unresolved
– We are trying to avoid hurtful conversations. Maybe we should go back to group confirmation
– Doesn’t council evaluation happen at Teddy Bear’s picnic along with Fair evaluation?
– Agreement expressed for Elders idea, and for separating the proposal into 2 parts
– Agreement to work to avoid hurtful conversations. Likes Elders rather than self-selection. Council is supposed to evaluate themselves.
– Who would confirm CEAC members if they are self-selected?
– Likes the 3-5 elders, but what if the elder is a pain? Are we stuck with them? Who would really show up for this October meeting to select the CEAC? Support for breaking it into 2 proposals
– Fear should not drive the process.
– CEAC as proposed is binding arbitration. Why not just say arbitration is now part of the village…? Wants council to go back to being the arbitrator and working together.
– Ego is a problem in self-selecting process
– Support for 2 separate proposals, doesn’t like the second one.
– We need the right people on the CEAC or it won’t work, supports the elders idea.

Facilitator summary so far:

Sees 4 options to consider going forward:
1. This proposal
2. split it into 2: arbitration (council confirmation resolution) and evaluation
3. Do nothing
4. Go back to old way, group confirmation

– Number 3 isn’t really an option, as last year there was confusion (about the phrase “expressed concern” and how that impacted one’s ability to block confirmation) that was not resolved. In fact, the committee’s proposal was in part a response to that confusion.
– New villagers often don’t know what’s going on
– The ‘group confirmation’ old way doesn’t allow villages to modify the council makeup like it can modify any other proposal. Individual confirmation is a better expression of consensus.
– Proposes we use top 3 elders (not on council) this year.
– Not ready for consensus today.
– Consider having the CEAC provide only NON-binding arbitration.
– Sometimes hard words are needed to really get the truth out.
– What is the Next Step?
– It would be helpful to have a CEAC to help when relationships get too hard.
– Break it up into 2 proposals
– Choose CEAC members by village wide lottery, random for a limited term??

Resolution:

Proposal is sent back to committee and to council. Please consider separating it into two parts and provide options to consider for the make-up of the CEAC committee membership.

This will be an agenda item for possible decision (at least of the first part) at the January meeting.

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Community Village Minutes, September 8, 2010

Two people took minutes, both versions are here:
John Flannery and Jamey Davis

John Flannery:

A couple different people took minutes tonight, and I expect it’ll take a
little while to put them together into a narrative. People who weren’t able to participate tonight might want to know what happened, so I’ll offer my recollection:

The restaurant intends to pursue a coop model for its management, hopefully disbursing the stress among more people. A number of people praised the restaurant, both from the standpoint of working within it and also from without seeing continued improvement in communication and in ability to cope with the demands of the situation.

Questions of process emerged, around why we were considering it. After considerable discussion, it was said that last year’s discussion of the restaurant was resolved only because of the promise that it would be open this year to other applicants. Several people felt betrayed that we were reconsidering that now.

A few people expressed that soliciting applications now for the 2011 Fair would mean a rushed process. David from Park St proposed that, instead of a 3-year renewal, Park St be approved for 2011, and that 2012 be opened up for other applicants. This was later clarified that we would publicize the opportunity for other applicants before the 2011 Fair.

Still within the process discussion, a proposal was offered for a permanent process that we could use every time this issue came up. Some praise for the proposal, also doubts that we were ready at that meeting to establish such a process.

Time was getting on, so we tested for consensus. There were four people who held strong concerns. After some discussion, we decided with one stand aside that Park St could do the restaurant in 2011, that management for 2012 would be opened up, that Jen-lin would announce/publicize the opportunity for other applicants before the 2011 January meeting, and that Ann would lead a committee creating a proposal for a permanent process for selecting restaurant management.

Jamey Davis:

CV meeting September 8, 2010

Proposed Agenda:
1)Welcome
2) Restaurant
Introduction of Item
Statements
Discussion
Call for consensus
3) One Fun Thing
4) Goodbyes

Sam called the meeting to order at 7PM.
Welcome and intros (names, best thing that happened to one over the summer).
Sam stated purpose of meeting: whether to renew the 3 year restaurant contract with Park St Community CafÈ or no. He then explained his style as a facilitator, particularly regarding Stand Asides. He does not consider them Blocks, and wants to hear them explain their reasons, in order to attempt to facilitate consensus.

Agenda Review
Announcements:
Jenlynne (apologies names/spellings are inaccurate): Fair Elections. This Saturday at 6:30 is Candidates Forum at the Garden Club. Their will be a link with info (possibly video?) at fair.net. Voter Registration Deadline is September 16. There will be a meeting in October at Knights of Pythias. One needs a staff band from one of the previous two Fairs to be a Registered Voter.

Sam: Counsel Meeting September Twenty-Seventh regarding selection process.
A brief discussion of Fair Trivia followed.
Introduction of Item: Restaurant Contract Renewal, yea or nay?
Jenlynne gave details of the procedure for restaurant application including the need to work with the Fair in the case of a new restaurant.
There followed a brief discussion of Process regarding time tables and contracts.
Sam opens the floor to the Park Street CV CafÈ (PS).
David discusses goal of becoming a Co-op. Questions are raised about whether it continues to be a fund-raiser. Answer: yes.
Jordan, April, and Andrew all comment on positive aspects of Park Street: Teamwork, different food then other booths, experience, and positive attitude and positive interactions with the rest of the CV.

Discussion opened up to all.
Joe comments on a conversation he had with someone who wasn’t feeling good about the Restaurant. Comes down to menu not being equivalent to the people in the restaurant.
Jenlynne noted that her concerns from the previous year were alleviated this year.
Janet noticed improvement over last year, recommends yes vote, and allowing PS to continue proving themselves.
Nathan noted that, unlike previous years, no conflicts occurred this year (between PS and CV), and that PS would likely continue to improve over time.
Carla (?) wanted to keep kids items on menu, possibly expand said items, and was concerned with prices of food for those with a limited budget.
David responded that prices were comparable to other booths serving organic (and therefore more expensive) food.
Someone hoped for more exciting faire.

Questions were raised regarding the time it takes for the process of picking a new restaurant for the village. Jennlyne responded that the process has started in August with applications, tastings occurred in January, booth was picked by March.
There then followed a brief overview of the History of the CV Restaurant, including the process involved, or sometimes the lack thereof (particularly in the days of Alpha Farm and earlier).

Proposal (Gregg? Drake? I couldn’t catch their name in time L): give PS one more year, DURING WHICH timeline and restaurant determination process would be decided upon.
Proposal Amendment (David, PS): open up booth to other restaurants in August 2011.
David also felt that decision regarding who runs booth should be made by February at the latest, so there was enough time to prepare.

Proposal (Jennifer): At the end of three year contract CV will seek consensus on renewal of current restaurant. If there is no consensus, booth opens up, starting this year.

Amendment (Jennlynne): if new restaurant comes in, first year is probationary.

Paul: above proposal is stated purpose of mtg.

Drake (?) suggests having the process be more mechanical would help bring up fewer emotional responses.

John proposes putting notice of booth being open (for 2012, referring to David’s Proposal) in next Fair Family News, hoping to avoid feelings of betrayal on the part of those who were not informed intime.
Janet suggest adopting David’s proposal now, then implementing Jennifer’s proposal next year.

Sam takes straw poll for morphed proposal. Followed by call for consensus (renew for one year, open up booth in august ’11). Also three year contract.
Also, announce in next fair family news.
Amended: with all due speed.
Nathan states concerns about getting process made concrete by august ’11. (that is, he wants to make sure that happens).

Stand Asides:
Tanya: concerned about process experiences from previous year. Concerns about menu. Something about options or alternatives – my apologies, I didn’t write clearly regarding what.

Diane: last years decision seems to have been thrown out. Felt council was to blame.
Woman sitting to Drakes left (my apologies, I didn’t catch her name): went through process last year.
Amy (from Holy Cow): reasons others stated above. Also she has vested interest.

Floor opens.
Nathan: last year mediation was proposed to the two stand asides (last September). No follow through.

Sam asks if there are any blocks. No.
Determines that there is no consensus yet.
John asks the Stand Asides if there is anything that can be done to move forward.
Sam repeats.

Stand Asides:
Tanya: felt disenfranchised last year, therefore feels strongly about this Item this year.
Amy: willing to move forward if the process for future decisions is made clear.
Diane: states that she does not feel her Stand Aside equals a Block, moving forward is fine with her.
Woman Whose Name I Didn’t Catch: her reasons for Standing Aside are personal.

Floor Opens.
Jennlyne states she is uncomfortable with Holy Cow being part of consensus due to vested interest.
Janet points out consensus is open to whoever shows up.
Sam states that he sees a lot of process issues, and we are still not at consensus. Expresses disappointment that Stand Asides did not offer creative solutions to help move forward. His wife points out that Amy from Holy Cow did present a solution. (sorry Sam’s wife, I didn’t write your name down!)
Carla reiterates proposal on table.
Jennifer states next council meeting will address process.
At this point, Jennifer takes over minutes as I have to pick up my son.

Minutes by Jamey Davis.

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