Nishmat Business Meeting
Jim, Carol, Max, Ethel, Raja, Vicky
Nov 18 2003
Agenda:
1. Review upcoming events
2. Schedule events
3. treasurer's report
4. geographic area.
5. dissemination of minutes.
6. decision making rules
1. Review upcoming events
Jan 17: Alex and Eve. Carol to reconfirm
Feb 21:
2. Schedule events
February 21st
[ March 6 Purim]
March 20th
[ April 5 Pesach.]
April 17th
Business meetings
Tue Jan 13
Tue March 16
Should we have a TuB'Shvat seder?
TubShvat is Fri Feb 6th
Proposal: if someone (anyone) agrees to lead it, we would cheerfully co-sponsor. If no one agrees to lead it, it doesn't happen. We agree in advance to co-sponsorship with Gan Eden, Beyt Chesed, or Keneset HaLev. Other groups to be approved if needed.
Max tentatively offers his house. Leaders should contact Max.
Raja to pursue this.
3. treasurer's report
Previous Balance: $ 297
Income: $ 530 (All donations from the mailing)
Outlay: - $ 120 (2 babysitting @ $ 35 each and $50 mailing)
Current Balance: $ 707
4 Proposal: to expand our geographic area for Shabbat services to the house of Mindy (in the Grand Avenue area of Oakland.)
Note This would be out of walking distance for some people.
The proposal is adopted without objection.
5. How we deal with business meeting minutes
Proposal: to archive our minutes on the website. This will serve as communal reference place for minutes and lists of those attending.
The minute taker will email minutes to all who attend, and allow time for correction. Once minutes are finalized, they would be placed on the web. We would then email a notice to the list that they are available on the website. This will serve the purpose of making them available to all who wish to read them, and not burdening others with additional emails.
Note that minutes are not an exhaustive list of who said what, and that certain topics can be discussed in a confidential manner. We will not attempt to hide them. There is no plausible threat to Nishmat or its members from placing these on the web, since the minutes don't contain personal or private information.
The web site will be set up so as to discourage automatic web indexing.
Passed without objection.
Jim to send his archive of old minutes to Max.
6. decision making rules
This is a report on the discussion of decision making at the October 21 meeting and (mainly) the
proposals which will be presented at the business meeting November 18.
There was general agreement on the following 3 proposals for decision making between regularly-scheduled
business meeting.
Note that these proposals do not require determining either who is a member of Nishmat or what
constitutes a quorum for a business meeting.
1. Between-meetings decision making: When a proposal arises between business meetings, it should be
sent to everyone on the list in #2. Such proposals are considered consent items, and a dissent by any
one or more of the participants means the proposal is rejected. The period for such dissent is one week. The rejection need not be permanent; if the proponents feel the issue is important, the proposal may be brought up again at a business meeting, either a regularly scheduled one or a special business meeting called in accordance with #3.
2. People listed to participate in between-meetings decision making: everyone who has attended a
business meeting in the past 12 months. The recording secretary keeps a list of those who attend each
meeting, so it's not a big imposition to ask him or her to maintain a cumulative list for a year.
3. Special business meetings: a special business meeting may be called by any 3 people who
(a) contributed money during the last 12 months (or during the last fundraising cycle, if that
was more than 12 months ago)
or (b) filled out and submitted the "Yes! I am a part of the Nishmat Shalom community" form since
the last time they were sent out
or (c) are on the list in #2
Those who are calling the meeting must notify at least everyone in 3(c) of the proposed meeting date and
general subject matter. If anyone cannot attend a meeting on the date proposed, and feels that her
attendance is vital, she may within 1 week object to the meeting date, in which case the meeting must be
re-called for a different date.
Once there is a meeting date without objection, notice will be sent at least two weeks in advance to the
LISTSERV (This period allows for people who were not part of the decision about scheduling the meeting
to have time to get their affairs in order) This means that the minimum time required to call a special
meeting is three weeks. In making this proposal, we recognize that these procedures will take
several weeks. Some opportunities may be missed.
Some provision to be made for another form of notice for any individuals who want to be notified of
meetings and claim to be email-disadvantaged).
Adopted without objection.
On the subject of consensus as the standard for decision making at meetings, there was no agreement.
Proposal: That business meetings can be announced through the listserve.
This gives us the flexibility to schedule a business meeting before a newsletter comes out. Note that
business meetings are scheduled only by business meetings (or by special meetings). We will continue to
announce business meeetings in the newsletter (when possible), and on the web site.
Adopted without objection.
A concern for the record: The paper newsletter reaches a somewhat different set of people than the
listserv. The paper newsletter may be less difficult to overlook. Email is not fully reliable. There
might be times when the notice would be lost in a flurry of email (on other topics).
PROPOSAL TO CHANGE FROM CONSENSUS DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
(This is the proposal Vicky sent by email, clarified.)
Nishmat Shalom members strive to make all decisions by consensus, to work for solutions that meet the
needs of all members. However, when consensus cannot be achieved, policy change decisions may be put to
a vote, as follows:
On a trial basis lasting one year, Nishmat Shalom shall substitute for unanimous consensus a minimum of
at least 6 people in the majority, representing at least 80% of those present, eg., 8/10, 8/9, 7/8, 6/7
(this means that more people would have to come to business meetings to make non-consensus policy
changes). If fewer than 7 people are present, then unanimity is still required for policy change.
One year after this proposal is adopted
1. it will come up for renewal. It must be renewed by consensus.
2. If the policy is not renewed, then any decision that had been made during the year under the terms of
the policy can be immediately called into question, and will be reconfirmed only if confirmed by the
then-present consensus.
We did not get consensus on this, so it will be discussed at the next meeting.
also for the next business meeting:
Specific page changes to our siddur are proposed that will reduce the amount of page-flipping and expand
the available feminine Hebrew, transliteration and English, especially in the Shacharit service.