Committee volunteers needed!

Submitted by Buzz Viberg on behalf of the Board

Dear members,

We have Committees in desperate need of your participation, not just because it is a Coop responsibility fundamental to your becoming a member of this community but also to build stronger connections. During the Member Selection process, the assurance you gave about joining a committee was one of many qualities that made you a good fit for community living and therefore lead to your recommendation. Committee involvement helps prevent burnout of members already serving and ensures that committees like Buildings, Finance, Grounds and Social (just to name a few) continue to provide a strong foundation, on which our community is built.

Together we are stronger! If you have tried a committee and it wasn't the right fit or if you needed a break, then please consider other options moving forward. It is a great opportunity to make positive connections with people other than your neighbours. Each and every one of us has unique qualities and skills that are needed to help in the smooth running of our Coop. A big thank you to the many members who are working tirelessly on committees. It is appreciated.

Please join a committee, make a friend and make a difference towards positive change to ensure the Coop remains strong. The Board always welcomes member suggestions about ways in which committee involvement could be improved. Please feel free to contact me, Buzz at (403) 283-9443 if you would like assistance with finding a committee that you would feel best suited to.

The Committees most in need of new members that have come to the Board’s attention are:

• Finance Committee (contact Kevin Chaney, (403) 313-5773)

• Social Committee (contact James (403) 585-4247)

• Buildings (contact Heidi Mighaug-Cook (403)-700-8525)

Many thanks,

Buzz (on behalf of the Board)

Finding a Path Forward Through Conflict

Submitted by David Broadhead

Dear neighbours,

In response to Phil’s note about the investigation that the Board reported on recently, I tapped out a few thoughts. This note is meant to engage ideas and push pull and tug at them. Let’s see where they land.

I can’t know where the investigation started and stopped. It was confidential and needs to stay that way. That honours the folks who contributed, believing in that confidentiality.

Let me quote a chunk here:

“Where we have difficult interactions across the membership that are traceable to personal styles and convictions and not malicious intent…,”

In this statement I find assertions that lack support. They need to be filled out. Are these conclusions of the investigation or the judgement of a member or members?

If these are conclusions from the investigation, they can’t be discussed. There is necessary context that members cannot know. Conclusions like these would be a stab in the dark.

Should these judgements be the opinion of a member or members, where does that take us? Most of us have strong feelings about inter-family conflict. Much of the time we don’t understand the full story. With respect, the stabbing here is in the same darkness.

And thus the next question – are we equipped to deal with tough conflict in our community?

I experienced difficult conflict last year, in fact I know I contributed to the conflict. At times I turned the heat up rather than dowsing the flame. However we describe that time, it did not feel like “personal styles and preferences”. I can’t know if others were acting out of “malicious intent”. Hopefully malicious intent was absent from all of our words.

What’s the point? It’s this – we can’t go back and redo or undo the investigation. Nor can we journey rearward and do a better job of handling old conflict with our neighbours. This is a one way street.

Many of us think that we were unprepared for community life over the past couple of years. The careful writing and lots of it on this page shows that. Members speaking. There are strong, deliberated ideas here. Hear the calls for us all to be better.

Let’s all contribute to the questions about Continuity Planning. We are hungry for courage and compassion. The whole is wiser than any one or group of us.

I have to work Roberts Rules in somehow. Here is my attempt:

I am a fan. That is, I am a fan of any operating policy that helps the shyest among us find equality with the brashest. That making way for others is a beautiful thing. Without waiting for survey results or construction grants, I can do exactly that now.

The question of what to do about past pain is too much for this note. People hurt, the community must acknowledge it in some way. We need wisdom and big soft hearts.

When I arrived at Sunnyhill I soon heard about Vision 2020. Didn’t know much about it, but it was the first time I associated Phil with anything. Since then he has constantly looked to the future and at times I get to work with him. Let’s keep our future in focus and head that way together.

Member Letter About the General Meeting on March 2

Submitted by Debbie Willis

Dear fellow members of Sunnyhill Co-op,

I've been thinking about our meeting on March 2nd, where we witnessed a lot of hurt and frustration within our membership. I believe that most of the membership (many of whom were not directly involved in this current constellation of conflicts and may not even be aware of the specifics) will soon be ready to formally close this chapter and move forward. I personally look forward to hearing the policy changes that the board will suggest to help the co-op deal with future, similar challenges. The co-op has spent a huge amount of money, and the board and those involved in the investigation have given enormous amounts of time to this conflict, and I hope we won't allow it to go on forever. It would be best if we could move towards healing these rifts, and though I'm not sure how that will be possible in this specific case, I am optimistic that we will move beyond our current situation.

To that end, I had one idea that could perhaps help us in the future: Sunnyhill could pay to train a small team of volunteer mediators among our membership, people who could be called upon to help deal with interpersonal issues. Many Indigenous cultures have traditions of healing circles, and perhaps a similar, small-scale initiative could help us deal with interpersonal conflicts as they come up. I think this group could respond based on our shared values, which I hope we’ll soon define, and could take as their mission to ensure fair, generous-hearted dialogue at the co-op.

We live in a complex time, dealing with the pandemic and a climate-crisis that will continue to get more and more severe. As a co-op, we are also looking towards the challenge of organizing and implementing an ambitious and exciting Deep-Green Retrofit. We must have strategies to work together and to remain cooperative in spirit.

Thank you,

Debbie Willis

Member Letter Concerning the March 2 General Meeting

Submitted by Kris Wenzel

I would like to voice my chagrin as it relates to the March 2 General Meeting.

Strong opinions and passion are the lifeblood of any community, but I venture to suggest that no matter how strongly one may feel on any topic concerning the welfare of the Co-op, it does not justify dominating the agenda and monopolizing speaking time to the extent we witnessed on March 2.

There are dozens of members with equal stake and interest in the Co-op who were not heard while louder and more insistent voices prevailed, repetitive in content and adversarial in tone. Newer members like myself who are interested in becoming more engaged at Sunnyhill left that meeting feeling browbeaten and alienated.

I do not dismiss the concerns of any speaker. All feelings have merit and must be addressed, but in the context of an online, ‘general’ meeting involving dozens of potential participants, there should be a limit on the sheer amount of time any one member can speak. Or in lieu of that being mandated, perhaps we can remind ourselves that allowing for more and varied opinions to be heard is simple courtesy.

Clearly there are disagreements on meetings procedure and broader issues of trust to address, but the meeting March 2 had the qualities of a U.S. Senate filibuster, in that the majority of Co-op members were continually being diverted from actually confronting the issues at hand by a strident minority, and were left feeling confused and disrespected.

The pandemic is wearing us down and the world of Zoom meetings is hardly satisfying, which is all the more reason why our discourse needs to be as polite and as inclusive as possible.

Thank you,

Kris Wenzel

Member Letter Regarding March 2 General Meeting

Submitted by Bonnie Robinson

We wanted to express our frustrations with the general meeting we had Tuesday March 2. We had to leave early but in the hour and 15 minutes that we were there, we didn’t even get beyond the agenda. We are still unclear of the catalyst of all the drama ( and quite frankly we don’t really need to know) but it feels like personal issues are being dragged up and general meetings are not the place to do so. James and I just wish we could move on because at this point, it feels like things are worsening. Both of us woke up the next morning still feeling gross about that meeting. We love this community and just want us to pull through. We are hoping that voicing our feelings can in the smallest way contribute to healing as a co-op.

-James and Bonnie #740

The Principles and Practice of Being Cooperative

Submitted by Rachel Rose

An invitation to Sunnyhill, 

I have been reflecting on what it means to be cooperative and would like to share my thoughts... 

We often speak about “being cooperative” but in my time here I have seen many behaviours we assume are cooperative despite being in contradiction to one another. 

It seems at times that there is an assumption that since we are part of a co-op that we must be behaving cooperatively, but I don’t believe that’s the case. I think being cooperative is an intentional act that needs to be practiced time and time again. It’s not an arrival but rather an ongoing activity. We can’t declare that we are being cooperative, cooperation needs to be driven by shared ethics and values. 

We rely on our policies, Robert’s Rules, as well as norms to govern how we operate, but in many ways these are incomplete. These are merely tools and it’s the ethic and spirit in which they are utilized that can become cooperative or uncooperative. 

I have been wondering, what are the principles of cooperative behaviour? What does this look like in practice? What behaviours undermine cooperation? 

Over the last year I have observed instances of behaviours that I perceive to be uncooperative including: 

• Making assumptions

• Starting dialogue with accusations and adversarial tones.

• Refusing to communicate or shutting down

• Seeking to be right rather than to be heard

• A refusal to take perspectives

I have also seen behaviours that I believe to be cooperative including: 

• Asking questions with curiosity

• Listening

• Turn taking

• Showing appreciation

• Starting with goodwill

• Trusting in the good faith of others to function on our behalf

In my opinion Sunnyhill is at a pivotal juncture whereby we need to begin to further deliberate what it actually means to be cooperative and hold ourselves accountable to this or we risk division, harm, and fracture. My fear is if we don’t do this, uncooperative behaviours will further silence and marginalize members who we so deeply need engaged. Without this our meetings will be empty and we will find ourselves further apart and falling into disrepair.

I am sincerely interested in exploring the ethics and values of how we cooperate and would love to engage in dialogue and learn about what this means to you in efforts of starting to craft a shared vision. 

All my best, 

Rachel 

#807