2021-03-22 Meeting

USTU Community Meeting 2021-03-22

Facilitation Team: Sam & Josh (fac), KYLA (notes)
Interpretation: Veronica, Julio 3.0
Present: Yuki, Tunde, Austin, Natali, Philip, Josh, Sam, KYLA, Nils, Brooke, Enrique, Jess R, Eli, Beandrea, Veronica, Julio 3.0, Lara, Rae, Lois, Raquel, Adriana, Alana, Carol, Maeve, Carrie, Joe, Gautam, Becca, Devon, Aurisha, Ellary, Michelle

• Go Around (5 minutes)
• Agenda Review (5 minutes)
• Proposal for racial justice dialogue series - Alana, on behalf of the racial justice committee (10 minutes)
• Request for $400 to purchase Zoom Webinar Add-on for USTU Meetings Zoom account Solicitud de $400 para comprar el Webinar Add-on de Zoom para la cuenta de Zoom de reuniones de US/TU - Nils (10 minutes)
• Report back on Retreat survey results and start the process of following up on main takeaways - Beandrea (15 minutes)
• Instructions on “How to Vote in Upcoming RVNC Election” - Lois (10 minutes)
• Schedule Greenlight for Raquel Valencia - Lois (10 minutes)
• Next Fours (5 minutes)
  • Next Facilitators
    • 03/29/21 - NO MEETING
    • 04/05/21 - BOARD - Dilean, Natali, Philip
• Committee Meetings
  • MGMT 7p 3/23
• Work Parties
  • Unload the Azure truck Weds 4:45pm
  • 4/3/21 ePrep Emergency Water Barrels Refresh
• Super Suppahs
  • Nay
• Announcement: CRSP has received a $50k grant to facilitate behavioral change in our council district re: water & power usage
• Eval (5 minutes)

CLOSED SESSION ————--
Austin’s Provisional Membership Decision - Lara, Liaison (15 minutes)
Make a decision

TIME PERMITTING (time did NOT permit) ————--
Update on two parking spots - Gautam (10 minutes)
Share Information
Jess B told us we have two spots left unused. I asked for feedback over email and then sent out a survey. Will show results and discuss options.
Update on speaking order - Carrie & Alana (10 minutes)
Make a decision

 adopt the self imposed speaking order on an ongoing/permanent basis

Summary of Decisions:

Consensus to pay UP TO $400 + fees for Zoom translation services/webinar upgrade
The community came to consensus in favor of Austin’s provisional membership tonight. However, our current policy states that we make a decision only if the agenda is sent out 24 hours in advance. Because the agenda was sent out late, it did not meet that criteria and we will be ratifying the decision at the next meeting.

Proposal for racial justice dialogue series - Alana, on behalf of the racial justice committee

Introduce proposal for feedback. We will return for a decision later.

• CCEJ Proposal for Services for LAEV linked in 2021 Rolling Notes Google Doc
• Building from the climate & racial justice trainings, and from the USTU retreat, the racial justice committee would like to propose a dialogue series to strengthen our relationships and shared language and understanding of racial justice.
• We have been in contact with the CCEJ, who has decades of experience supporting groups to do this.
• They have proposed a 5 session monthly dialogue series over 5 months, with 3 affinity groups each with a facilitator.
• The total cost would be $6,480. This would use up essentially the community-directed funds budget.
• This includes the dialogue series.
• Would it be possible to do an introductory session before committing to the full series? We can ask.
• Do they have experience working with intentional communities? They have not specifically done housing *communities but have worked with collectives.
• Expected desired outcomes and how can we encourage folx to attend, especially those that may not normally attend workshops (such as the last Climate & Racial Justice workshop series)? Will advertise, can’t make it mandatory
• Intentions for Racial Justice Committee are to create a more inclusive space and to facilitate dialogues such as these. Committee was started small to create a safe space but needs to be revisited to make the meetings more inclusive.
• Would meet once per month. They suggested more frequently but we decided on once per month.
• Comment on is this the best use of our money. Can we have these dialogues and conversations amongst ourselves?
• Important for us to have these conversations by organizations that are able to create these spaces and structures to allow us to be comfortable to have these conversations
• Committee is exploring other avenues such as fundraising and sliding-scale donations by those who have means. We don’t want to deplete the community of the community-directed funds but the RJC believes this training is very important.

Request for $400 to purchase Zoom Webinar Add-on for US/TU Meetings Zoom account / Solicitud de $400 para comprar el Webinar Add-on de Zoom para la cuenta de Zoom de reuniones de US/TU

Consensus to pay UP TO $400 + fees for translation services/webinar upgrade

We all have been borrowing Yuki’s Zoom account for USTU Meetings since we switched over to online meetings in order to pass the 40min basic account meeting time limit and use of the advanced meeting features (higher participant count/advanced sharing/drawboard/polls/breakout rooms/language interpretation/etc.) Some committees also use Yuki’s account to meet outside of standard work hours, per a sign-up calendar schedule. It’s not a long term solution or really a solution at all, more a stop-gap which we let slide. So facilitators requested and USTU purchased a Zoom PRO account to replace relying on Yuki’s. Unfortunately the PRO Zoom account does not allow for language interpretation. As we now have simultaneous language interpretation on Mondays, we need that function on the new account to continue with Monday Meetings as they are now. The easiest and quickest way to get this enabled is to purchase the Webinar Add-on from Zoom. This unfortunately costs $400 +fees per year, so asking for that to be approved by the community, either from community directed funds or to split the cost between community funds and monies we have already set aside for language justice as that is the primary reason for purchase

Todos hemos estado tomando prestada la cuenta Zoom de Yuki para las reuniones de la USTU desde que cambiamos a las reuniones en línea para superar el límite de tiempo de la reunión de 40 minutos y usar todas las funciones avanzadas de la reunión (mayor número de participantes / uso compartido avanzado / tablero / encuestas / salas de reuniones / interpretación de idiomas / etc.) Algunos comités también usan la cuenta de Yuki para reunirse fuera del horario laboral estándar, según un calendario de inscripción. No es una solución a largo plazo o realmente una solución en absoluto, más bien una solución provisional que dejamos pasar. Entonces, los facilitadores solicitaron y USTU compró una cuenta Zoom PRO para reemplazar la dependencia de Yuki. Desafortunadamente, la cuenta PRO Zoom no permite la interpretación de idiomas. Como ahora tenemos interpretación simultánea en idiomas los lunes, necesitamos esa función en la nueva cuenta para continuar con las reuniones de los lunes como están ahora. La forma más fácil y rápida, y la forma en que el comité de facilitación lo recomienda, para habilitarlo es comprar el complemento de seminario web de Zoom. Desafortunadamente, esto cuesta $400 + tarifas por año, por lo que solicitar que la comunidad lo apruebe, ya sea de fondos dirigidos por la comunidad o para dividir el costo entre los fondos comunitarios y el dinero que ya hemos reservado para la justicia del idioma, ya que esa es la razón principal para compra.

Notes:

• Devon can look into Techsoup. His organization was able to buy a Zoom account with translation
• Note toward language justice also being folx starting to learn Spanish so the community could become more inclusive. Translation services are a stop gap. Do we know how many people are needing and using the language justice translation services?
• We budget 3,000 per year on translation. If we approved the last item and this, we may not have the funds to have translators for the Zoom translation services.
  Someone can look into if they could find a cheaper option. Their organization pays $50 extra for translation.
• Nils did spend 2 hours on the phone with Zoom Customer Service and they were firm on the $400.
• Concern: please look into the Tech Soup discount first (we are, but asking for the full amount so that we don’t have to come back)
• Concern: is this to have as a back up when we eventually move to non-Zoom meetings? Yes.
• How do we see this as an investment in the long-term future?

Report back on Retreat survey results and start the process of following up on main takeaways - Beandrea

• Retreat committee is helping the community follow through on some of the points of agreement gathered at the retreat

Survey results:

• 87% of respondents gave the facilitators a rating of 3 or greater
• 67% gave a 4 or 5
• Need more time! Tried to cover too much ground.
• In the future, would like to slim it down
• Some folx thought it was too much community building, some not enough
• Divide between community building and taking action
• Some movement on community glue
• Surprise on how much alignment we had
• Gratitude for the retreat committee
• Too many breaks?

Top Priorities Highlights (Cedar and Lucien’s Notes):

• Grieving/Healing/Storytelling/Resonance Circle on the third Monday’s came up repeatedly. There is lots of energy behind this and positivity about implementing near term. Ideas for who could lead it included CRT, Bienvenidos, or it could be community run.
• Sociocracy training is high up on many lists. There was a lot of discussion about whether it should be adopted and how, but training to inform those decisions came up as a near-term next step, and there was expressed willingness to shift around capacity to make space for this soon.
• Education on racial justice with support from outside sources came up multiple times.
• Financial Literacy training came up multiple times.

Capacity Highlights:

• Paid In-house Roles (including temporary roles) came up multiple times as a way of increasing capacity.
• Strategic Planning for USTU using SMART Goals came up multiple times, however capacity for this was identified as very limited. This may not be realistic in the near term.

Please think about which items you may like to work on and help to create a proposal or action around!

Instructions on "How to Vote in Upcoming RVNC Election”

SLIDE PRESENTATION - RVNC VOTE!! on the 2021 Rolling Notes Doc

• RVNC Neighborhood Council Board member will instruct community how to vote in upcoming mail-in board election, and our slate of candidates
• Only ballot drop off box is in Silverlake
• You must request a ballot! (see slides) elections.rvnc.org
  • Rampart Village Region 7
• Links for paper applications as well on slides
• Lara has printed request forms
• Raquel has found the easiest way is to fill out the form, take a picture of it, and send it to the City Clerk
• Did not find the online portal to be the easiest way
• Deadline to apply is March 30th (including the mailing-in part)
• You will need to verify that you live in Rampart Village.
• 3 people in this meeting on the board and running for re-election
• Please VOTE! Every vote counts.
• Note that there is a movement to get activists elected to Neighborhood Councils.
  • (Article posted on the 2021 Rolling Notes) about progressive groups pushing to make Neighborhood Councils forces for good
• for RVNC you have to submit ID - proving your address
  • and they won’t take an expired drivers license (ask Joe how how he knows)
• RVNC voting, note: undocumented people are eligible and RVNC awards neighborhood grants, generally up to $5K.

Schedule Greenlight for Raquel Valencia

Announcement

• Raquel has been in our process since last summer in the midst of Covid.
• She has attended USTU meetings regularly, has been employed by CRSP since November helping out at Songs, and attended our retreat.
• She has fulfilled all the requirements for greenlighting to the best of her ability under Covid circumstances.
• Notes:
  • Raquel shows a nice slideshow highlighting her many industrious skills and projects! Includes apt-style grey water system, a PVC-bike mobile, a tiny house on wheels, welding things, going on trash walks, climate activism, assisting at Songs, Representative of the RVNC
  • Question if there is going to be an orientation anytime soon? Not that has been scheduled
  • Raquel is willing & available for an orientation when there is one available
    • Yuki can offer online

Next Fours

• Next Facilitators
  • 03/29/21 - NO MEETING
  • 04/05/21 - BOARD - Dilean, Natali, Philip
• Committee Meetings
  • MGMT 7p 3/23
• Work Parties
  • Unload the Azure truck Weds 4:45pm
  • 4/3/21 ePrep Emergency Water Barrels Refresh
• Super Suppahs
  • Nay
• Announcement: CRSP has received a $50k grant to facilitate behavioral change in our council district re: water & power usage

Eval

• Appreciated the line breaks
• I think given the time for Raquel’s announcement she did a good job using the time.
• Someone was here who was not introduced (he did the go around and has a questionnaire on the wiki)
• Jam-packed agenda and got a lot done - thank you to facilitation team and thank you retreat committee for following up
• Appreciate Retreat Committee and RJ Committee for follow up, facilitation team for timing, some concern for folx not listening to facilitator direction

Closed Session Hidden Notes

2021-03-22 Meeting Hidden