Contra Costa Community College District/UNITED FACULTY NEGOTIATIONS
Contra Costa Community College District/United Faculty Negotiations
GROUND RULES
1.Don’t judge. Don’t interrupt. Listen attentatively. One person speaks at a time – keep queue – get permission to interrupt the queue to maintain continuity of the discussion.
2.Respect one another. Park rank at the door – no hierarchy. Don’t belittle or ridicule. Be mindful of your body language. Use “I” statement and describe rather than characterize or judge. Everyone brings an expertise. We are all equals.
3.Focus and be guided by the issues the group agrees to address – staying on point.
4.Honor agreements in terms of tasks and timelines – start, end and break times.
5.Everyone is expected to participate fully in negotiations and be willing to work outside of negotiations as needed, including continuous interest checks with our constituents. We will make every effort to identify all interests before coming to a straw design.
6.Confidentiality:
-Joint Communiqués will be the only method to communicate specifics to the world.
-Gene and Jeff will draft and distribute the communiqués.
-Denise will become our notetaker.
-Notes will be destroyed 90 days after ratification, unless agreed by full group otherwise.
-Notes will be emailed to all team members for review prior to meeting again.
-JC’s will contain interests, stage or phase of discussion by topic, and anything else specifically agreed to at end of each meeting.
-Gene/Jeff will draft and distribute unless disagreement…then back to the group.
-All sharing w/Helen, Board and E-Board are w/o attribution.
-E-Board, Cabinet and Board will be invited to observe negotiations when able.
-No surprises…hear it here first.
-Experts can be invited to participate from time-to-time w/consensus of group.
7.Communications:
-There will be one record for negotiations and notes by the Confidential based on information on the flip charts.
-A joint communication will be developed by the parties periodically.
8.Decisions are to be made by consensus. Consensus means that everyone on both negotiating teams agrees to or can live with a particular decision. If you can’t agree, it is your responsibility to identify the interest that is not met and offer a modification to the straw design that you can agree to.
9.If you are late or absent, it is up to you to get up to speed in your own time. If the parties come to consensus and you are absent, you are obligated to uphold and support the decision of the group.
10.Subject matter experts may be invited to attend negotiation meetings or negotiations’ sub-committee meetings by mutual agreement of the parties.
11.Observers will not participate but will be required to honor the ground rules.
12.No surprises.
Modified April 19, 2007