Structure Group Report 2012-09-30

STRUCTURE GROUP REPORT September 2012

http://freegle.it/Structure

wiki link -http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Structure_Group_Report_2012-09-30This is a summary of discussions since our last report of 31st August 2012, covering messages 10623 to 10666. Our membership stands at 76 (two more than last month).

The topics we have discussed this month are below.

Mediation.

POLL QUESTION: Mediation:

There are occasions when mediation might be useful between a group member and group Volunteers. We would like the Ombudsmen and Mediation Pool to discuss and recommend a way to deal with this, including drafting any extra guidelines over and above http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Mediation_Service that might be required for either the Ombudsman to deal with directly, or for the panel to do so as part of their role. The Mailbox can supply anonymised examples to help the discussion. The recommendation to be given to Structure by the end of November 2012

CHOICES AND RESULTS

- No, I disagree with sending this request, 1 votes, 5.56%

- Abstain (please explain on group), 0 votes, 0.00%

- Discuss further on the group, 0 votes, 0.00%

- Yes, I agree to send this request, 17 votes, 94.44%

With a majority vote, the request has been passed to the Ombudsman and the mediation pool.

National Polling.

POLL QUESTION: National Polling.

We propose to Central that the following National Poll be set up:

"We propose a simplification of our current national polling procedures in order to increase the democratic process by ensuring it is used more often."

Essentially the change is to move most polling to Freegle UK Central, notifying via Special Notice, instead of mailing to all owner addresses. Polling on the Constitution, constitutional matters and all elections will remain as 'owner address' notifications.

The changes required in current procedures are detailed here (http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/2012_Poll).

The highest number of votes for any option presented will be considered as a binding majority decision.

Yes / No / Abstain"

The result of this poll here will be decided by a simple majority.

CHOICES AND RESULTS

- Yes, I agree that we send this national poll proposal to Central, 19 votes, 100.00%

- No, I disagree with sending this national poll proposal to Central, 0 votes, 0.00%

- Abstain (please explain on group), 0 votes, 0.00%

A Special Notice was posted to Central announcing a 7 day consultation period.

Task 84 - What Resources Do Groups Want?

Brainstorm what resources groups would value.

This is part of the strategy - "To provide more (and more importantly, easier to use) resources to local groups"

This is next on our Structure task list but on consideration it has been decided that it is a task more suited to Growth, and has been passed to them for further discussion.

Task complete.

Task 82 - Health and Safety Document.

There is no legal requirement for Freegle to have a written H&S policy, but we have a moral duty of care to those working on national stuff on behalf of us all.

In order to ensure that we don't tie ourselves up in knots with a huge document that we can't monitor it has been suggested that we adopt a simple statement (not a policy) that sums up Freegle's position on health, safety and the well-being of volunteers.

A draft has been prepared and a Start Of Topic notice has been sent to Central.

We are looking for someone to set Google Alerts for relevant H&S stuff then we can set an annual review date in our calendar here to check the document which would take account of legislative changes over that period.

Comments are very welcome on the draft and on the conclusions we have made in drawing it up - especially from any of you that have experience in this area.

Please come on over to Structure to have your say. http://freegle.it/Structure

If any of the above topics interest you, or if you have proposals about the structure of Freegle to suggest, please do join our group. http://freegle.it/Structure

Task List Our Task List can be viewed at http://freegle.it/StructureTasks

The Coordinator for this group is Jacky (Great Yarmouth) Deputy Coordinator is Peter Johnson (Hunts) and Secretary is Wendy (Woodley) Owners are Jacky, Peter and Wendy.