Autumn in Oregon

The weather around here has been almost scarily good. From what I read that will end soon, probably tomorrow. I like to take photos of the trees before the leaves fall. While the colors likely don't rival New England, they are pretty nice still. Fall is definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

Unity Through Elimination

Earlier this week, a decision was being made that went against just about everything I believe in regarding democracy. It hasn’t really been finalized yet, but unless there is a serious surprise or unspoken divergence in philosophy, I expect the discussions from our Council retreat on Monday to basically be ratified come next week. I can’t really claim to disagree with a couple of our decisions, but one in particular, if formally made, will just be wrong on numerous levels.
Okay, now I know that this will seem like teasing. I prefer to call it drama. But before I get into detail, I would like to say that I’ve always considered myself a fairly open-minded person. That is what spurred me to travel, to visit foreign countries, eat their food, read up on their religions, marvel at their cultural differences, and see that despite everything, people generally tend to be very similar across national boundaries. What is odd for us is everyday for others. Common sense to us might be considered madness elsewhere, and vice versa.
What I am saying is that elections are done and more than anything it would go against my nature to not give the new leadership a chance, to cautiously accept their plans and hope that maybe, just maybe, what they’ve in store might be better for the Tribe. Better than anything I’d have thought of. Even under the circumstances, aside from this singular issue, I intend to try and approach whatever new ideas they generate with hope, and once again, an open mind.
Here’s my beef. Earlier this week I wrote about my skepticism regarding potential proposed changes to the “Tilixam Wawa”. I was unaware that any Council members had serious issues with the publication. But they did. So in order to promote unity, to show that Council members are working together, and to uphold the Tribal Constitution—keep in mind this isn’t me talking, these comments are from my notes—the “Tilixam Wawa” will now reflect “one Council voice”.
That probably sounds vague, unrefined, and problematic to anybody reading. It certainly was to me, thus my half-dozen follow-up questions for clarification. According to one or two Council members, and for the record there were only five of us at the retreat, Tribal members have become disenchanted and turned off by the Wawa. Far too often, I was told, “most members” don’t even read the publication because it is nothing but a bunch of opinion pieces by individual Council members (Members think it is a waste of money, I was told, they are tired of the “us vs. them” mentality). The antidote to this previously unknown feeling of the Tribal membership is to have stories that reflect the belief of the Tribal Council as a group, team, single voice, whatever you want to call it. Those particular words were defined, upon further discussion, to mean at least five Council members.
Provided returning Council members agree to the decision, Wawa will also start to run a “RumorBusters” column, in addition to different reports on areas the Tribal Council is working on. I am sure other changes are also looming. One Council member wanted the publication to go to six issues per year, I wanted it twice monthly. Our compromise was to keep it at the present rate of one issue per month. We also discussed the possibility of guest writers.
I admit fully that my assumptions here are more toward the worst-case scenario end of the spectrum, but with something like this it’s hard to assume good intentions. Why on Earth would anybody want to suppress information? Telling somebody that to promote unity they will not be allowed to express their opinion is somewhat self-contradicting. Limiting any right, particularly freedom of expression, is also one of the roots of oppression.
There is the possibility that this new policy, if approved, will pertain solely to opinion pieces. But that opens the door to interpreting whether an opinion is expressed in a piece, in which case Council will become an editorial board, voting. And the decision, ultimately, to let a piece make the cut will hinge on interpretation of the word “opinion”, which I’ve always thought was clear but might become suddenly ambiguous.
Lastly though, this new approach, if used ruthlessly enough, could deal a serious blow to the Constitutional enrollment amendment, as nobody on Council would really be allowed to express support or opposition to it. Personally, I would guess that some members are very curious to know how Council members feel about this issue.
In hindsight, I guess we should have developed more formal policies and expectations of the Wawa when we first started. Mentally, I toyed with the idea of a “Publications Ordinance” just to keep such changes from being instituted on a whim. But I guess I never expected anything this blatant.
Who knows, maybe I am assuming the worst. Maybe I do need to give my fellow Council members the benefit of the doubt. When we meet again to review our retreat, perhaps others will have different conclusions about what we discussed. So until the decision is finalized, in writing, I shouldn’t really worry. But for many reasons, I am skeptical. The tone of discussion Monday was not very encouraging. We will know soon.

No Material Available

On Monday, October 15, we will be meeting in Salem for our Annual Council Retreat. There are a number of agenda items, from Health Care, to endowments, to the role of committees and boards. What catches my eye of course is one of the first items: Tillicum Wawa, which should read Tilixam Wawa, but maybe I’m being picky.
Council has always held retreats right around this time of year. Usually, our goal(s) are just that, setting goals. I remember the 2004 retreat being semi-productive. The 2005 version was very productive, although maybe I think that because we decided then to revamp the Tribal website, near and dear to my heart. The 2006 retreat was…I’m not sure. It just was.
However Council members rate them, our retreats are an annual event. They are one of the few occasions that we can isolate ourselves, merge brainpower, and make a concerted effort at being productive. I actually kind of look forward to the 2007 retreat on Monday, except for one thing.
That one thing really is that until Tuesday of last week I didn’t realize we even had a retreat scheduled. Personal obligations made me miss the scheduling meeting last Monday when it was unveiled that we would be having this retreat. My own understanding was that this Monday we would be reviewing the Strategic Planning Conference which took place last week. But I guess my understanding was off.
People reading this will probably think I am confused. I am. You see, over the past two years there was generally some notice given to Council members of the retreat, in fact we would try to arrive at some consensus over dates and topics. Two Council members are on travel Monday. They won’t even be there. I didn’t even see the agenda until Friday. If there are any staff reports or such to go with the agenda I am not clear. The only paperwork I have is the agenda, which indicates I am to show up at Roth’s IGA on Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. At 9:00 we will talk about the Wawa, the content of that publication, frequency, who should contribute, and a few other issues. Of course, until now, I didn’t know there were any issues, period.
I am sure this post appears increasingly unusual, like I am nitpicking over details. But let me explain a few things. Roughly two years ago we hired a company called ECONorthwest to analyze how we ran things. Their scope of work was more than that, obviously, but we really hired them to give us a professional opinion of how we, and by saying we I mean the organization and the Council, were running business. As you probably heard, not all Council members were big fans of theirs. I can speculate at the reason for that, but not right now. The point is our method of conducting business was very flawed, in their opinion, and to be completely honest I tended to agree.
According to them, we reacted to stuff, to events. Not only that, we had a bad habit of scheduling and conducting meetings without any real purpose. We would all meetings on short notice, drag staff from their work to address our issues, and provide unclear, and more importantly, unwritten direction that we may or may not remember a few weeks down the road. We weren’t incompetent, but were not models of efficiency either. Thus the Operating Procedures, limiting of meetings to just Tuesdays and Thursdays, and other minor details.
We were encouraged to develop formal grounds in which to call meetings, as opposed to just scheduling meetings at the request of individual Council members. Also, we were encouraged to have agendas for most meetings, and staff reports or some form of documentation, not only for before the meetings, but after. That way, when staff left they would have a clear idea of what they had been directed to do, as opposed to doing something, generating some sort of report so that a month later they wouldn’t be meeting with Council, only to have us say “No, that’s not what we meant! We meant do this!”
Part of this new way of conducting business involved the creation of our “packets”. The packets are literally packets, a stapled series of reports and updates that are to arrive in our mailboxes the day before meetings so that we might read them and be informed prior to going into meetings. Over the past year, I’ve learned to recognize when meetings are requested by individual Council members. As a new rule of thumb, we won’t hold a meeting requested by staff unless there is a report, background information, and written expectations that are clear and to the point. No report or documentation, then no meeting. When a Council member requests a meeting, those requirements don’t generally apply. Usually a “report” will be nothing more than a single sheet of paper, upon which is printed “Per Capita Discussion” or “Housing Discussion” or something like that, usually followed by lower-case letters reading “No Material Available”. The time slot might be one hour, it might be 15 minutes. More often than not, such meetings tend to be disorganized, unfocused, and occasionally the Council member who requested it is absent, in which case we usually cancel it and re-schedule. Such meetings, to be honest, can be a waste of staff time.
These types of meetings are becoming more frequent, and so I get to my original point of the upcoming Council retreat. All I have is an agenda, and nothing else. I know what time to show up, and what will be discussed, but little else. No material has been provided. Look at the list of 10 or so agenda items, I am not exactly sure what we are hoping to accomplish.
It’s hard not to be cynical. Not because I am an expert in efficiency, or because I myself haven’t wasted time with some odd meeting request. But after three years, I know what doesn’t work, and impromptu, poorly planned meetings, unclear direction, and decisions based on the opinions and desires of single, individual Council members, purely anecdotal, are in that category. Not always, but often.
Maybe I am wrong in my hunch. I’ll show up and find out.

A Rough Chapter

I’m not exactly sure how to express my feelings. This isn’t one of those touchy-feely kind of situations. It’s just that I honestly am not sure what sort of word or phrase would accurately describe the feeling in my chest. Whatever the feeling, it quickly spread to my mouth, which was grinning broadly.
I received a phone call Tuesday morning. This was an Elder I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, usually up in Portland at the satellite office. I’d also gotten to chat with her at the Chinook’s plankhouse in January. She had the same camera I like to carry around at events, the Canon IS S2, which is special because there are lenses, zoom and wide-angle, that one can affix to the front. Her reasons for calling me were very simple: Whether she had read it in the official minutes or had heard through the grapevine I don’t know, but she was letting me know that it was she who had spoken with a certain individual back in August regarding one of my campaign letters. She had signed my letter in support, and was never coerced, forced, pressured or anything like that. This Elder has always liked me and taken in interest in my young Council career. She wouldn’t need to be forced to sign for me. And, she added, she would be very sure to call this individual who had raised the issue a little more than a month ago at a Wednesday night Council meeting. In fact, this Elder informed me, she would be making that call as soon as our own phone conversation here ended. That is what brought a smile to my face.
For those not familiar with the issue, it does go back to early September, the Council meeting on the 5th to be exact. There have been a number of people during my three years on Council who seem to have a hobby of trying to make me and others miserable. This individual in particular ran for the Council the same year I was elected, and lost. Whether she took the defeat personally or is just an unhappy person I don’t really know, but in my observations whenever she shows up for a meeting a lot of the time it is to take potshots or raise some sort of issue that makes me or somebody else look bad.
Overall I am lucky enough to be one of those people who isn’t offended very easily. I’d like to chalk it up to mental toughness or something like that, but the reality is I think differently from most people and thus insults and personal attacks don’t always register the way they should.
What happened September 5th caught me off-guard, and I even admitted to those present that this upset me quite a bit. Basically, the individual in question brought one of my campaign letters, and during the Other Business portion of the Council meeting let me know that she had spoken with a Tribal Elder whose signature appeared on a list of supporters. Supposedly this Elder had been coerced into endorsing me, at some sort of cultural class, in theory under an obligation to support the Tribal Chair.
Now after a term on Council you get used to attacks. And the nature of Tribal politics means that there will always be people who question your honor. But for some reason this particular attack bothered me, not only because it was just so clearly false, but served no other purpose than to try and make me look bad. Plus, an Elder who I really like and joke around with a lot was dragged into it, unnecessarily.
I questioned the claim that night, and was met with the typical “Are you calling me a liar?”. I also asked for the Elder’s name, but was told she preferred not disclose it. So basically I was being accused of having coerced an Elder into signing one of my campaign letters, would not be told who the Elder was, and was being made out to be some sort of scoundrel in public. I think a lot of people would have probably been upset by it.
It’s all moot now. If the whole ploy was some last ditch effort to ruin my re-election bid it obviously didn’t work. And the phone call Tuesday closed the door on my wondering which Tribal Elder had been spoken to. I make jokes about it now with staff and other Council members. If we ever need some sort of signature just have Chris send his signature-gathering goons out. We also joke about the event in question, with images of me grabbing somebody by the back of their neck and gritting my teeth and saying “Sign it! Or else!”, and then I shake my fist in their face.
So what was a very upsetting one month ago has become something I and others can joke about. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a low blow, one of the lowest I’ve seen to be honest. That’s part of the job I suppose. That’s why I was smiling Tuesday. Truth really is stranger than fiction.