Greensboro HIVE » Organizing Committee

Reorganization: Clustering at the HIVE

Dave Reed — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:42:15 +0000

What: We envision a network of organizational “clusters” as a new way to manage the HIVE. These small teams will hopefully provide a combination of shared responsibility for the overall project with individual accountability for specific tasks. We hope that this structure will diminish frustration and improve communication within the HIVE as well as with the community.

In the immediate future, clusters begin with 2-3 people willing to organize around a specific issue or task as written in the list below. There are 10 suggested clusters. If we have two people for each cluster when we begin, we need 20 volunteers. (Plus Open Hours Volunteers – see below, but we may re-evaluate our ability to maintain open hours 5 days/week.) However some clusters may not need 2-3 people to begin.

Each cluster will begin by brainstorming its own expectations and responsibilities, and how it needs to operate in order to achieve them. Once each cluster has brainstormed its own outline, we can combine them all into a HIVE book… the HIVE memory. Referring to this guideline of history and precedent will allow us to operate more efficiently, and to waste less time in re-deciding and re-planning things we have already done but were forgotten or not clearly communicated.

Brainstormed Stages: (Begin ASAP or Early-Mid May)

Stage 1: Set Up (3-4 weeks)

Effort to organize enough individuals for clusters to be filled.
Clusters meet individually and draft a set of guidelines according to its purpose/role. (Level of Commitment: 1-3 hrs/week for 2 weeks)
All clusters meet as one group. The individual drafts are amalgamated into one document, and edited for overlaps and oversights. As this document develops, it becomes easier to recognize the ways in which clusters relate to each other and will work together. This draft becomes the working document of the HIVE that can be edited and changed as we see fit. If everyone that has ever been involved disappears one day, a new group of people can see what has been done, what works and what does not. (Level of commitment: At least 2 meetings 1-1.5 hours each)
A group of people volunteer to combine all drafts into one document and make initial attempts at editing. (Level of commitment: 1-3 hrs/week for 2 weeks?)

Stage 2: Operation

The clusters are responsible for communicating and meeting as often as needed to get their job done. 1-2 individuals volunteer to be the cluster reps, the “go to” people. Once the clusters become consistent and solid, they would commit to drawing in more volunteers. It is a reality that people are going to have varying levels of commitment and time. Affinity groups within clusters can form, which are groups of individuals within the cluster reflecting its level of commitment Low-High affinity groups correlate to low-high commitment level. Someone can feel good about giving 1 hour of time or 10 hours of time.
The clusters meet at least once a month as one group. There has to be at least one representative from each. In addition, there is ideally one representative from each partner that would attend 1 meeting/month. Opinion thus far has said partners should not have to be involved in the organizing at the hive. Partners contribute a significant aspect of the hive, and thus should have a rotating representative that comes to an organizational meeting 1x/month.

Stage 3: The Whole Perspective (something resembling a Board of Directors)
A group should exist to consider the entire operation of the HIVE, to observe and notice how all the pieces and parts work as a whole. Alongside with the clusters, this group would help to develop and document the HIVE’s presence. This group is made up of representatives that have familiarity with the HIVE’s struggles and successes. It allows for people who have encountered similar situations before and have learned great lessons to contribute on a as needed basis.

Stage 4: Sustaining the New System
The first HIVE fundraiser begins with the clusters. Each volunteer contributes whatever they are able to give, from $1.00 to $100. It is up to the person what she feels comfortable with. This would increase a sense of ownership and investment in the process. This money can be used to move forward on the 1st community fundraiser, as the Fundraising Cluster determines.

The Clusters (The description of each cluster below is an initial brainstorm. The exact descriptions would be determined by the cluster reps)
Having a clear outline of the needs and responsibilities of the HIVE makes it easier to recruit new volunteers and suggest where they can direct their energy. Each cluster can map out levels of commitment and time required for varying tasks. One thing that is continually voiced is the need for 1 distinct leader or go to person. There can be multiple leaders with distinct roles clearly delineated.

Cleaning/ Physical Space: Responsible for cleaning the main room, bathrooms, hallway, outside grounds, taking out trash on a weekly basis, changing light bulbs, stocking toiletries, maintenance, etc.
Events: Maintaining the online and written calendar, in charge of opening and closing the space after an event, seeing event conflicts, managing online request forms, works closely with external communication cluster.
Intergroup Communication: It is able to direct new people to the appropriate contact person, to refer issues to the appropriate cluster, and to pass information between clusters (and partners). It also organizes monthly meetings, and sets the agenda. It documents decisions, and adds anything necessary to the HIVE memory book.
Open Hours: All of the volunteers would be in this cluster; however there could be 2-3 people that are main coordinators. It helps to keep contact info up to date, monitors comments in the volunteer log, and makes sure there is someone to regularly cover all shifts. Greets visitors, answers the phone, refers inquires to communication cluster, carries out phone and computer policies, Trains volunteers to keeps the HIVE open and accessible to the public. Coordinates meetings amongst volunteers to sort through any days to day questions/things to be addressed. We will need additional volunteers (more than the 18 stated above) to fill many Open Hours that the OH cluster determines that we can sustain.
Outreach/External Communication: External publicity, press releases, communicates to the neighborhood, other community groups, maintains website, maintains listserve.
Finances/Accounting: Collects money and pays bills. Communicates with Fundraising cluster to make sure the HIVE is financially secure.
Fundraising/Donations: Accepts donations and organizes fundraisers.
Technology: Keeps computers working properly, and makes any necessary improvements.
Library: maintains library organization, logs and shelves new books, keeps track of books checked out.
Peace: Conflict is inevitable. This group is focused solely on helping to facilitate good communication and to sort out misunderstandings/conflicts. It would be used on a as needed basis.

Other positions:

Paid positions: It is important to consider that there is administrative work at the hive that volunteers may not be able to complete on a regular basis. There seems to be a day to day need to have a consistent presence at The HIVE. However the job description needs to be carefully thought through, because of the conflict that may arise between a paid staff person and unpaid volunteers. In addition, there should be steps taken to prevent this person from being seen as “the leader” of the hive. Rather than being the “spokesperson” of the hive, he/she makes sure administrative details are not lost.

Maintaining transparency about the work this person does is important and he/she should be in line and familiar with the culture of collective decision making that has been central to the creation of the HIVE.

Our first fundraiser could be aimed at hiring 1 person at minimal time. If they get paid $10/hr for 10 hrs/week, that is $400/month. Consider taxes and that may increase to $600/month (maybe more) that we need. For a full year, that comes to $7200. Before we hire someone, we should have this money already secure in our account.

Comments about incorporating:
Incorporating as a federally recognized nonprofit potentially creates more frustration. Previous comments that question incorporating are referenced below:

The resources and time it takes to chase grants and not being certain that we would get them in the midst of a strained economy.
Grassroots organizations give up some power when they become 501c3’s.
The ongoing requirements and work it takes to maintain status.
The time and money it takes to incorporate in the first place. Someone has mentioned it can take months and the basic fee is $700.
Placing a new legal structure over our organizational problems would not solve them; rather make them administratively more complicated.
The concern that nonprofits merely end up mimicking capitalist structure they seek to change.

As listed in comments on the website, not being a 501-c3 does not stop us from grassroots fundraising. Depending on how much we raise, we may have to report this as profit to the IRS, but if we spend it all on program and operations, we won’t pay taxes on it.

Organizing Committee Meeting, June 15, 2008

Dave Reed — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:50:11 +0000

The Organizing Committee (OC) meets once a week to manage the operation of The HIVE, review space reservation requests, and handle any business that arises during the operation of the space. All decisions are made by consensus. The OC is open to anyone who wants to come and get involved.

Present: Chelsea, Kathryn, Jonathan, Liz, Isabell, Kymber

Drop-in hours
Drop-in hours appear to be going well. Jonathan will make a flyer for the neighborhood to announce drop-in hours. He’ll also talk to Addie’s about holding a key that volunteers could borrow to open up. We talked about the need for some kind of manual for volunteers; Isabell suggested that in addition to the manual we have a logbook so volunteers could report incidents and information that came in during their shift, and also a volunteer sign-in sheet so we know who was here at what times. Isabell said that and she and Brenda would start drafting a volunteer manual and logbook during their Wednesday shift.

Kids’ summer activities
Liz said that it would be nice to have more things than the computers to offer kids during drop-in hours, and wondered if we could build on the good work already being done by the Art’s Cool and BikeMe!, and the soon-to-begin reading club.

Kymber said that she is in the process of being certified to teach children’s yoga (her certification will cover ages 2 to teenager) and would like to offer some free yoga sessions starting in late July. She is thinking about mornings and perhaps evenings.

Isabell suggested talking to Molly Stouten, who just received a grant from F4DC to plan and create a community mural. Molly wants to involve neighborhood kids in the process, and might be interested in doing some things at the HIVE.

Events

Friday, June 20, 4:30: A public speaking training for people who want to speak out at a June 23 school board special meeting on African-American males in the school system. The training will be offered by the Speaking Center at UNC-G; they have suggested that they make themselves available for other trainings on persuasive speaking, given on an ad hoc basis as things come up in the community. The series would be called “Speaking for a Change.” The training this week will be held on Friday, June 20 at 4:30, the same time as the food giveaway, but we agreed that we could use the bookshelves as a room divider and accommodate both activities.
Saturday, June 28, 9:30 to 1:30: Raise the Wage sign painting party to prepare for the Fourth of July parade. In addition, the Raise the Wage coordinating committee meets the first and third Friday of the month, 11:30-1:00.
Jonathan is working on establishing a weekly family-oriented movie night on Wednesdays at 8:00 in the parking lot (we will need to figure out how to temporarily disable the motion sensor light—even better, it would be nice if we could figure out how to turn off the parking lot street light). Jonathan has sent out an email asking for movie suggestions; to send in your suggestions email Jonathan at zafamos@gmail.com.

BikeMe!
The BikeMe! Collective has been stretched thin on volunteers lately and has had occasional trouble couple of weeks opening up at the posted times. The coordinating committee brainstormed ways the HIVE could help out. Kathryn will check with Sue and Kyla to see if they would be interested in providing the Wednesday and Sunday drop-in hours volunteers with a list of people who are authorized by BikeMe! to open up the shed. The Wednesday and Sunday volunteers (Isabell, Brenda and Kathryn at this point) could be given access to the HIVE’s copy of the shed key, and give it to whichever person on the BikeMe! list shows up first. In addition, Isabell offered to brainstorm with Sue on Wednesday to see if there are other ways the HIVE could help.

Library
The library project is close to completion. When it is set up drop-in volunteers will be asked to help with explaining the procedure, and re-shelving books.

Organizing Committee Meeting, June 8, 2008

Dave Reed — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:09:15 +0000

Present: Fred, Kathryn, Fahiym, DJ Hardy, Liz

Events
Kathryn and Larkin had approved a number of events that came in during the week. The group agreed that this was the right procedure: the events coordinators should feel free to respond positively to anything that is clearly consistent with the HIVE Vision Statement and fits the schedule. The Organizing Committee would like to hear about upcoming events every week, and will help with assigning point people and working out other details.

Kathryn has discovered a glitch with Google Calendar—events appear as an hour later than they are posted as being. She’s working with Dave to correct it.

June 10, 6:00 to 7:30 pm (ongoing every Tuesday), Marxist study group. Point Person: Fahiym.
June 12, 8:00 pm, 1968: Year of Revolutionary Hope discussion. Point Person: DJ
June 14, 11-1:00, Information session for job applicants. Point Person: F4DC
June 16, 6-8:00 Meeting to discuss the feasibility of establishing workers’ collectives in Greensboro. Point Person: Kathryn
July 19, (time?) Community Organizing 101 with Cynthia Brown. Point Person: F4DC
July 26, (time?) Raise the Wage discussion. Point Person: Fahiym
August 9, 11- 6:00, Circus of Poetry. Point Person: Fahiym
August 15, 8:00 pm to 1:00 am, African Culture Night. Point Person: We still need one.

Kitchen
The kitchen construction is on schedule; this Sunday we hung a cabinet, started finishing the counter cabinets, and put up lighting in the pantry. In addition, we now have two new electric stoves, donated by someone who found out about the HIVE through the BikeMe! Collective. We hope to have the kitchen certified so it can be used by people who want to prepare food to sell; DJ will look into certification requirements.

Electrical wiring, 8 gauge and 12 gauge
Scraps of ¾ inch plywood, 14” by 26” or larger

Drop-in hours
The drop-in hours are off to a good start. We discussed ways to share the responsibility of responding to and scheduling volunteers so it doesn’t all fall on Elizabeth and agreed that that should be an ongoing discussion.

We agreed that we will ask people to listen to the computer through headphones, or find some other way to control the sound so it doesn’t interfere with other things in the room.

Organizing Committee Meeting, May 25, 2008

Dave Reed — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:06:33 +0000

Doorbell

People have been banging on window next door.
Partners may want to have individual doorbells.
Fred has found wireless doorbells on eBay for $4.49, and done circuit diagram stuff to “dumb down” (remove wireless component).
Whole cost: $10/office ($60 total)
Fred is looking to ask partners for feedback/o.k. Jonathan will ask. Ricky to connect with partners.
Related to larger issue: When is space open? When is it closed? Need for clearer signage about nature of space, open hours, partners, etc.

Volunteer Open Hours

Supposed to start a week from Monday- June 2nd.
Decided that current volunteers will work hours temporarily until other are found.
Looking for more volunteers. Duties include info sheet, tidying up, relating information about HIVE to querying individuals. Closing volunteer should take out trash.

Key

To avoid lots of keys floating around, maybe Addie would agree to collaborate and hold a key for volunteers? Elizabeth will ask Addie.
Maybe another key at Florida house?
Also related to larger issue: Who has keys/ authority to use space? It’s fuzzy now, but because this is a community space, important to work towards being open every day.

Events

Larkin will notify “Rock Show” about availability of Square One space, International Social Organization about rescheduling.

Multicultural Festival

Will be Power Point, art work from after school photo project at middle school, HIVE table.
Food Not Bombs will have low-key set up so as not to compete with local vendors. Will set-up in the kitchen with literature.
Kammaleathahh will see about setting up massage chair.
Will set up bulletin board with HIVE material.
Jonathan will make flyers by Saturday.

Partners

F4DC is going to get a copier.
Susan is working on a contact list.

Kitchen
Moving right along. Work day will be scheduled to lay out/set tiles.

Free food give aways.
Have taken on a life of their own and are a bit overwhelming in level of success. A few things need some organization:

A way to provide outreach information for people for whom this is a first contact.
A way to make it equitable.

Library

Gigi figured out essentially self-running library system.
Volunteers will help with check-out/ shelving process.
Zach will bring shelves.

Organizing Committee Meeting, May 18, 2008

Dave Reed — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:45:10 +0000

Present: Kathryn, Fahiym, Susan, Elizabeth, Ivan, Ricky, Jonathan, Fred, Liz, Clement

Glenwood Neighborhood Multicultural Festival
Grove Street will be blocked off for the festival, which will be held from 11:00 to 5:00, Saturday, May 31. Everyone is encouraged to come!

We decided against holding a Really Really Free Market during the festival. Kathryn will contact the organizers of past RRFMs to see if they are interested in holding one on the day after the festival (Sunday, June 1).
We wondered if BikeMe! would be interested in holding its open hours on Saturday during the festival instead of on Sunday that weekend.
Jonathan and possibly Ricky will go to the festival planning meeting on Monday and will ask if we can set up a table outside the HIVE, and will find out how the GGNA would like to use the HIVE space; Jonathan also said he would make sure we have brochures in time for the festival. Partners are encouraged to put brochures on the table as well.
We will ask Gigi if she would be willing to put together a display about the HIVE for the bulletin board inside the front door.
We will need volunteers to sit at a table and to give tours of the HIVE. We will set that up at next weeks meeting after we know more from the GGNA.

Open Hours & Volunteers

Regular drop-in hours will begin Monday, June 2; the exact hours are still to be determined.
We discussed making a clear distinction between open hours and non-open hours so that the HIVE is only open to the public when someone is accountable for the way the space is used. Two concerns prompted the discussion: the burden placed on partners when no one has been designated to manage the space; and the unexplained disappearance of some supplies and equipment.
Once we have open hours in place we will ask partners to keep the front door locked during non-open hours. Fred volunteered to build a panel of individual doorbells for partners.
The current volunteers will meet next Sunday at 3:00 to come up with a draft of volunteer protocols and to solidify the drop-in schedule.

Kitchen

Doors to the pantry and the partners’ hallway have been hung and more work has been done on the framing for the counters. We will be holding workdays every Sunday from now until the kitchen is done (the kitchen is scheduled to be done the end of June).
We will put a utility sink in the hallway between the bathrooms.
The kitchen project is finished with the linoleum tiles; the leftovers will be stored in the conference room temporarily, but everyone should be thinking about how best to use them.
Current kitchen project needs:
- 2×4s any length
- Ceramic tile for counters and backsplash (any size, color and quantity)
- Three-canister pole lamps
- Free-standing utility sink

Finances
Susan reported that we currently have $400 in the checking account; we’re doing fine.

Events
Kathryn reported that there are no new events this week.

Odds and ends

Some of the Art’s Cool supplies have disappeared; Jona will be storing her art supplies in the HIVE office from now on. Donations of more art supplies would be very welcome.
The big copier in the office will be moved to the side of the road.
NCOSH has taken over the former Word & World office; Ricky reported that NCOSH has been given the lease and welcome packet.
We agreed that we would like to return the conference room to general use; we need to keep thinking about storage solutions.
Susan will work on a HIVE contact list for partners; we also need a partner contact list for the Organizing Committee, and a contact list of HIVE activities that could be posted for the public.
Jonathan will pick up phone messages and answer HIVE emails

Organizing Committee Meeting, May 11, 2008

Dave Reed — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:46:24 +0000

Present: Linsey, Jonathan, Ricky, Fahiym, Susan, Liz, Kammaleahthah, Larkin, Henry, Pankaj, Fred

Opened the meeting with a brief discussion on the need for “in-reach”, for attention toward our relationships with one another. Moved on to business..

Events and event procedure

Linsey, Larkin and Catherine met, went through events this past week:
Bike Me! show on calendar for Thur, 5/15
Out-of-town band turned down
Larkin and Catherine are ready to take over for Linsey this summer. Hooray and thanks to L. and C. and we’ll miss Linsey while she’s in Portland.
We’re needing more detailed descriptions of the events on the online calendar so when people visit it they’ll have more info. Larkin will see to this.
Point people for events need to be assertive and hand the clean-up check list (on clipboard on HIVE office wall) to users of the space to make sure space is being put back. This expectation also needs to go out in the “approval” email sent to groups.
A reiteration that partners also need to submit a reservation form for use of the meeting space.

Partners

NCOSH should be moving into the HIVE by June 1st. Ricky and Jonathan will handle the lease with them and will also make sure all of the partner lease files are up to date.
Jonathan will call Sue regarding a couple of BikeMe! issues: keys, cleaning bathrooms after their work days/events.
Ricky got an email from Them 5 and they’re hoping to start being around and getting involved more now that their big festival is over.

Storage Space/Conference Room

Consensus is that we definitely need the conference room for storage right now during the kitchen project; the long-term hope/goal is to return it to a conference room and figure out storage by utilizing the space outside the bathrooms and the HIVE office for storage. Other possible ideas for storage: another shed in back, seeing if Joanna has some space to spare next door since we share a door.

Kitchen workdays

Will be moved to Sunday dates so that there’s no conflict with Kammaleahthah’s appointments on Saturdays.

Air conditioning

When the AC is needed, we’re asking partners to set the thermostat at 75.
Whoever is last out of the building, we’re asking them to move it up to 80.

Volunteers

Susan will be in contact with Elizabeth.

Glenwood Multicultural Fair, Saturday, May 31

Someone (Jonathan? Liz?) will check with Mark about having the drum machine at the HIVE for the fair.
Susan will check with the neighborhood association to see if they have specific needs for using the HIVE during the festival.

Keys, power, ownership, close-up procedure, safety

A good discussion that I’m afraid I can’t begin to summarize and that will be on-going.

Organizing Committee Meeting, April 13, 2008

Dave Reed — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:40:47 +0000

Present: Liz, Lyle, Linsay, Jonathan, Fred, Fayhim

Go round of things going right
Liz: “Free Food Friday’s” are “going gangbuster.” Lots of new people. All the food is being taken. Opportunity for outreach.

Lyle: The bike project is gaining lots of community interest. Local folks are really interested in getting involved.

Linsay: Inspired by diversity of events, diversity of communities making use of the space. Amazed by how far we’ve come. Interested in starting health awareness days.

Jonathan: Neighborhood folks, especially kids, seem to be taking a sense of ownership over the space.

Fred: Learning how to work with a group of volunteers. They managed to get the trench dug through the concrete (for kitchen). It’s all set and ready to get the plumbing installed. They also got the white boards up. Much of the work was done by volunteers from the homeless community. Folks are really taking ownership over the space.

Fayhim: Feels like the word is starting to spread about the place.

Events
None submitted this week. Kammaleathahh’s event was taken care of last week (Network of Spiritual Progressives).

Fred has broken down major work for the kitchen that needs to get done. It’s the last page in the document on the table in the main room and on the board by the HIVE office. We need to keep these work days in mind when scheduling events. When we book an event we should mark it out on the chart.

Kitchen Project

They’ve got a good schedule. Are still collecting lots of stuff. Habitat for Humanity is donating tile. The drain is in.
Tons of work got done. The trench is dug.
There is a pancake breakfast at 10am on Saturdays in the neighborhood. After that meal could be a good time for workdays.
The rear room needs to get cleared out this week. If there’s anything back there that you want, take it! That stuff is going to the trash by Sunday.
There will be a Tuesday work day to haul this stuff away.

Partners

Invite partners to open house to open offices.
Let them know about the kitchen work schedule, provide scheduling input.
Is there a phone list for all partners and organizing committee members?
Talk about keys at partner meeting.

Bike Me!

Aiming for grand opening May 4th.
They want to get a list serve going. They wonder about hosting the list through the HIVE server. DAVE!!!! will you think about this possibility?

Volunteer open house: the 26th

Got the new flyers from Elizabeth! We’ll start putting them up.
What do we need to get done before the meeting:
- The library should be up by then.
- The kitchen needs to get cleaned.
- We could make a display: pictures, timeline.
Ricky needs to invite all the partners to be here for the open house on the 26th.
We’ll spend time talking about the open house next week.
Liz will make the email release, press release

Keys
We need to talk about this next Sunday. Its kind of a big question.

Organizing Committee Meeting, March 23, 2008

Dave Reed — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:51:09 +0000

Present: Liz, Eun Sung, Molly, Jonathan, Alice, Erica, Dave, Fahim

Events

Summer Reading Program
This would be a 4-week reading program aimed at kids (middle school) reading one book together with snacks. Focused on an evening time, but are flexible. Maybe it can be incorporated with Jona’s art days. Will start on June 26 from 4pm to 5:30pm. Book title TBA. APPROVED.

Support group: waiting on reply from Jodi on specifics. APPROVED

F4DC Board Meeting: June 21, 9am-4pm. This is a closed meeting in the main room. APPROVED.

AmeriCorps Photo Show: wants to have their opening on April 28th, conflicts with the support group. Tuesday, 29th is totally open. The firring strips are not hung, maybe they can help out.

Punk show, May 16, 7pm to midnight: Punk band Auryn from Penn. Stef is organizing. Has concerns about the use of the HIVE for music. This one is in May and will fit into our schedule well. The issue of music that appeals to a specific demographic is still open and raises some problems. APPROVED

Hazel at REAL / Visions of Peace will get back to us by mid-May with confirmed details of the Eco Fair in September.

Finance
Money’s a little tight, but should be fine after FLOC check gets here. We got a $200 donation today.

Partners
Partners meeting is scheduled for April 5th.

Library
Moving forward. Will finish painting shelves this week.

Maintenance
Will get a key for Fahim. The cleaning log Susan made is working. People are using it and getting some stuff done.

Open hours / Volunteers
Elizabeth and Susan will get back to us about the volunteer meeting in April.

Outreach
The UNCG Earth Day event wants us to have a table. Fahim is interested in organizing this. Rachel Grant from UNCG invited us. The date is April 22nd, 11-3pm.

Organizing Committee Meeting, March 16, 2008

Dave Reed — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:05:20 +0000

The Organizing Committee (OC) meets once a week to manage the operation of The HIVE, review space reservation requests, and handle any business that arises during the operation of the space. All decisions are made by consensus. The OC is open to anyone who wants to come and get involved.

Present: Fred, Liz, Ricky, Jonathan, Susan, Dave, Eric, Elizabeth

Events

Radical Reading Group interested in every Wed.
We’ll let them, but also say that they will have to be flexible occasionally if other events get scheduled. Also, we’ll encourage them to wait till April and use the conference room.

Resources for Artful Living
Yes for Sept. 11, 12, 13

Four-week Summer Reading program for Middle Schoolers
Need more clarity on dates and timing, but it sounds great.

Multicultural festival planning (they are hoping to use the HIVE as HQ for the fest)
Yes to March 19, 6-8 PM. Susan will give Becky Kates a key so that she can let GGNA people into the space for events.

Multicultural festival – May 31 8AM – 6PM
Yes. They are interested in HIVE folks helping to plan the day.

Peace and Justice Network planning MTG.—March 24.
It conflicts with the support group. We will offer them another day.

Social Justice in Israel/ Palestine presentation – Wed. 26, 6-9PM
Yes.

Finances
They are in order. Susan brought in some money from the little people music!

Facilities

We got forms in order outside HIVE office: Cleaning log, Phone log, Maintenance ideas, and After event cleanup list.

New office wall has been painted!

Fred is going to hang a big ‘IDEAS’ white board in the main space.

Library
Bookshelves are done. Jonathan, Fahiym, Andy and Cricket are working on getting them painted. They decided to use a paper-based system for checkout. There are 2 computers now up and running in the main space.

Partners
Ricky and Susan are working on the partners meeting for early April. North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH) is applying to share the Word & World office.

Other ideas
A proposal was presented for paying a weekly stipend to someone to take care of the basic clerical/administrative duties for the space, because some things have been dropped lately. We will keep this proposal in mind as we move forward and have more conversation around it.

Organizing Committee Meeting, March 9, 2008

Dave Reed — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:23:29 +0000

The Organizing Committee (OC) meets once a week to manage the operation of The HIVE, review space reservation requests, and handle any business that arises during the operation of the space. All decisions are made by consensus. The OC is open to anyone who wants to come and get involved.

Present: Eric, Dave, Ricky, Elizabeth, Liz, Fred, Jonathan, Susan

Events procedure

Addition to procedure: list point person for events on online calendar

Task: sign, instructions and box for completed forms added to where blank forms are by the front door (no one designated)

Discussion ideas: rotate this job on a monthly basis to avoid burnout; find some new folks for an events committee that would handle this outside of OC meeting time and just offer report on events scheduled; check in with Linsey when she’s back.

Volunteers

Elizabeth Leggett is interested in helping out with volunteer coordination (Yeah, Elizabeth!)

Confirmation of volunteer recruitment meeting (or “interest gathering” – what should we call it?) for April 12, was a time mentioned?

Need to be comprising our list of our volunteer needs: open hours volunteers, an events subcommittee, anything else?

Eric will look into community service volunteers to help with clean-up tasks.

Library

A priority, so we can have more to offer during open hours. Would be great to have it in shape by the time of the 4/12 volunteers meeting.

Jonathan will have a workday this Saturday for library. Will contact Cricket, Sharp, Brenda.

Communications

Responding to phone messages: Dave’s been handling this for the most part; partners are also answering HIVE phone for us.

Task: create a phone messages log (Susan)

Task: write out instructions on how to pick up messages so others can help out (Dave)

Presently, answering general emails that come in through the website is being handled by events person (Dave, Linsey)

Task: type up list of each work area with contact person (phone # and email) and post (no one designated)

Partners

Need for Partners Meeting reiterated (Ricky)

Draft of HIVE weekly cleaning schedule will be revised (Susan) for Partners Meeting, along with phone message log

Food Not Bombs/Kitchen

Earthfare wanting a daily pick-up. Liz offering to coordinate Free Food Fridays at the HIVE.

Fred reported on drain issue.

Jonathan has a meeting scheduled with D. Bowers and Fred on Thursday.

Facility/Maintenance

Dave will call city re: trash cans and recycling can

Task: clean out conference room; needs to be done within 2 weeks for support group meeting (no ones designated)

Events

Jodi’s group

Concerns about being able to provide the needed privacy; Ricky will include these in her email to Jodi; we’ll try our best to meet these needs

Will ask partners to use back door upon leaving

Will clean out and prep conference room

Minimum Wage Campaign

March 11, 2:00

Approved; Dave will unlock

Radical Reading Group, March 12

Second meeting of the group, first one had to be relocated

Time is rushed; between 2 events, but will work with them

AFSC, March 14 or 15 (3 different times each day)

Screenings related to Iraq War

Approved; Ricky will nail down final times with them

Morgan, Kiki & Peepee, April 2

Anti-folk music concert

No local promoter; we need to send them to other venues

Moms for Moms, March 29 or April 5

Local moms sharing resources

Need extra space

Approved; clear up date

Two future events (June and Sept.) held off until next meeting because of time.