The purpose of the Grievances and Complaints Resolution Policy is to ensure that Melbourne Insight Meditation Group handles grievances and complaints with compassion and in a fair and effective manner.

This policy provides guidance to members of our sangha (community) who wish to make a complaint or raise a grievance.

Conflict is inevitable, and can offer an opportunity to work skilfully with reactivity in order to minimise harm and benefit others.

For the purpose of this policy, sangha refers to the MIM committee, staff, visiting teachers, volunteers and attendees to our weekly sits, workshops and retreats. Collectively known as the MIM sangha.

It is the MIM Executive Officer’s responsibility to follow up all complaints or incidents lodged by any member of the sangha, by following the MIM incorporated association’s model rules, policies, procedures and legislation.

If the Executive Officer is implicated or has a conflict of interest in the matter, then the Committee will take responsibility for the complaint resolution.

Where possible, MIM sangha conflicts and disagreements should be resolved informally with all parties meeting directly with each other, without a third party, to air their grievance and discuss their own perceptions of the issue. If, for some reason, informal conflict resolution is not possible, formal grievance and complaints processes can be initiated.

(i) Guidelines for Informal conflict resolution

• It’s important that each person involved in a conflict maintains an open mind during the process of conflict resolution, seeking to understand their own reactions and how they may be contributing to the issue .
• Strategies that can help lead to successful conflict resolution include:

1. State the actual. Don’t make general statements. Stick to the particulars of the situation, and the emotions experienced.
2. Take responsibility for your own feelings, thinking and actions. For example, instead of saying, “You made me feel X”, you could say, “I felt X when you said/did Y”.
3. Give everyone involved a chance to be fully heard. Take the time to listen to each other in order to understand the other person’s point of view, and to move towards reconciling differences.
4. Restate briefly what the other person has said, to ensure that everyone understands correctly what was said. Allow each party to make appropriate clarifications or corrections.
5. Acknowledge how you may have contributed to the conflict or misunderstanding. This can help resolution and reconciliation.

(ii) Guidelines for Third Party Advice

• In situations where conflict is particularly heated or painful the Executive Officer and President should seek advice as to whether the issue is suitable for non-professional facilitation.
• It can also be helpful to invite one or more neutral witnesses to be present during attempts at reconciliation. Such third-party support can help restore direct communication by providing a sense of calm and by ensuring that each person is given proper space to speak.
• Third-party witnesses should guard against behaviours that undermine conflict resolution such as collusion, or becoming a go-between.
• If required MIM Committee members can help choose appropriate third-party sangha members to assist with third party conflict resolution.

(iii) Guidelines for the Formal Grievance Process

MIM is an Incorporated Association in the State of Victoria. Conflicts between sangha members of MIM that can’t be resolved informally may be dealt with formally in accordance with the grievance clauses of the Model Rules for an Incorporated Association, under the Victorian Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012.

In summary, the stages of the formal grievance process are:

• Notify the Executive Officer or President of the dispute.
• Agree to, or request the appointment of a mediator.
• Attempt in good faith to settle the dispute by mediation.

If formal mediation doesn’t resolve the dispute, the parties involved in the formal grievance process have the option to seek further redress in accordance with the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012.

(iv) Formal Complaints

• All sangha members of MIM and the wider public—may submit a formal complaint to the Committee about the conduct of an MIM sangha member. In the interests of transparency, formal complaints to the Committee must be submitted in writing. The Committee is expected to investigate and deal with formal complaints in a confidential, timely manner.
• When a formal complaint is lodged, the Committee must notify any person complained about as soon as possible, and once the matter is dealt with, promptly inform both the complainant, and the subject of the complaint, of the result, in writing.
• If a Committee member has a conflict of interest with a formal complaint, they must recuse themselves from the Committee’s investigation and handling of that complaint.
• The Committee may delegate part or all of a complaint investigation to an external mediator.