Policy Committee – First Meeting

This is a little late in the posting, but the policy committee had it’s first meeting a few weeks ago and we thought it would be a good idea to post the minutes. We will be drafting new bylaws and policies to help restructure the Sky Dragon as a multi-stakeholder co-coperative less than a year from now. It’s a lot of material and work to get through but we’re a keen bunch and anxious to get at it!

You can read more about co-operative structures here.

We’ll be regularly posting our minutes to keep people up to speed on our progress. Click through below to read the minutes from our first meeting.

Policy Committee August Minutes

Attending:

• Meaghan, Kevin, Sandy, Julia, Peter

Agenda

1. Suggest committee priorities
2. Create priorities list workplan

It was agreed that the main task of the policy & procedures committee will be to draft new organizational bylaws and create policies in alignment with the bylaws that cover all aspects of the organization’s functioning.

What follows is a list of Policy Committee priorities, along with their priority ranking by those in attendance.  The number beside each priority indicates its ranking:

1. Review the existing Cooperative Bylaws (Kevin has sent out) (1)
2. Review the existing Cooperative Articles (Kevin sends out) (1)
3. Review existing policies and procedures manual (Marg Ann sent out) (1)
4. Create a policy blog (Peter will do) (1)
5. Address interim board decision-making process (1)
6. Address interim board conflict-resolution process (1)
7. Create an interim board confidentiality agreement (1)
8. Research bylaws from similar organizations (2)
9. Check for previous policy work done by Janet and other interns (2)
10. Re-define membership stakeholder groups and board representation (3)
11. Establish new board decision-making process (4)
12. Look into employment practices, draft employment policies (5)
13. Establish new board conflict resolution process (5)
14. Draft anti-oppression policy (5)
15. Specify how new board committees will work (5)
16. Discuss and define new board liability (6)
17. Develop organizational mission statement and statement of values (6)
18. Draft list of other policies to be created (6)
19. Specify how the advisory council will work (7)

Direction from main board meeting, August 11:

It was decided that for the next main board meeting that the policy and procedures committee will draft a confidentiality policy and collect information on variants of consensus decision-making.  Both will be presented to the main board at its September meeting.

Next meeting:

The next meeting of the Policy & Procedures committee is on Thursday Sept. 2 at 5 pm at Sky Dragon.  Julia R. has committed to bringing consensus decision-making information from McMaster OPIRG to the meeting.