WCC Board Meeting: Meeting Minutes 5/10/21
Attendees
Board: Ian Winbrock: Chair, Gail Caru-Vetter: Vice Chair, Dilenia Cardona: Treasurer, Angie Byers: Secretary, Theresa Burchell, Margaret Steinbrunn, Dan Schmid, Thea Lee, Johnny “Scooter” Skirving, Anand Holtham-Keahtly, Claire Roth, Jennifer Hoover.
12/14 Present.
Community Members: Stephen Fuller-Rowell, Margaret Mazzotta, Daniel Valdivia, Emma Jones, Niamh Dunne, Susan Detroy, Katie Guske
Action Items
Angie will contact Alluvium to set up a hybrid trial for future meetings.
Ian will get speaker order for the next three general meetings.
Motions
Approval of April minutes: WCC Secretary Angie Byers
Angie motioned for minutes approval, Dilenia seconded. 11/11.In-person meetings & modeling motions: WCC Vice Chair Gail Caru-Vetter
Gail Caru-Vetter: Motion: I motion that the board have a conversation on should we engage in in-person meetings in July. I think we should discuss the losses and gains of each meeting option. Margaret Steinbrunn: There is a loss when we don’t have a meeting in public. I am not supposed to be inside with non-vaccinated people. We have yet to see how the mask changes will work out. We could wear masks inside of the building. Jennifer Hoover: I will continue to wear a mask, but I don’t believe I’m ready to start in person before we have more data. I think it’s too dangerous. Claire Roth (in chat): A hybrid meeting structure would also lay the structure for allowing future WCC members to tune in even if they might not be able to physically attend meetings. Ian Winbrock: We know that there are very good reasons for someone not to get vaccinated. This should be a forum where people can share their thoughts and feelings about vaccines. Thea Lee: I am fully vaccinated, but I live with those that are vulnerable. I will not be in-person. I would like to do a hybrid. Angie Byers: I believe having a hybrid meeting, especially since we have a place that has the infrastructure, would meet the most people where they are. Gail Caru-Vetter: We would wait for information that is certain that an in-person meeting is safe. Because we cannot guarantee everyone has access to Zoom, we need to make sure our in-person meetings are safe. Emma Jones (in chat): My biggest concern is the lack of data on how long the vaccines last. I also have high-risk parents. Dan Schmid (in chat): Other advantages of hybrid, chat function and wine, etc Margaret Steinbrunn (in chat): I agree with that statement 100%. It does create a bit of a divide. Dilenia: I agree with the hybrid model, and it’s going to be hard. We’re going to have to work out some of the problems. Ian: I haven’t seen WCAT members for over a year due to barriers to technology including tech literacy and bandwidth. Maybe we can use some of our grant funding to work on the infrastructure. Claire Roth (in chat): People are doing hybrid already, we just need to do some tech research/ask for tech help and identify best practices that work well to stick to. Angie: I think we should trial it prior to see if we can create the best fit for our situation.
OHA vaccine partner motion & FEMA funding: WCC Chair Ian Winbrock
Ian: Vaccine clinics start 6/13 (2nd Sunday) and 6/25 (last Friday). We are also looking at co-locating services with groups such as Burrito Brigade. Which organization should we partner with:Walgreens, which requires at least 25 people. Uber will deliver people for free to a Walgreen’s clinic. We have an established partnership here. They can decide how many doses they administer.
Lane County Public Health: They will work with a clinic of any size. This could potentially enhance the relationship between us with LCPH. They will use whatever doses are provided.
Thea Lee (in chat): I saw that Uber will do it whether you have a partnership. I can check into that more. Anand Holtham-Keathley (in chat): I believe I heard Biden say that Uber volunteered to take everyone to any clinic. We may want to find out. Dilenia: I saw that Uber and Lyft will both provide rides to get a vaccine. I like building this partnership for other possible needs in the future. Scooter: What vaccine will they use? Ian: We don’t know, but it would most likely be Moderna, but we don’t get to decide. Scooter: I think that Lane County would be the best to use. Dan: It was cool that Walgreen’s was here in March, but most of the people we’d attract are probably people that will walk or ride. The J&J vaccine has less stigma, and may be an easier sell. Margaret Steinbrunn (in chat): Lyft has a program called Vaccines for all free or discounted rides to all vaccine clinics. Gail Caru-Vetter (in chat):I think building relationships with Lane County Health makes sense for us going forward. We will benefit from a strong relationship with our local public health providers. Margaret: I believe it would benefit us to work with Lane County Public Health, as we can build a stronger bond with them and other partners. Jennifer Hoover (in chat). What are Lane Cty’s days, hours available & can we include both uber & lyft. Gail Caru-Vetter (in chat): Jen, our dates are set for the vaccine clinics. We will include spreading transportation options as a part of promoting the clinics
Gail motions to partner with LCPH, Thea seconds. 12/12 yes.
4. WCC Open Neighbors Page moderation: Motion, discussion and vote
Margaret: I have 4 motions to bring to the board. In the last meeting we presented rules, guidelines, and the structure. It makes sense to me that we create a subcommittee made up of board members and non-board members that live in the neighborhood. Katie put out a question asking what the community wanted. I read every line of the comments, and the majority wanted it to be a co-page b/w the board and the residents. I’ve gotten positive feedback on the new structure. Without the board’s backing, then who are we to tell the members to do anything. Claire Schectman from the Whiteaker Community Market was very excited to partner with us, and I see more partnerships with this page. I’m proposing two admins including myself and Claire, and then bring in 6-8 community members to sit on the committee. We could talk about the guidelines and rules once the committee is established. Gail: I wanted to observe that sometimes the information provided is meaningful, but the general consensus from other pages is that people are not positive about the changes on the page. They do not understand why the changes are happening, and why those choices were made. We need to put effort into communication beyond the individual messaging to provide context for the community at large. The consequence of it not being discussed is that people presume the worst. The people I’m talking to are not there to cause trouble, but they are feeling disempowered. If it’s under the mantle of the WCC, it has to be done deftly to not risk alienating our neighbors and friends. Dan: We should approach this in three different ways: 1. Have the squeaky clean WCC page, 2. have the open page with the 5 rules proposed, 3. link the WCC page to the open page. Jen: IF we go the way that we’re going, I can see the good in it. I think that we should have 3 different admin with 3 differing views, as well as having 2-3 from the community. I feel nervous now putting anything on the group, as I would post things that have nothing to do with the Whiteaker, but I’ve been told not to do that anymore which is bothersome to me. There also needs to be designations between speaking as a WCC member versus and resident of the Whiteaker. Gail Caru-Vetter (in chat): I fear that the committee model will not be fast or flexible enough to respond to the online world. Claire Roth (in chat):^^ This is unfortunately true. Things happen in .00001 seconds on the FB group. Ian: This was created in the past by board members, without robust guidance which is why we’re addressing it now. Margaret: I never do anything on the page without talking to the person individually. Every private message I send, I copy to Claire. If we don’t post rules and guidelines, then it will be like the wild west. I’m talking to people on how their actions do not belong on the community page. As a moderator, I don’t give what my opinion is, but I need the rule to refer to. Claire Roth (in chat): Maybe a helpful way forward would be to identify what the WCC wants to get out of FB, and then identify if what we want would be better accomplished with a clean page rather than a page that has existed for a while without structure? Jennifer Hoover (in chat): need to establish the rules & again a lack of communication. we , community does not know what u do. Gail Caru-Vetter (in chat): I would like to suggest that we hold an extra meeting next week to give more time to this discussion. Katie: I think it goes against the grain of our community to have things removed. You can turn off comments, and ask the OP to update the comments. Jen: Unless the conversation flows, it will work itself out. Ian: I think not having rules is a problem. Theresa: Why do we as WCC want to be in charge of our community page? It’s the open page, and is a concept I see as valuable. Ian: A former board member created this page. We could give it back to the community, but it was created by the WCC. Dilenia: How much time have you spent on the page? Can we start with a new page? It’s a lot of time to be spent on people crying to each other. Some of the uses, including calling for help from someone attacking others, are not appropriate. There are anarchists on the page, and I think we should hand it over to the community. I don’t think it’s worth trying to save. Claire: I want to recognize all that Margaret has done. What does the WCC want to accomplish over Facebook? Could there be legal backfire if someone is put in danger from this page. If it's so far gone, should we take our efforts to another page?
Margaret motions: I propose that we post the rules, and then talk about it. I think the rules will help those engage respectfully. I would like to post the rules tonight, and see how the Open Page responds. Thea: Are you opposed to having another page that is the WCC page? Gail: I think the rules are important, but to remove the reference to the WCC in the intro. Theresa Burchell (in chat): I am unsure if folks are aware- but a second Whiteaker page has been created, as of today, that would afford less monitoring of comments and participation. This has been created by a community member. Dan Schmid (in chat): Friendly Amendment: Post the rules and let it self-moderate for a few days. Jen: Can we change the rule about nothing whiteaker related is a concern for me. Claire Roth (in chat): The purpose of groups is to keep the subject matter on topic. Gail: We have our own personal pages to share our personal information, and the neighborhood page is there for strictly a neighborhood page. Jen: I still have an issue with rule #2. Sometimes it was nice to post something that was a pleasure to the eyes. I haven’t had negative response when I did those things. I’ve gotten connections with some of my posts. Margaret: I didn’t come up with that rule myself. The community stated that’s what they want the page to be. Ian: We need to use the language of “representing the community” very sparingly. It’s an incredibly diverse community with a number of voices. Representing “a community” versus “the community” is language that would more closely match the neighborhood. Gail Caru-Vetter (in chat): Let us all vote on all the rules together and anyone who objects can vote against them. We can also post them with an invitation for feedback from the community on the page. Anand Holtham-Keathley (in chat): I vote to support the motion as amended. Stephen Fuller-Rowell (in chat): I agree with Dan ... even anarchy needs a code of conduct. BTW: I post images of flowers or produce from my garden on my personal F/B page. Katie Guske: I hope if you invite community members back as admins, you at least include Anika Pass!!!I think Annika Pass should continue to be an admin, and has a good sense for how to run the page. Claire: There’s a way to link the rules so that community members, and members can pull the rules to help moderate posts.
Proposal to post the rules for 3 weeks, and vote at our next general meeting on other motions. 11/12 yes
