No specific answer here, only a reflection that this is a place where process becomes really important: when there's no structure in place to even begin looking at bad behavior (or sub-optimal behavior) then it falls to individuals to intervene, which makes conflict hard to avoid. Even having guidelines on paper and a rotation for who enforces them or brings up grievances can be helpful. My experience in some groups has been that a) creating a process helps establish a space where people can participate without it becoming personal, b) starting anywhere and iterating upon what you've got is better than having nothing

love love love,

Josh

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:28 PM, momoko saunders analyst@bikefarm.org wrote:

Hello!

Accountability is a struggle for Bike Farm. As an all volunteer run organization, it's difficult to chastise undesirable behaviour. Not only is it hard to tell someone who is volunteering their time that they did not do something right, but the negative feedback is not the kind of environment we're trying to create.

Still, what happens when someone messes up. To say nothing is nearly as detrimental. It erodes the quality of the service we provide, and can lead to an unsafe working environment.

What do other collectives do? Do you have a accountability agreement? Something along the lines of, "by volunteering here, I want to be held accountable to the group in these ways..." or a grievance procedure?

How do you communicate about your issues? any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, -Momoko ____________________________________

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