Spokescouncil Planning Meeting 10-28-2024

present

spokecouncils are made up of representatives from each group
- maybe 2 reps, one to speak the other to take notes
- spokes are rotated in, either randomly or by voting
fishbowl: like spokecouncils, only everyone is present and sits behind their spoke
LP: should have documentation on how spokecouncils work and telemeeting hardware present to improve access
frankie: woodbine is monolingual and we should be mindful about the decision making process being bilingual
ella: childcare could also improve access
ash: what should the spokes be?
- mycology
- soccor
- research group
- screening
- locations
- finance
- communications
andrew: we can nest the spokes inside eachother, such as rats in maintenance; people should understand that if they don't participate, they won't have a say
ella: spokes could help disorganized groups to become more organized, such as yoga
frankie: what are the consequences of defining the spokes poorly?
theodora: not enough groups showing up would be worse
ella: how large do we want a meeting to be? too large could get unmanagable
andrew: in the beginning we shouldn't assume the authority to deciding who can/can't be a spoke, though it would be reasonable to suggest merging with another spoke
Briar: consensus model? Unanimous consent can be difficult in larger council

LP: notes show there have been other times where people seemed to want organizational change. To create structures that are less closed, and more defined by roles than by people.
ash: more participation at woodbine, seems like right time to start pushing for it. when there are only a couple of people responsible for decision making, they become a bottleneck and things get messed up.
LP: was depressed because he was seeing conflict and harm happening to people and concerns about this were getting ignored
ella: feel like maybe many people in ops feel weird about their own participation

ella: visited a couple of squats in spain over the summer. one was a squatted nunary. they have a seperate committee that handles most the day-to-day decision making, and then twice a year they have a large assembly to make decisions together. another hold biweekly assemblies to coordinate multiple squatted bank-owned buildings. they run eviction defense and a pantry. offer transition services and child support. each collective has their own room.
LP: different decision making processes: full consensus, u-1, u-2. heavy proposal basis, proposals were crafted beforehand with multiple flavors to
Briar: involved in omni commons and rhyzome collective
- Omni: Makerspace, Food not Bombs, video collective, others + ballroom space
- Discrete organizations with discrete spaces, less based on activities as woodbine is.
- Spokes consisted of group reps + fixed members such as locations, finance, permanent reps to address issue of racial reprsentation.
- Fully consensus, spokes rotated frequently

Reach out to Noisebridge/Mitch Altman

LP: people may not have the capacity to participate in their projects as well as the spokescouncil
frankie: sometimes the space isn't in great shape, people will need to step up

write out fears and hopes
reach out to people in other spokecouncils
- identify list of other groups in nyc
link map of all working groups
put together a timeline
- have another meeting first
language access infrastructure
proposals we need:
- how are decisions made
- what is a spoke
- an initial proposal to try to make together
collaborative space for fears/hopes
date poll (ash)