Let's look back

I'm still getting the Board packets but it's stunning how much they have changed just in the last few months. I always viewed the minutes-taking as an important service, but I think most of us overlooked how many ways they served us.

Minutes are a legal requirement, as is having a Secretary to make sure they're being kept. While technically, we still have them, they are just stripped out now so we lost one of the most important ways they served our membership. Comprehensive minutes were always our mode of really communicating what was going on with our Board so that we could have the maximum member input and make the most informed, collaborative decisions. Not only would those decisions be thoughtful and effective, we could access all of our members, many of whom are professionals in other realms besides crafting, like lawyers, tax experts, business managers, human resource professionals...our membership includes many such people who had this avenue to do their duty of care for the organization even if they did not want to serve as a Board or committee member. They could read the agendas and minutes and then add their input easily to the process before possibly flawed decisions were put into policy. We all got the email list of everyone who wanted to be informed. Now I only get the Board member emails, but I've been told repeatedly not to email the Board. Or the membership. 

These stripped-out minutes we have now include no discussion points, no details. We have no idea what different opinions were expressed, if research was done, if affected members were included to evaluate the different effects of any policy changes. We had some measure of trust in our leaders, but we had the ability to check and see if our trust was well-placed. When the only avenue is getting GM permission to attend Board meetings, with a limited time to share your opinion if you do attend, and no advance notice of what will actually be discussed at those meetings, our feedback loop has been cut off. (Edit: And, there is no place past minutes are available, except in the archives, not on the website like they used to be. You can view some of them in the archive room at the office, if you are granted permission to enter the locked room, and the 2019 archive is in there, which is a great example of how well we were doing it then. I encourage you to look. You can also ask me to look in my digital archive for specific things and my notes on most of it.)

Many of us have observed over the last three years that it has become impossible to disagree...either you are personally vilified, you get required to come in for the "three-hour lunch" indoctrination session where you learn just how your opinions are negative drama instead of well-considered dissent, or you are just kept out of the loop by gatekeeping, lack of notice, or more direct measures like member blocking, even termination, overt or covert. Maybe you aren't told there will be a meeting, or it gets changed without notifying you, or you are not willing to get Board approval for your participation, or they won't appoint you even with your now required Letter of Interest. Our committee and task force meetings were always open to whomever wanted to attend, with the exception of the Personnel committee, which we restricted to Board members only. Even Budget Committee was open, though they did prefer to require some expertise to join, or asked observers to try not to disrupt the time for doing the actual numbers work, by asking for a lot of explanations. I'm not saying that couldn't have been improved or more open, but compared to now, it was wide open for every committee and task force we historically had. They were facilitated by people who shared the value that everyone brought a piece of truth that needed to be shared to get that elegant solution that was somewhere in the middle of the round table. We called it consensus-seeking, using voting instead of pure consensus, so those who disagreed could be recorded, showing the level of agreement. When we had very divided votes, we knew we had more work to do. We learned how to disagree amiably, operate in mature ways that didn't revert to bullying or exclusion, and those who needed it were given resources. We had a lending library of books on many subjects that supported group process. 

Even after our table wasn't round because the room got too small, we shared the values. We had regular sharing of meeting expectations, and gentle corrections if people didn't understand how to help meetings be productive, get the work done, and then communicate the results or identified questions to the whole membership through the minutes and reports. As recently as 2022 we had all this in place, but we sure don't now. There was not a single committee report in the latest Board packet, though the Market Calendar shows 4 meetings in January and 9 in February, not counting the Board meeting, though two of the February meetings happened after the deadline for the packet passed. Every meeting, including Budget and Personnel is required to file a report, even if they only list the motions made, or the fact that no motions were made. They have to list the attendees, time and date, and the business of the committee except details of confidential matters. 

I have no idea who is serving on any of these committees, who are their officers, and only one committee listed their members in the Annual Meeting report (thank you HM). None of the few committee reports in the January or February packets showed who attended, and no attendance or minutes were kept at the Annual Meeting (didn't happen last year either.) These minutes without the basic information are not being properly recorded. This March Board packet seems to have been entirely written by the GM, or at least no other people were listed as contributing. There's nothing on the website about any committee, and not even Board members are listed. The motion to seat the new Board members in January did not list any names. Even the votes don't say who made them and seconded. 

This is not transparency, and it is not the result of no one having the knowledge. The internet is full of resources about how to write minutes, and our policies say we train volunteers and support them, but if that is happening, there is no evidence of it. Although meetings are listed on the calendar, there's no announcement I have received for any of them except the HM debrief, which was sent the day before it happened. 

We used to have those little paper evaluations at HM, and they were tabulated and all of the comments were available for members to review (even the mean ones, except personal attacks on staff, which were removed.) We got one person's opinion of what happened at the debrief this year, most of which had already been said in the admin report as the official summary of our HM, which was shiny and fluffy and sure didn't match my experience. 

Of course it is possible that we will still get some reports before the Board meeting, or at the Board meeting for those who feel safe in attending. Let's hope so. We're still told we are welcome at meetings, though many of us do not feel safe in the current toxic atmosphere. With the amount of retaliation for members who try to give feedback, and the targeted harassment for those "spewing negativity" as it is characterized now, most calls for volunteers don't land anywhere that results in them stepping up. No one enjoys seeing members being bullied and having non-negotiable demands made of them. 

I'd like to be wrong about this. I go back and read minutes from very recent, previous years and see dozens of volunteers, working together, and sharing their work gladly to build community and make sure we all thrive. We had real transparency and we worked at it. I try to hope that we will come back to some higher level of participation and restore the values that built us, but I'm not confident we will. Sometimes I am sure the market we built is gone, leaving this shell of insider benefit and erasing of member rights. Trust is an artifact of the past. 

One of my deep regrets is that we never crafted a document of Member Rights and Responsibilities. You can go to ORS 65 (https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_65.144)  to see some basics, which include the right to inspect and copy the corporations records, but we always tried to do way better than what was legally required. Member knowledge and participation was never viewed as a threat, but was needed, encouraged, and celebrated. You have to ask yourself how we will survive without getting our member rights back. 

Go read that compilation of nonprofit law. There's a lot there. It does apply to us, as a mutual benefit corporation under Oregon law. Then ask yourself what more we could do to comply with that law, and exceed it in the spirit of mutual benefit. Members are here to serve each other. Staff is here to serve members. What are our basic values? You can't really assume they're shared unless you see that in concrete ways. I know my values don't include persecuting people who ask questions or disagree with me. My values are all about service. That's what my 50-year membership has been all about. 

You have to wonder why service has been met with hostility and control tactics, humiliation and punishment. I don't believe for a minute that "people just don't volunteer anymore" or whatever excuse is given for all the resignations and empty meeting rooms. Look around at our community and note what is being, and has been, subject to destruction. It's not happening by accident. 

We need this community for our survival, with the erosion of the federal safety net for the very diverse population of members we enjoy. We live in a pretty good city and state for preservation of human rights, but our small community or artisans and appreciators is struggling and set for more suffering if we don't pull together for each other. I hope you know I am here fighting for you in what ways I feel I can. You matter to me. Market will always matter to me, even if I don't matter to it.