Grievances
CAN aspires to be an open and inclusive space. This requires effort – we need to work to break down barriers of involvement and use truly democratic and open structures.
Establishing an open and democratic grievance procedure is important to this aim. We hope that members of CAN will actively work to make the space inclusive: by thinking about the impact of their behaviours on others, by raising concerns openly and politely with other members where possible, and by listening seriously to other people’s concerns about their own behaviour. We hope that normally people involved in disagreement will be able to come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.
However this is not always going to be the case. Sometimes people need to voice their concerns to somebody they feel comfortable with, and to have support and guidance in the resolution process. Other times informal discussion might not work out. So we want to have an established channel to address such cases. This is part of ensuring a culture in CAN which is inclusive, where everyone can feel safe and confident, and is a great place to do radical work. Having an established process should also help to avoid the development of informal hierarchies, and ensure the process remains clear, democratic and open.
The Tranquility Team
The Tranquility Team is a group of people empowered by CAN to help others deal with grievances where they have not been able to deal with them directly. The members of the group should be confirmed by a CAN meeting and re-confirmed at least once a year. There should be at least 5 people in the group, and should represent the diversity of people in CAN – including gender, age and length of involvement in CAN. If you want to be a member of the tranquility team, please let an existing member know and/or raise it in a meeting.
Members of CAN should feel able to approach any member of the Tranquility Team for help with a grievance. They can contact them in person before or after meetings, by personal email or via the Tranquility Team email list. TODO: create the email list. It is not good to start by raising issues in a meeting or on any other CAN email list. Find their contact details here: tranquility team.
The Tranquility Team (minus any members of the Tranquility Team who feel themselves to be very close to the issue) will discuss possible ways forward with the member. These are ultimately only limited by the imagination, but could include one or more of the following:
- some sort of shuttle diplomacy.
- a mediated meeting. There can be more than one mediator, and the members involved in the grievance might want someone for moral support.
- the Tranquility Team having a direct chat with the other person involved in the grievance, talking about what behaviour is acceptable.
- in serious cases the Tranquility Team may ask people from outside CAN to be involved in the mediation.
In general the Tranquility Team is not expected to report back about every issue they deal with, but they should feedback ways that CAN can improve its processes and culture.
If a member of the Tranquility Team is involved in an issue, they will not be involved with the process of dealing with it, and for example may be temporarily removed from the Tranquility Team email list to ensure confidentiality.
If the grievance is serious, the following process can be used.
- Off meeting, the Tranquility Team speak to the people involved about the issue, review any documents and talk to any people who want to be heard.
- They contact the person who is the subject of the issue, explaining the nature of the issue as well as all material and evidence to support the issue.
- The subject of the issue can then respond, as well as provide any additional material or people to explain their point of view and/or actions.
- After reviewing all the information gathered the Tranquility Team suggest a course of action. If a course of action can be found that all the individuals involved are OK with then that course of action can be agreed and the process will stop here. However if the Tranquility Team feel they need to recommend a course of action that an individual opposes then the process will have to progress to being discussed in a CAN meeting. (The course of action might include a member making an agreement about future behaviour, or excluding someone from CAN, either temporarily or, in very serious cases, permanently.)
- If a CAN meeting needs to make a decision then a summary of the issue is presented, along with the recommendation about how to deal with the issue. That is then discussed and a course of action will be agreed by consensus by the meeting. The two parties involved in the issue cannot block at this point, but of course are welcome to stand aside or leave.
Improving this process
We want this to be flexible, open and improving process, so if you have any suggestions as to how this could be better, please leave your comments on this page:Â Grievance process discussion
This version of the process was agreed at a CAN meeting on the 16th of March 2010.