LAEV Monday Meeting: July 18, 2011
Facilitator: Brad
Notes: Heather
Attendance: Angel, Mark, Josh, Leslie, Bex, Julio Jr., Lois, Johnny, Becca, Thomas, Carol, Nichole, Julio Sr., Joe, Ianne, Lara, Eric, Josie, Joaquin, Federico, Jimmy
Agenda
Space Request for Workshop September 28th, Lois, 3 mins.
• Talk by Mark Lakeman from City Repair in Portland, Oregon
• Mark is open to giving a free garden guerrilla workshop at LAEV on a Thursday
• Lois requesting the Lobby for a public workshop on the evening of Wednesday September 28th
• Consensus!!!
Mark 3- month interview, 20 min.
• Experience has been fun and interesting
• Michael loves it at LAEV and he feels excited about the Eco-Village
• Enjoy relationships at LAEV
• Have questions re: fit at LAEV. Not sure about how much I can question what is happening at LAEV- why we do what we do and why are our policies as they are? (etc…)
• Important for me to be in environment where I can question. Feel some resistance within community around certain issues.
• Reading Diana Leaf Christensen book: not sure if I can engage the community the way that I want to engage. Still figuring out whether I want to fully commit.
• Lois: Had a conversation with Mark. He asks a lot of questions, reminded that he is a philosophy major. Sometimes feels that with a lot of questions it can be accusatory. Through conversations it was clarified that Mark likes to ask a lot of questions, not necessarily to change everything, but to understand.
• Outspoken re: membership process. After having gone through the process I had the opportunity to reflect on the process and wondered why we do things certain ways. Mainly want to highlight that we don’t put policy before people. Should maybe be one of our values. Wish there was greater focus on people’s needs before policy. Trying to find where my fit is here.
• Heather: Important to understand the historical context in which policies were originally created and the original intention behind policies. Admire that you place people before policy… that’s important.
• Julio Jr.: Specific situations can cause conflict when policy is bypassed. Trying to understand how certain situations get approved and others don’t
• Becca: Appreciate Mark and Michael’s contributions to community. Sense of justice, humor and empathy. Michael is a sweet kid. Great that you’re here. Appreciate that you’re willing to take a stand. New folks remind us to question things. What is your expectation for change?
• Mark: Want to feel supported and excited within and by the community. We are privileged here…
Summary of existing Family Policy, Joe/ Lara, 15 min.
• Existing policy from Wiki consensed at 11/29/10: We will consider a candidacy while in residence for families of at least one parent and one child under 18 years old who are planning to move to Los Angeles and have experience and a commitment to raising children under 18 in intentional communities. This would minimize the challenge that our membership process presents to a family that is already moving. These cases will not take precedence over existing candidates, but this flexibility helps us reach our goal of supporting a diverse community that includes families. We will take existing member families and interested families in the area into consideration before inviting an interested family from out of town to enter the membership process. Families must follow the same membership process as anyone else and if already living at LAEV families can enter the process without moving out.
• There is some question as to whether this would apply to Alejandra and her experience in the nursing community in Guatemala.
• Angel: the policy was written for people that did not come as a short stay.
• Julio: 2 or 3 years ago I mentioned that my Mom was going to come live with me. The FLAG policy was then created. I had mentioned several years ago that Alejandra might come live with me in my apartment before Alejandro was born. Family circumstances changed. My understanding was that Alejandra could not enter membership process from Guatemala and she could not live in my apartment due to size/ space. My sister does have experience in a rural nursing community.
• At last bienvenidos committee meeting it was discussed that clarification was needed on how this policy applies to Alejandra. At the end of the meeting it was discussed that the FLAG policy could be applied and further discussion needs to be had with Julio/s.
• Will come back to this item next week (7/25/11) (there are several options that need to be further discussed at a community meeting: i.e. applying the FLAG policy, membership, or family policy…)
Website Update, Leslie, 5 min.
• Leslie plans to contact Grassroots (per Lois’s suggestion) re: free website design. Will get a sense of time frame and ability. Will present results to community. If this does not seem appealing will consult with cousin.
CRT Mediation Proposal, 15 min.
• CRT proposing a one day training for mediation through the Center for Civic Mediation (http://centerforcivicmediation.org/) . The cost would be $1,500.
• CRSP has not yet approved paying for this training. Lois suggests that we create an annual USTU training budget. Lois is not able to approve the funds for the training at this time. Lois would like to convene a group of people to make decisions on annual budget for education and training.
• The cost seems a bit steep.
USTU sign onto U.N. Resolution, Lois, 5 min.
Repair Lizard Bench, Lois, 10 min.
• Ray has offered to fix the cob lizard bench. Lois is proposing to have a neighborhood event to fix the lizard bench and eat pizza from lizard oven with the leadership of Ray.
• Potential Dates:
• Angel: The bench has many uses by the community… i.e. smoking, teasing and sleeping. This should be considered. We may want to consider better lighting.
• We can repair the structure annually and weatherize it (linseed oil)
• Federico: Want to repair the bench and maintain it. Not a big fan of cob and not in favor of more cob projects in the future.
Post meeting notes to Wiki Proposal, Josh, 7 min.
• Unclear whether there is a policy re: posting meeting notes to the wiki.
• Proposal: USTU requests that the facilitation team will post the Monday night meeting notes, for every meeting, within 48 hours of the meeting to the wiki.
• Eric: Is there concern about the notes being publicly available? Notes do not list last names. There may be some items which are not fully outlined in meeting notes.
Evaluation:
Important to investigate agenda items before the meeting.
Good.
In the lizard bench item there were some concerns that did not get fully vented.
I love you Brad.
Sorry for telephone game from Aurisha to Josh to Brad…
Thumbs up
Muy bien
Maintained high energy throughout meeting. Would like for people not to sit on tables. Would have been helpful to have had time keeper. There was some repetition and it would have been helpful to have redirected some folks.
Very difficult to interrupt and redirect people. Sorry for not having known exactly what two of the items were clearly about.
Announcements:
• Thomas is focusing on the community land trust. He is writing a report and is submitting to his graduation committee back home (France). He hopes to engage with the community more now that his report is complete.
• Becca’s mom enjoyed her stay. She is leaving town this weekend and will be gone the 27th to the 3rd. Gwen, Becca’s friend will be staying in her apartment this weekend.
• Rampart neighborhood council meeting starting at 6:00 pm at St. Anne’s
• Jimmy’s sister is staying at Mark’s
• Eric wants to do a facilitation training- can put one on this Sunday or sometime in August.
• Tuesday, July 26th, Kaiser Docs having a potluck in courtyard
• Thiago is working on Monday nights. Going out of town for a week.
Work Party on July 30th. Talk to Leslie.
Becca and Bobby facilitation team on July 25th
Bike Rack:
Creation of committee for assessing annual budget for USTU education and training