MPJC Procedure

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

MPJC-SDS Procedures

Contents 1 Basic Information about Membership and Participation 2 Group Roles 2.1 Semester-to-Semester Roles 2.2 Quarterly Roles 2.3 Meeting-to-Meeting Roles 3 About Consensus-Based Decision Making 4 Meeting Components, Descriptions, and Suggested Chronology 4.1 Introductions 4.2 Occupation Report & Group Education 4.3 Check-Ins 4.4 Proposals 4.5 Brainstorming 4.6 Announcements 4.7 Check-Outs 4.8 Vibe-Check/Extended Vibe-Check

[edit] Basic Information about Membership and Participation

• Meetings are held every Tuesday at 9pm and should last no longer than 90 minutes.
• Those who agree to the statement of purpose are considered members of MPJC-SDS (which can be found online at www.mpkb.net/en/MPJC)
• All comments in a meeting should be made after raising one’s hand and being called upon by the facilitator(s).
• A direct-response is used when a person wants to respond directly to a comment made before others in line speak, in order to qualify a factual matter, or provide new information, and NOT to offer an opinion.
• Meetings have an agenda that is planned ahead of time by the agenda coordinators and the facilitator for that meeting. Agenda items should be submitted to the agenda coordinator no later than the Sunday before the meeting, except in urgent situations.
• All agenda items have time-limits for discussion. The facilitator has the ability to extend discussion or table agenda items until the next meeting if necessary.
• Attendees are expected to familiarize themselves with the previous meeting’s notes prior to the current meeting which are available regularly on the mpjc-sds-discuss listserv, or by hardcopy in the MPJC-SDS binder kept in the desk of the infoshop (in the basement of Kirk).
• Anyone can subscribe to the MPJC-SDS announcements listserv, which is a low traffic means of communicating with supporters about upcoming MPJC-SDS events and meetings.
• Members can subscribe to the MPJC-SDS discussion listserv after having attended two or more meetings, which is a higher-traffic list for organizers to communicate with one another while working on group projects.

[edit] Group Roles

Roles are voluntarily occupied by anyone in MPJC-SDS who is interested and committed to fulfilling them—taking on a role does not necessarily mean completing all the tasks yourself, it means being accountable for those tasks getting done (though you should expect that you will be doing a substantial amount of the work for that role).

[edit] Semester-to-Semester Roles

• Treasurers (2 or more) to be responsible for purchasing, budgeting, and being contacts for Student Government (MCSG) in general, and the Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) in particular. During the budgeting process, these treasurers are joined by two new people in order to pass along budgeting skills.
• Analog Historian(s) who are responsible for updating the MPJC binder with a hard copy of each week’s meeting notes that they print off of the listserv, hard copies of consensed upon proposals, an updated copy of meeting procedures, mpjc-sds’s statement of purpose, at least 5 copies of introduction materials for new members, and any other archival material (old flyers, email lists, phone lists) for the organization. The Analog Historian(s) are also responsible for making sure that this binder is brought to each weekly meeting. The binder is stored in the infoshop desk.
• Digital Historian(s) who are responsible for updating the SDS and mpkb.net websites with consensed upon proposals, an updated copy of the meeting procedures, the statement of purpose, news, upcoming events, and so on.
• Listserv Administrator(s) who are responsible for keeping the membership subscriptions on both the announcements and discussions lists up to date. Members on the discussions list who have not attended meetings for more than one semester will be removed and re-subscribed if they begin to attend meetings again. The listserv admin(s) are also responsible for sending out meeting reminders for the general weekly MPJC-SDS meetings at least 1 day ahead of time.

[edit] Quarterly Roles

• Agenda Coordinators (2) who are responsible for collecting agenda items prior to the meeting (by email or otherwise), and meeting with the upcoming meeting’s facilitator(s) to arrange the agenda items in the order in which they will be discussed, assign each item a time-limit for discussion, assign presenters for proposals, and to determine the format for brainstorms, and other group discussions. These coordinators also must keep track of tabled items to go on the next week’s agenda, and must keep track of comments and concerns about meeting procedures to see if the same or similar issues keep coming up. When this happens, the coordinators should place the issue on the agenda for discussion.

[edit] Meeting-to-Meeting Roles

• Facilitator(s): Each meeting has one or two facilitators whose job it is to guide the meeting through the agenda, and through the consensus decision-making process. The facilitator keeps track of those wishing to make a comment in the meeting by keeping a “stack” of commenter names in the order in which their hands were raised. The facilitator is responsible for reminding members to raise their hand, and to ensure that members aren’t interrupting one another. The facilitator has the ability to extend discussion or table agenda items until the next meeting if necessary.
• Note-taker: A note-taker records discussion and decision-making at the meeting, and posts these notes to the MPJC discussion listserv.
• Time-keeper: Each meeting has a time-keeper to make sure that each agenda item only receives the amount of time allotted for it, unless the facilitator decides to extend discussion on a topic of interest, or table an agenda item. The timekeeper should interrupt discussion if a topic has gone overtime, and give warnings when a discussion is approaching its time-limit.
• Occupation Reporter (1 or more): For a weekly meeting, one or more people can put together a 10 minute discussion/presentation on the war that includes an occupation report for the week before, and information about any issue of interest that relates to the war as a means of educating ourselves and others. These reporters also should communicate the information they share at the meeting with the rest of Macalester/ larger community however they want (e.g. chalking, flyering, organizing a forum, doing a film screening, writing an article, making a patch--any form that they see fit).
• Peace-keeper: When addressing a particularly contentious or controversial issue, the group can elect to use a peacekeeper who is selected without discussion at the beginning of a meeting so as not to hold up meeting time. If there is contention about the person who volunteered, then the facilitator will fulfill this role. The peacekeeper should be able to remain personally neutral towards the issue being discussed. The peacekeeper makes sure that all group members are able to express their concerns and be listened to during the group discussion.

[edit] About Consensus-Based Decision Making

MPJC-SDS functions through consensus-based decision-making which is a non-hierarchical, collective process. Consensus is founded in the notion that a group can make decisions collectively through compromise and discussion rather than by voting. The goal of consensus is to reach decisions that everyone in a group can live with, even if they don’t all necessarily personally agree. The principle points of unity of the organization are meant to guide the consensus process, so that if there is major conflict, the group can refer to these principles for assistance.

• Consensus is not voting, so there is no physical gesture such as a “show of hands” component to reaching consensus.
• Proposals require consensus, however MPJC-SDS can choose to allow MPJC-SDS working committees to make decisions without requiring formal consensus from the large group, but MPJC-SDS must consense on doing so, and working committees are expected to run themselves by consensus.
• Members of MPJC-SDS can participate in consensus after having attended at least one meeting.
• Consensing on a proposal does not mean personally agreeing with the proposal, but rather accepting the proposal as being consistent with the principles of the organization, and as being the best version of itself within reason (i.e. well thought-out, well articulated, concise, etc)
• Facilitators test for consensus by asking if there are any concerns or objections about the proposal at hand. This is a time for meeting attendees to ask questions, voice uncertainty, or opposition to the proposal as it stands. Concerns and objections can assuaged through group conversation, group brainstorming, and by modifying the proposal.
• Once a concern or objection is raised by a member, it is the entire group’s responsibility to work out a solution—objecting or raising concerns does not mean entering into a debate or combative conversation, but should instead incite creative collective thought about how to improve the proposal.
• If there is difficulty assuaging concerns or clearing up objections, the group should defer to the statement of purpose in order to decide if the language of the proposal conflicts with the binding principles of the organization.
• If members continue to have objections and concerns regarding the compatability of the proposal with the organization’s statement of purpose, then the proposal does not pass. If discussion time for a proposal reaches its limit without consensus being attained, the facilitator can either extend discussion, table the conversation for the following meeting, or suggest that the proposal must be significantly revised before brought back for group discussion.
• If all concerns and objections have been cared for, or if none were voiced, then the group has reached consensus.

[edit] Meeting Components, Descriptions, and Suggested Chronology

[edit] Introductions

A brief get-to-know-you go-around, including first names and any other question at the discretion of facilitators

[edit] Occupation Report & Group Education

Each week 2 or more people can put together a 10 minute discussion/presentation on the war that includes an occupation report for the week before, and information about any issue of interest that relates to the war. Those people are expected to communicate this information to the campus and/or greater community in some form (be it chalking, making a flyer, writing an article—anything at all).

[edit] Check-Ins

Check-ins consist of a brief go-around in which attendees identify what tasks they have each completed since the last meeting in order to re-assign tasks that were not completed, placing tasks that need discussion onto the agenda, and also to acknowledge the work done by MPJC-SDS members.

[edit] Proposals

• Any event, action, endorsement, or other substantial group commitment/decision needs to be presented to MPJC-SDS in proposal form (see exceptions in consensus section)
• Any number of people can author a proposal
• Only one proposal will be discussed at a time, and similar proposals can be consolidated
• The authors of the proposal will suggest a time-limit on discussion to facilitators
• Most proposals should be written in some form –verbal proposals will be considered if what is being proposed is very simple, or if it is an exceptional emergency situation at which time consensus will be sought as to whether it is appropriate to consider such a proposal.
• If possible, proposals should be emailed out to the listserv prior to the meeting at which they will be considered for consensus.
• Keep in mind conserving paper. If the proposal is brief, only one or two hard copies are needed at the meeting, and it can be written on board. If more lengthy, please make enough copies to go around.

[edit] Brainstorming

• There are many models of brainstorming. Brainstorming can be concerned with just about anything, and can be used as a way to generate new ideas from the group for future proposals, or for simple on-the-spot proposals, group reflection, discussion, or for conflict resolution.
• Anyone can request a brainstorm on a topic of interest by emailing the agenda coordinator and recommending a time-limit for discussion, and if they want, a format for brainstorming.
• Examples of brainstorming formats are fish-bowls, go-arounds, popcorn, break-outs into small groups, and many more. Whatever the process, it should strive to be inclusive, collective, and non-hierarchical.

[edit] Announcements

This includes announcements of upcoming on-campus or off-campus events, announcements of future planning/organizing meetings, or announcements of ideas for future planning so that those interested can meet after business is over to plan a time to author a proposal, or meet

[edit] Check-Outs

Check-outs consist of a go-around in which everyone repeats to the group what tasks they have committed to completing by next week’s meeting so that members remember what they’re committed to, and so that the distribution of work throughout the group is collectively perceivable.

[edit] Vibe-Check/Extended Vibe-Check

Every meeting there will be a brief vibe-check/reflection on the meeting/group activities in the form of a voluntary go-around.

Quarterly, (and more often if the group elects to do so), the a weekly meeting will be used as a group-dynamics/organizing meeting, in which only old business will be discussed, if necessary, for the last 30 minutes at the most. The first hour will instead consist of group discussion which can take many forms (see brainstorming section). There doesn’t have to be formal facilitation for these meeting, but there should be one person taking stack for comments. An example of a structure for this component of the meeting is as follows: there could be general go-arounds that would address one thing that worked well for members with organizing/group-dynamics this past month, which could then be followed by issue-specific go-arounds, such as “what is one thing that you’ve experienced/been thinking about/been challenged by concerning gender dynamics and the group/organizing this past month?” What’s important is that this meeting is structured, so that it remains collective and inclusive. There shouldn’t be a note-taker for this part of the meeting, as this is meant to be an open, respectful, and confidential space for discussion. The meeting should conclude with an evaluative go-around in order to make amends to process for the next extended-vibe check, and each attendee could at this time offer one thing that they will work on for the next month, given any insights that arise during the meeting. This is not meant to be a space for finger-pointing or name-calling, but a place for group support and reflection.

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