Managing disputes and rule infringements is a challenging issue for intentional communities, and our Cooperative is no exception. A little background to this new draft policy and procedure may help.
In September 2014 Goolawah unanimously adopted the Code of Conduct, and in August 2017 a committee was formed to develop a policy and procedure to assist in upholding it and our rules. The current Complaint Management Policy and Procedure (CMPP) was unanimously adopted in January 2018, and finally put into practice two years later.
In December 2020 the community approved a confidence vote in the board to fulfil its obligations under the Law, including implementation of the CMPP, but members also voted to review it.
After many meetings a draft Rules Breaches & Disputes Management Policy was posted on June 25 this year for community consideration. But since then an altered approach and new document have been developed for further consideration as replacement for the CMPP.
The new document title, Grievance Policy and Procedure, takes the term “Grievance” from Co-operative National Law (CNL), our Rule 22 Disputes and Mediation, and Department of Fair Trading.
Denise and others who have worked tirelessly on this very long policy review are looking forward to community feedback.
Goolawah Co-op Members 
Thanks for the effort over the last 18 months on the drafts, good to see it being discussed in more detail amongst the membership.
A few suggestions to the definition and Procedure section that might be good to ask at the October GM or sort out earlier.
The definition for Dispute, Grievance and Rule breach does not appear to suit the procedure, it would be better to use the definitions from the early versions of the draft published in Dec 2022 which give a better understanding of the terms of the procedure.
This being:
Issue rather than Grievance as Grievance has personal connotations.
An issue is something that arises creating a dissatisfaction where a response is sought, reasonable to expect, or legally required.
Rule breach
The Goolawah Co-operative membership has voted on a set of Rules (see
https://goolawahmembers.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/goolawah-co-op-ltd- rules-july-2021.pdf). All members, as part of their membership process, signed a form committing to abide by these rules. If a member contravenes one of these rules, that is known as a rule breach.
Dispute
An unresolved issue that is not a rule breach. Eg. If someone raises an issue, but no satisfaction results, then there exists a dispute between parties (ie: between two Co-operative members, or a member and the Co-operative).
Procedure:
1. Section 4a, is unclear with the wording “should” is used instead of “must”, meaning a member does not need to contact the board in 14 days, yet the board may still consider the grievance, incident, issue or complaint?
2. Section 4b, if a member raises a concern with a director. Who then completes the Form or updates the register and is the concern valid if it is not authorised by the person who raised it or is it considered raised by the board once evidence is confirmed?
3. Section 4c, If an issue has a risk of significant harm what does this mean? How would the board know and why would you call the police or other services if unknown? What actions can the board take?
4. Section 4 e. If a meeting has a large number of members present why would all members be expected to sign the minutes. Having experienced this first hand it is difficult to obtain one signature on minutes. Natural justice is applied if the member understands the facts, is heard by an unbiased party and allowed a right of reply. Evidence of this may simply be asking the question – do you understand and other parties hearing the answer.
5. Section 4 g i, The writers have suggested fines not to be applied until two breaches of the Rules occur. What is the reasoning?
6. Section 4 g ii. The paragraph is long and difficult to read. If a member does wish to raise an Ordinary resolution to waive the fine how long do they have to raise the OR? The next GM or 12 months later?
7. The term “Natural Justice” is used on the DoFT website. It should be defined in this document so that members understand what it is. Meaning that all parties involved in the dispute should understand all the facts of the situation, be heard by an unbiased party, and be allowed the right to reply to an accusation.
8. Draft Complaints policies of March 2022 and December 2022 were published and comments received. It might be good to take these comments into account with this draft.