| LINKS TO MINUTES March 2010 Session |
March 2010 Session Opened Minutes Motion 2009/10-20 Motion to Amend/Correct the Special Rules Motion 2009/10-21 Motion to Extend the Deadline for the Guidelines Committee Proposed Document Motion 2009/10-22 Motion to Augment the Grievance Procedures Motion 2009/10-22A Motion to Augment the Grievance Procedures Announcements: Announcement: 4th Qtr EC Report Announcements: Resolution of Grievance 2009-08-15 Announcements: Call for Grievance Committee members Announcements: Re-subscribe Colleen Pustola to BOARD-EXEC Announcements: Resignation of NWPL - State Coordinator Representative Adjournment |
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| SESSION OPEN | 1 March 2010 By the NC | |
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| Approval of Minutes |
March 8 The December 2009 minutes have been posted for review to the National website at http://www.usgenweb.org/business/AB-12-2009.shtml If there is no objection or corrections the minutes will stand approved March 10, 7:00 a.m. March 15 Having heard no objections or corrections, the December 2009 minutes will stand as approved. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator March 22 The January 2010 minutes of the USGenWeb Project have been posted at http://usgenweb.org/business/AB-01-2010.shtml. Please take a look and see if you find any corrections that need to be made. The minutes will be stand approved on 25 March 2010 at 9:30 pm if no corrections are identified. March 26 Having heard no further corrections (other than the spelling of Les's name), the January 2010 minutes of the Advisory Board will stand as approved. Sherri Bradley |
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| MOTION 2009/10-20 Motion to Amend/Correct the Special Rules |
March 1 Presented by Larry Flesher and seconded by Tina Vickery and dated February 28, 2010, the motion reads: I move that Section IV of the Special Rules be amended to read: "The Order of Business will be posted online at http://usgenweb.org/agenda2.shtml and be in interactive format that can and will be updated by the Presiding Officer as needed when new items are introduced and/or posted items have been completed/closed. Completed items will be moved to http://usgenweb.org/agenda3.shtml. The list of completed items will be cleared at the beginning of each Advisory Board term. The Order of Business will be flexible and may be adapted to cope with immediate business. Members will advise the Presiding Officer of suggested agenda items for future Orders of Business." For information, the section currently reads as follows: "Order of Business will be renewed and announced to the assembly at the beginning of each month by the Presiding Officer. The Order of Business will be flexible and may be adapted to cope with immediate business. Members will advise the Presiding Officer of suggested agenda items for future Orders of Business." Discussion is now open. If you have no discussion, please so indicate by responding "No Discussion". Sherri Bradley National Coordinator March 3 Having heard no further discussion, discussion on motion 2009/10-20 is declared closed. Please vote on motion 2009/10-20. The motion reads: I move that Section IV of the Special Rules be amended to read: "The Order of Business will be posted online at http://usgenweb.org/agenda2.shtml and be in interactive format that can and will be updated by the Presiding Officer as needed when new items are introduced and/or posted items have been completed/closed. Completed items will be moved to http://usgenweb.org/agenda3.shtml. The list of completed items will be cleared at the beginning of each Advisory Board term. The Order of Business will be flexible and may be adapted to cope with immediate business. Members will advise the Presiding Officer of suggested agenda items for future Orders of Business." For information, the section currently reads as follows: "Order of Business will be renewed and announced to the assembly at the beginning of each month by the Presiding Officer. The Order of Business will be flexible and may be adapted to cope with immediate business. Members will advise the Presiding Officer of suggested agenda items for future Orders of Business." If you agree with the motion, please respond with 'yes'; if you disagree with the motion, please respond with 'no'. Voting will continue until 07:00 a.m. 6 March 2010 unless all responses are received prior to that. March 8 With 13 board members voting, motion 2009/10-20 has passed. Those voting yes: Alice Allen, Anne Allen Geoghegan, Colleen Pustola, Cyndie Enfinger, Denise Wells, Gail Kilgore, Jeff Kemp, Larry Flesher, Les Shockey, Linda Lewis, Pauli Smith, Tina Vickery and W. David Samuelsen. Those recusing: none Those not voting: Dale Grimm Sherri Bradley National Coordinator |
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| Motion 2009/10-21 Motion to Extend the Deadline for the Guidelines Committee Proposed Document |
March 14 Jo Branch has been heading up the Guidelines Committee discussion and keeping us organized. The committee has requested an additional 5 days to complete the assigned tasks. Can I hear a general consent motion to approve the requested time extension? Sherri Bradley Presented by Tina Vickery and seconded by Linda Lewis and dated 14 March 2010, the motion reads: "I move, that by general consent, the Guideline Committee deadline be extended an additional five days for completion of their work. The date of this extension will begin with the successful completion of this motion." Are there any objections to this motion? March 15 Under the requirements of General Consent and having heard no objection, motion 2009/10-21 is declared passed. The revised deadline for the proposed document is 20 March 2010. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator |
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| MOTION 2009/10-22 Motion to Augment the Grievance Procedures |
March 15 Presented by Tina Vickery and seconded by Larry Flesher and dated 15 March 2010, the motion reads: "I move that the V. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES of the Standard Rules of the USGenWeb Project http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/standard-rules.shtml be augmented with the following with regard to the grievance process and the confidentiality of the process: The grievance process begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. Once received by the Grievance Committee Chair, a notice will be submitted to the Advisory Board and posted on the EXEC list that includes the names of all parties involved and a one or two word description of the violation. This will serve as the Advisory Board's cue to cease and desist any involvement until and unless the grievance resolution is appealed. The grievance confidentiality begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. The party filing the grievance must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF FILING that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. All other parties must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF NOTIFICATION that a grievance has been filed that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. Grievance confidentiality extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins. Failure to agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . The party that broke confidentiality automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing and penalties applied based on the results of the findings." Discussion is now open. If you have no discussion, please so indicate by responding "No Discussion". Sherri Bradley National Coordinator March 15 There is one thing wrong with the motion. "Where is the due process to PROVE the breaking of confidentiality?" No reference to Sturgis. Who are "all parties" beside mediators, arbitrators and GC? All boil down to discretionary powers by who? Who decides? 1. EXACT who are the judge and the jury in breaking of confidentiality. It can not be the GC since members of the GC are prone to breaking it as well. 2. Who should be the judge and the jury. It can not be the AB. The AB must remain neutral without any hint of clique of majority tainting the process. 3. There is no clear due process to prove intentional or intentional breach. The Parliamentarians (both groups - American Institute of Parliamentarians and National Association of Parliamentarians) have very low tolerance of inclusion of anything to do with due process in the bylaws to begin with so don't entertain any notion of amending the bylaws. David Samuelsen I cannot agree with some of the consequences for breaking confidentiality. Automatic punishment is usually a bad idea. There is no differentiation between an intentional breach and an inadvertent breach. And there are no provisions for the accused to explain his actions. Dale Grimm The whole motion sounds out of wack... says a lot but actually doesn't say anything. Except you want the power to decide and not our peers and it doesn't say who can break confidentiality... as we know it is broken if it is brought up to the members of the AB. Especially if you are going to tell the AB that someone broke it. So, who can talk and who can't? Gail Kilgore March 18 Shared with permission The judge and jury for a grievance is the Grievance Team, i.e. one volunteer mediator two volunteer arbitrators one Grievance Committee member who serves as a non-voting chair of the Team This Team is the "judge and jury" for all aspects of a grievance, and that would include a breach of confidentiality. The Team would decide if it was intentional or not, and whether the breach was serious enough to merit punishment. I think the point of the amendment is to make a breach of confidentiality an offense that may have consequences. Without consequences, the confidentiality requirement can be ignored by anyone who thinks rules are made for other people but don't apply to him/her. Pat Asher, ARBenton CC Permission granted to forward. March 18 This was sent to me by a project member. Would this re-wording work for all of those that have concerns about the consequence section? Thank you to the project member who took the time to thoughtfully craft these changes. Tina Vickery _____ "To allay concerns, the section on consequences could be rewritten to indicate who/where judgment would be made -- something like the following. (Changes in ALL CAPS) The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . IF THE GRIEVANCE TEAM DETERMINES ONE OF THE PARTIES TO THE GRIEVANCE has broken confidentiality, that party automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing BY THE ADVISORY BOARD, and penalties applied based on the results of the findings." March 18 If consequences for breach are to be defined for the aggrieved and the accused they must also be defined for the GC, should that be the source of the leak. Reassigning is a necessary disaster recovery step to allow the grievance to continue but no consequence is defined. I also approve of the additional wording offered above. Linda K. Lewis March 19 For every grievance filed there are 3 parties directly involved - the grievance filer, the accused, and the GC. The same standards apply to all - goose/gander. If it's zero tolerance for one, it is zero tolerance for all. 'Case by case' aptly applies to all those who are not part of the three parties where some tolerance might be allowed. Bullet 1 is bold and clear. It addresses the who, what, and why questions for two of the three parties directly involved. Who = filer and accused, what = forfeiture of the grievance, why = breach of confidentiality. Zero tolerance. Finally in bullet 4 we address the third party involved. We define who = GC members, why = breach of confidentiality, corrective action to keep the grievance on track, but there is no consequence at all. It's ok. I suggest the GC bullet be a clone of 1 with an appropriate consequence. It should also be the number 2 priority, IMO. Linda K. Lewis March 20 Shared with permission The penalty for GC Members is already specified in the existing Grievance Procedures: Section 1, Qualifications. "Because grievances are considered personnel matters, all volunteers must state that they are willing to abide by strict confidentiality requirements. Volunteers must also state that they understand that violation of this confidentiality agreement will mean immediate expulsion from the Grievance Committee, and could result in determination of Member Not in Good Standing by the Advisory Board. " If the new consequences section specifies a penalty for GC Members, then the existing Qualifications section will have to be changed to reconcile with the new section. Pat Asher ARBenton CC March 21 I think we should stick with the GC's guidelines, and should include a reference back to that paragraph to cover that issue. It's already in place. Keep it there. Denise Wells March 22 Linda, Are you good with not adding anything in this addendum about the consequences for the GC members since that is already addressed in the currently posted procedures? How about the rest of you that also questioned this? Are there any other issues that anyone feels need to be addressed other than what was in the original motion and the re-wording suggested by Tina, below? If there are, can we please hear them so we can get this agenda item completed so we can move on to the next? (Yes, I know that the motion will need to be revised, but it would be nice if we could get all changes incorporated all at once.) Sherri March 23 If we are adding a consequences addendum, entitled Consequences, then all the consequences need to be there....it only has to refer to, link to, or repeat the consequences laid out elsewhere. The documents become so poorly organized you cannot go to a section and find everything about that topic. It becomes too easy to miss something. Linda K. Lewis March 25 Tina Vickery has withdrawn motion 2009/10-22 and Larry Flesher has withdrawn his second to the motion. This motion is declared closed. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator |
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| Motion 2009/10-22A Motion to Augment the Grievance Procedures |
March 26 Moved by Tina Vickery and seconded by Jeff Kemp and dated 26 March 2010, the motion reads: I move that the GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES, Section V of the Standard Rules of the USGenWeb Project, at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/standard-rules.shtml be augmented with the following in regards to the grievance process and the confidentiality of the process. The grievance process begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. Once received by the Grievance Committee Chair, a notice will be submitted to the Advisory Board and posted on the EXEC list that includes the names of all parties involved and a short (5-10 word) description of the violation. This will serve as the Advisory Board's cue to cease and desist any involvement until and unless the grievance resolution is appealed. The grievance confidentiality begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. The party filing the grievance must acknowledge at the time of filing that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. All other parties must acknowledge at the time of notification that a grievance has been filed that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. Grievance confidentiality extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins. Failure to agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . The party that broke confidentiality automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. Consequences for the GC representative are referenced in Section V of the Standard Rules, Subsection A, under the "Qualifications" item. . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing and penalties applied based on the results of the findings. Discussion is now open. If you have no discussion, please so indicate with "No Discussion". Sherri Bradley National Coordinator March 26 I move that the GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES, Section V of the Standard Rules of the USGenWeb Project, at http://www.usgenweb.org/volunteers/standard-rules.shtml be augmented with the following in regards to the grievance process and the confidentiality of the process. The grievance process begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. Once received by the Grievance Committee Chair, a notice will be submitted to the Advisory Board and posted on the EXEC list that includes the names of all parties involved and a short (5-10 word) description of the violation. This will serve as the Advisory Board's cue to cease and desist any involvement until and unless the grievance resolution is appealed. The grievance confidentiality begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. The party filing the grievance must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF FILING that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. All other parties must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF NOTIFICATION that a grievance has been filed that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. Grievance confidentiality extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins. Failure to agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . The party that broke confidentiality automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. Consequences for the GC representative are referenced in Section V of the Standard Rules, Subsection A, under the "Qualifications" item. . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing and penalties applied based on the results of the findings. Tina Vickery Representative at Large Where you talk about the GC and the penalties for their breaking C, would it be wise to include the link to the location of the g rules that provides for the consequences for the g reps in Denise Wells Oh yes, I am certain that we can instruct/have Jeff bookmark sections of this augmentation to applicable sections in the Grievance Procedure. The pieces of this motion will be augmented into the appropriate sections of the procedures. Tina Vickery Alice and all - I've put up a temporary page that will show the changes (in red, or by striking out the old text). The mock-up is at http://usgenweb.org/temp/amended-standard-rules.shtml#conf. Does this help? Mind you, this is my attempt to put the information where it belongs. Please don't take this as the absolutely final rendition of this section or delay getting a second to the motion just because you don't like where I've put something. The "where" within the document could be adjusted if necessary if the motion passes. Can we do that? Sherri Bradley March 27 I do not like this motion. We have reverted back to the original text that I objected to previously. The consequences do not have any provisions for a hearing. The text stating "Anyone who has been proven guilty of breaking confidentiality" is infinitely better than "anyone who broke confidentiality." The motion should also state where the text is to be inserted. Dale Grimm I agree with your thinking, Dale, as far as the motion needing to state where the text is to be inserted. Reading through the temp. site Sherri put up yesterday, I found the new text to be in places I would not have thought of to put it. I'm still *out to lunch* on the consequences part, although right now I'm leaning towards objecting to that myself. I will forward the motion to the NENC to see if anyone there has any thoughts. Alice NENC CC Rep Alice, is this more along the lines of what you were thinking about? _____ The grievance process begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. Once received by the Grievance Committee Chair, a notice will be submitted to the Advisory Board and posted on the EXEC list that includes the names of all parties involved and a short (5-10 word) description of the violation. This will serve as the Advisory Board's cue to cease and desist any involvement until and unless the grievance resolution is appealed. The grievance confidentiality begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee. The party filing the grievance must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF FILING that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. All other parties must acknowledge AT THE TIME OF NOTIFICATION that a grievance has been filed that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. Grievance confidentiality extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins. Failure to agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . If the grievance team determines one of the parties to the grievance has broken confidentiality, that party automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing and penalties applied based on the results of the findings. Specifically, the following modifications to the Standing Rules will be made: Section V of the Standing Rules, item E, number 1 will be modified to read: The grievance process begins when a complaint is made by any of the following: (Items a-c remain unchanged.) In addition, the following will be added as a separate item after the last paragraph of number 1. "The grievance confidentiality begins when the grievance is filed with the Grievance Committee and extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins. Item E, number 2 will be modified to read: The initial complaint should be brought to the Grievance Coordinator, and must include the following information: (Items a-f remain unchanged.) Item g will be added, which will state "An acknowledgement that the member understands that the confidentiality of the grievance process begins when the complaint is filed and that they agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process." Item E, the first paragraph of subsection number 4 will be modified to read: "Upon receiving the initial complaint, the Grievance Coordinator will assign it a number, and appoint one of the permanent committee members to review the complaint to determine whether it meets the requirements outlined in subsection C of this Section. At the same time, the Grievance Committee Chair will send a notice to the Advisory Board and to be posted on the BOARD-EXEC mail list that includes the names of all parties involved and a short (5-10 word max) description of the violation. This will serve as the Advisory Board's cue to cease and desist any involvement until and unless the grievance resolution is appealed." The second paragraph of subsection 4 will be modified to read: "The review of the complaint will result in an "accept" or "reject" determination from the Committee Member assigned. The review at this level should assume that the facts stated in the complaint are true, and the determination of the viability of the grievance made based upon the assumption that the complaint is true and a review of the by-laws, policies, or procedures alleged to have been violated. The recommendation and the reasons therefore, shall be provided to the Grievance Committee as a whole, and voted upon." The fourth paragraph of subsection 4 will be modified to read: " If accepted as a viable grievance, the parties shall be so informed. The parties must acknowledge at the time of notification that a grievance has been filed that they understand and agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process. Failure to agree to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. A Committee Member and volunteer mediator and two volunteer arbitrators will be assigned. The parties to the grievance, the Committee Member, mediator, and arbitrators will then be subscribed to a private email list." The first paragraph of subsection 6 will be modified to read: " When the team is seated, the parties shall be so advised by the Mediator. Everyone will be reminded that the grievance confidentiality extends to all parties (including the mediators, arbitrators and GC members) from the time the grievance process begins and that failure to abide by the confidentiality of the grievance process is grounds to automatically and immediately lose the grievance. The parties shall have seventy-two (72) hours to submit to the Mediator a written statement of their position on the issues of the dispute. The mediator shall provide the position statements to the team members for their review." The current subsection 9 will be renumbered to subsection 10. The following subsection will be inserted between the current section 8 and the former subsection 9 (newly renumbered to section 10) and will be numbered as subsection 9: The consequences for breaking the confidentiality of the grievance process will be: . The party that broke confidentiality automatically and immediately loses the grievance with no option to re-file. . A general statement such as "I've filed a grievance and cannot discuss it" in answer to a question is not considered a breach. . If the confidentiality is breached by someone outside of the parties involved, the parties involved should not be penalized, unless it is evident that a party to the grievance is intentionally feeding information, after the grievance process began, to the one that broke the confidentiality. . If the confidentiality is broken by the mediator, an arbitrator or the GC representative to the mediation/arbitration portion of the grievance, the grievance gets reassigned to give the parties involved another chance to get the issue resolved. (Link this to Section A, the paragraph entitled "Qualifications".) . Consequences for breaching the confidentiality of the grievance process by someone outside of the grievance will be determined on a case-by-case basis that may include a disciplinary hearing and penalties applied based on the results of the findings. Sherri Bradley March 28 Yes, this works for me. Alice |
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| Announcement: 4th Qtr EC Report |
March 7 Having heard no objections to the 4th quarter EC report, it stands as approved. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator |
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| Resolution of Grievance 2009-08-15 |
March 11 With this note the Advisory Board is in Executive Session discussing the resolution of a grievance that has recently been closed. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator March 25 The Advisory Board has been in executive session discussing the resolution of grievance 2009-08-15. This discussion was based on the final determination report that the Grievance Committee submitted. Normally the Advisory Board does not receive any information or a final report about a grievance, but in this case because of the problems encountered during the grievance process, they did. In regards to grievance 2009-08-15, filed by a FLGenWeb County Coordinator against six members of the FLGenWeb board, and the report that the Advisory Board received from the Grievance Committee dealing with problems encountered during handling of the grievance, a formal hearing will be held to determine if disciplinary action should be taken against two of the FLGenWeb board members named in the grievance. Charges against Fran Smith: 1 - Refusal to participate in good faith in the mediation and arbitration phases of grievance 2009-08-15, filed by Ms. Laverne Tornow against six individual FLGenWeb board members, as demonstrated by attempts to introduce issues outside of the scope of the mediation and arbitration portions of the grievance, raising repeated objections to questions posed by both the mediator and the arbitrators and refusing to answer specific questions posed by the grievance committee team and the insistence that the USGenWeb Project's Grievance Process was not the proper venue to handle a grievance, that all grievances must be filed in a court of law in the state of Florida. 2 - Repeated breaches of the confidentiality of the grievance, despite repeated warnings during both the mediation and arbitration phases of the grievance process by contacting those outside of the mediator, the arbitrators and the GC representative handling the grievance. 3 - Failure to reinstate Ms. Laverne Tornow to all previous positions as County Coordinator for the counties of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Hamilton, Laayette, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Seminole and Union counties that she held immediately prior to her removal from the project as directed in the final determination of the Grievance Committee's report. The USGenWeb Project bylaws and the Grievance Committee Procedures clearly state that the decision of the Grievance Committee is binding upon all members of the USGenWeb Project, therefore Ms. Smith is not in compliance with the bylaws since Ms. Tornow has not been reinstated. Charges against Dennis Gries: 1 - Refusal to participate in good faith in the mediation and arbitration phases of grievance 2009-08-15, filed by Ms. Laverne Tornow against six individual FLGenWeb board members, as demonstrated by attempts to introduce issues outside of the scope of the mediation and arbitration portions of the grievance, raising repeated objections to questions posed by both the mediator and the arbitrators and refusing to answer specific questions posed by the grievance committee team and the insistence that the USGenWeb Project's Grievance Process was not the proper venue to handle a grievance, that all grievances must be filed in a court of law in the state of Florida. 2 - Repeated breaches of the confidentiality of the grievance, despite repeated warnings during both the mediation and arbitration phases of the grievance process by contacting those outside of the mediator, the arbitrators and the GC representative handling the grievance. The breaching of the confidentiality continues to this day. 3 - Mr. Gries' insistence during the grievance process that he was not a member of the USGenWeb Project, despite being a member of the FLGenWeb Project, and as such, the USGenWeb Project's bylaws did not apply to him, and that the grievance process was an illegal attempt to circumvent the FL Corporate laws. Sturgis states that " . . . every organization has the inherent right to discipline, suspend or expel a member for valid cause, even if provisions for doing so are not included in the bylaws" and "A membership can be terminated and a member expelled because of violation of an important duty to the organization, a breach of a fundamental rule or principle of the organization, or for any violation stated in the bylaws as a ground for expulsion. In general, termination of membership is justified if a member fails or refuses to work within the framework of the organization." If a State Coordinator (or the managing board of a XXGenWeb Project has engaged in removal of dissenting CCs, thereby taking away the state project's ability to take advantage of the protections our bylaws provide, we must fall back on the protections and disciplinary procedures outlined in our parliamentary authority, Sturgis. Therefore, to protect the rights of the County Coordinators in Florida, the provisions for redress outlined in Sturgis must take precedence. Because I received many of the emails that were a part of the breaches of the confidentiality of the grievance, I will not be participating in the disciplinary hearing. Tina Vickery, as RAL will be handling the investigation and hearing. I will be subscribing the members of the AB, Fran Smith and Dennis Gries to the USGWCONF mail list, which is unachieved. which is where the hearing on the charges will be discussed. In addition, the option for subbing the Grievance Team (the moderator, arbitrators and the GC representative that chaired the grievance) to the list if it is determined that their input is required. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator |
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| Announcement: Call for Grievance Committee members |
March 30 The Grievance Committee of the USGenWeb is in need of members to be a part of the Grievance Committee. If you are interested in being a part of this committee, please note the minimum requirements stated below: "Volunteers for the Grievance Committee will be required to meet certain minimum requirements for service. Volunteers must have a minimum of one year's continuous service as a Member in Good Standing of either a State Project or a recognized Special Project of the USGenWeb Project. Because grievances are considered personnel matters, all volunteers must state that they are willing to abide by strict confidentiality requirements. Volunteers must also state that they understand that violation of this confidentiality agreement will mean immediate expulsion from the Grievance Committee, and could result in determination of Member Not in Good Standing by the Advisory Board." Letters of interest should be sent to John Quigley, Chair of the Grievance Committee, at jquigley2@gmail.com Thank you. John Quigley CC Kinney County TX Chair Grievance Committee jquigley2@gmail.com |
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| Announcement: Re-subscribe to BOARD-EXEC |
March 19 For the record, Colleen Pustola was re-subscribed to the BOARD-EXEC mail list on Monday, March 15 2010 after she reaffirmed that she would agree to maintain the confidentiality of the BOARD-EXEC mailing list. Sherri |
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| Discussion of Guidelines Committee Report on ABCHAT |
March 27 For the record, the Advisory Board is currently discussing the Guidelines Committee's report and suggested Guidelines document on ABCHAT. Please take the time to read through the recommended document and be prepared to discuss any changes, whether to add additional items, revisions that we determine should be made, or items that should be removed. Many thanks to the Guidelines committee, Jo Branch, Judy Florian, Patrice Green, Jeff Kemp and Billie Walsh for their work on this project. I know I speak for the entire AB when I say that you took an almost impossible job and did a wonderful job of compromising on a final product. This document is a compilation of both the CC and SC guidelines documents that are currently posted on the USGenWeb Project website if anyone want to compare the two. Please ensure that your discussion on this topic takes place on ABCHAT instead of this list. Sherri Bradley |
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| Resignation of NWPL - State Coordinator Representative |
March 30 I have lost all respect for the Advisory Boards and a lot of its members. I don't like closed doors but they also seemed to be closed when things are happening that the members are not even aware of until it gets so big and when it explodes we get advised that talks have been going on. The sneaking and lying and playing sides is not what I want to be a part of. Due to my health reasons, I am told I have to relieve stress in my life and the most stressful thing is the AB. Richard Harrison, I hope that you run for my seat and I pray that the members of Colorado and Iowa will support his appointment to the AB. Gail Meyer Kilgore NWPL - SC Rep March 30 On behalf of the Board, I accept your resignation. I wish you the best with your health problems and in all your future endeavors. Sherri Bradley National Coordinator | |
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| ADJOURNMENT |
Sherri Bradley adjourned the March meeting on April 1, 2010. | |
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