Meeting Notes 2013 09 24

These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. Note-taker: Anonymous; Moderator: Kevin.

• One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Short announcements and events

• Note-taker lost this first part of the notes. :(
• Maybe clearing out of the space. Possible discussion item.
• Sci-fi up the space. There's gonna be a group about that.
• Week minus 4 of getting an FM radio band.

Membership Binder

• No current applications.

Financial Report

• Funds in bank: ???
• Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary):

Consensus items

Proposals from last week

• Assign Norman as an "officer" to obtain and FRN from the FCC.
  • Discussion of whether we should pirate radio or pirate our own radio band.
  • CONSENSED.

• Adopt an anti-harassment policy.
  • Some clarification on what harassment is / is not.
  • Is it OK if someone offends someone but did not intend that?
    • No. The impact of what you say/do is more important than your intent.
  • You "may" be sanctioned or expelled, so not every instance will result in expulsion. It depends on the situation and what the people involved decide.
  • Change "Sexual language and imagery should be only be used for WOMEN-POSITIVE purposes" to simply "Sexual language and imagery should be only be used for POSITIVE purposes". [Enthusiastic agreement.]
  • We should care about small things as well as big things, when things happen. (Does not have to mean people get kicked out.)
  • What if people use the policy as a weapon to throw out people they don't like?
    • Technically, only members can kick people out using this policy.
    • Anyone is empowered still to ask someone to not come back until next Tuesday's meeting, even without this policy, so it will probably not be exploited more than the current unofficial policy.
    • We should add the definition of "sexual harassment" to the policy, because some people will not be clear on what that means.
      • Can we add this as a hyperlink?
    • There are some examples & clarification in the policy already.
  • Basic civility should be used by people in the space.
  • People who want to tell potentially offensive jokes should probably ask the crowd first before they tell them. (Just a suggestion for behavior, not that this should go into the policy.)
  • Bystanders or witnesses are not targets for the policy. If someone witnesses an event but does not intervene for any reason (they are scared, it is dangerous, they are not sure if they should), they are not going to be reprimanded as a harasser.
  • Last-minute concerns with being too specific instead of having a general policy.

• • Would anyone block the proposal as it stands?
    • Monad will block because it is automatic exlusion on accusation, where a person must return to a Tuesday meeting to GET permission to return rather than a consensus item to exclude them. People should be mediated
    • People who are being harassed should not have to sit down with their harasser and be mediated.
    • Mediators don't have to have both people in the same room.
    • It is the same process we have for already asking people to not come back except to Tuesday meetings if they are behaving badly or violently.
    • Monad: There needs to be a fact-finding process.
    • Attempts to clarify which parts of the policy he doesn't like.
    • Monad: The first sentence is fine. .... The rest of it is just stupid to me.

• • Chris, who was previously banned, returned to the meeting to discuss his return, but interrupted the meeting continuously until we had to pause the discussion to ask him to leave.

• • • Now we're back in session!
    • Proposal that we create a mediation task force which can address these problems, when people are accused of harassment and expelled but want to return.
    • Proposal that we approve the policy but pay close attention for abuse.
    • Proposal that we implement this policy for a trial period and re-visit during the third week of January. - Monad would not block this.

• • • CONSENSED, with the addition that it will be up for review again the THIRD WEEK OF JANUARY 2014.

• Proposal to "modify open hours so that nights are open-access to Members and to guests of any sponsoring Member also present in the space".
  • Problem: Midnight to eight there are usually no capital M Members in the space, but other people who are heavily invested in the space are. Can there be allowances made?
  • Intention is to reduce the amount of "living at Noisebridge".
  • Let us move this discussion to next week for further discussion. It warrants more attention & discussion and it is past 22:30 now.

Proposals for next week

(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

Discussion Notes

• • Chris returned to discuss his returning, but he was removed from the space for interrupting other discussions and disrupting the meeting. No other items were put up for discussion.

Attendance

• List of names and short summary. For bonus points, link wiki user pages.

Now that the meeting is over, don't forget to post the meeting notes to the wiki and e-mail the discussion list with a short summary.