Policy Council

Introduction
The Board of Directors of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation is embarking on an exciting new initiative of reaching out to the communities of people we were created to serve. Our primary aim is to listen very carefully to the people we are (or should be) serving and to reshape all of our programs to more effectively address their real needs and aspirations.

As a part of this initiative, the Board of Directors feels that it is very important to ensure that our Head Start Program at United Indians also reaches out and effectively engages the families and communities it serves.


The Policy Council
All Head Start programs elect a policy making body referred to as a “Policy Council”. The general purpose of this Council is to ensure that parents and community members have a strong voice in the running of the program.

In practice, many community elected boards and councils operate (once elected) in relative isolation from the communities that elected them, and with few, if any, regular structured opportunities for parents and community members to become really engaged in the life of the program.

In order to address this challenge, the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation Board wishes to address two specific issues.

I. How the Policy Council is elected, and
II. How it functions (once elected) both in its internal decision making process and its relationship with parents and community it is elected to represent.

I. How the Policy Council is Elected
In order to ensure maximum opportunity for all parents and interested community members to select representatives that truly represent them, and who will continue to engage them once elected, the following electoral process will be followed, beginning with the 2005 Policy Council elections.

a. Preparation
Three preparatory meetings will be held prior to the actual elections to give voters a chance to get to know each other, and to become familiar with the needs and requirements of the United Indians Head Start Program.
(1) The parent orientation held before school started
(2) A Policy Council orientation workshop
(3) An open workshop on facilitation and curriculum development held in October.
A special dinner will also be held on the day of elections to give further opportunities for new parents and community members to meet each other and learn about the program and its needs.

b. Representatives to be Elected
(1) Eight classroom groups will be formed (six Head Start classes and two Early Head Start groups) consisting of the parents of children currently enrolled. Each of these groups will elect one representative and one alternate.
(2) One additional community members group will be formed, consisting of community members who don’t have children in any of the classrooms. This group will elect Community Representatives from the community at large.
(3) The Board of United Indians of All Tribes will appoint one liaison representative and an alternate, either from it’s own membership, or from the community at large. The Board liaison does not have membership privileges but acts as support and mentor to the PC members.

c. The Process of Elections
Because, in the past, elections run in the usual manner have tended to create disunity and pit some of the best people in our community against each other (candidates are nominated, they compete against each other, the community [voters] become divided over who to select, etc.), the Board wishes to introduce a new system and approach to elections, which is more consistent with Indigenous traditional methods for the selection of representatives and leaders.

Step One: Discussion of the qualities anyone should have who is elected to serve as a representative.

Examples of some qualities other groups have listed are as follows:
(1) Listens to others
(2) Respects differences of language and culture
(3) Loves children and gives time to working with and for them
(4) Is able to understand and articulate child, parent and community needs
(5) Is free of addictions and abusive behaviors
These are only examples. Each voting group (ie each of the eight classrooms, and the community member groups) will hold their own discussions, and their list will be posted for the voters to see when they are casting their vote.

Step Two: Voting

What there is not:
(1) There are no nominations. Everyone who is a member of the group is automatically a candidate whether they are present at the meeting or not.
(2) There are also no discussions of individuals, no speeches, no electoral platforms and no one needs to tell anyone else who they voted for.

What there is:
(1) After the discussion on qualities of those to be elected (Step One above) the group members are given a ballot with space for the number of representatives the group is electing.
(2) After silent reflection and prayer for guidance on who best combines the qualities identified in Step One (and now posted), each voter simply writes the name of the person (or persons) she wishes to vote for on the ballot paper and deposits her ballot in the ballot box (each group needs a ballot box).

Who is eligible to be elected?
You can vote for yourself or for anyone who is eligible. Classroom parent groups must elect a parent or guardian of a child who is registered in that particular classroom. The community group can elect any community member.

Step Three: Counting the Votes
Special vote counters provided by the staff of United Indians will count the votes. The person in each of the groups with the most votes is automatically elected. In case of a tie vote, another round of voting will be taken to break the tie. The eight parent representatives and four community representatives elected and the United Indians Board member appointed will constitute the 13 member Policy Council until the next elections are held, in approximately one year.

II. Policy Council Functioning
To ensure a high level of unity within the Policy Council, and between the Council and the parents and community they represent, the following steps will be taken.

(1) Roberts Rules of Order will be modified, to work with the Principles of Consultation in Policy Council meetings or in meetings between the Policy Council and the Community. A much more informal, community friendly process of consultation and consensus seeking will be the foundation for decision making and majority vote will prevail

(2) The reason for this change is because we have learned that a rigid use of Roberts Rules of Order tends to create barriers to effective participation, especially for Native peoples and other minority groups. We have seen that Roberts Rules can be used by some to silence and/or manipulate others. Our goal is to open up the processes of our decision-making, so that everyone feels comfortable in contributing what he or she may have to offer.

(2) Facilitative Leaders
Normally, a Council will choose from among its members a duly elected chairperson and secretary, the leaders. We will use a more participatory method to allow for rotating leaders. Any member wishing to play a leading role will be given the opportunity to facilitate or be the secretary at a Policy Council or community meeting. Every Policy Council member will be trained for both roles and all will be supported to be Facilitators Leaders.

The role of the meeting Facilitator is to facilitate discussions of the Council such that each and every member is able to speak, and have her views considered carefully by the others. The Facilitator also helps the Council to make effective decisions by a) summarizing the issues to be discussed; b) keeping the discussions focused on the topic being discussed; and c) summarizing the ideas and suggestions presented by members so that the Council can make a decision to approve or disapprove what is proposed.

The role of meeting Secretary is to keep a permanent record of Council decisions, to prepare correspondence on behalf of the Council, and to receive correspondence and put issues before the Council arising from that correspondence.

The important thing is that these vital roles are carried out as we have described, and that any trace of controlling behavior be kept out of Council functioning, so that all members feel that they are able to participate as equals.

Agenda
The Facilitator, Secretary and key staff work together to prepare a suggested agenda prior to each meeting, but the suggested agenda is reviewed at the beginning of the meeting, and the Council as a whole decides what the actual agenda will be.

The suggested agenda is developed immediately after each monthly meeting with the help of key staff, to ensure continuity and follow up and provide the staff and Policy Council members with a guide for supporting each other for the preparation of the next meeting.

The agenda structure could include typical agenda items such as: review and approval of past meeting minutes, old business, new business, staff and committee reports. The Steps of Consultation (see Appendix B) will ground the Policy Council with culturally and individually sensitive practices that ensure all are welcome and supported.

General Observation
The role of the leaders is to serve the Council, not to control it. Leaders have no more power or authority than any other member. The Council, as a body (as a circle) and not its individual members, have authority and that authority is rooted in the community that elected the Council and depends on that community’s guidance, continued support and delegation of authority.