Re: scenarios to work out what are "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:38:31 -0800 (PST) |
On 31 Jan 2012, at 4:52 PM, peterpiper [at] riseup.net wrote: > On Saturday I'm facilitating a workshop to flesh out what actions and > decisions different task teams can make without being discussed by the > Board or General Members Meeting. To do this I'm going to run a role play > where our 8 task teams have to catagorise decisions as routine, > significant, major, or emergency. NB. This is taken from > http://www.takomavillage.org/wordpress/documents/policies/decision-making-2007/ Being from Takoma Village, i must say that policy its categorization has served us well. And as often as people have made fun of it or complained about it, after about 8 years of using it, the only changes the membership made was to clarify the wording and examples. Sociocracy makes a different distinction, however. Circles can make decisions that (1) that are delegated to them by the General Management Circle and (2) those that involve only their circle and its operations. The Landscaping Circle would be delegated a budget and a scope of responsibility. Within that they make decisions. They also make decisions about how they do their work — do they want to work every Saturday morning or each person work at convenient times. They can decide to form a vegetable garden circle and delegate a range of decisions to them. The General Management Circle would include two or more members of the Landscaping Circle so any issues that involve the Landscaping Circle and other Circles would be discussed and decided in the General Management Circle. I most cohousing communities the functions of a Board or Coordinating Team do the job of a Board and a General Management Circle. But they do it pretty badly because it isn't clear what their job is because no one wants to delegate any responsibility. The advantage of having a General Management Circle is that it includes members of all the large circles — people who are both informed and able to take action. They have an overview. The Board focuses on long term planning, larger community relationships, consultation with experts, etc. It also includes members from the General Circle. The difficulty for most of us in cohousing is that our government is us. The customer is us. The staff is us. And we live here! That makes it difficult to delegate responsibility because no one wants to live under rules they have no part in deciding. Delegation of what kind of flowers will planted outside my window is tough. It's a fine line between micromanaging and personal control over one's living conditions in a community setting. While Takoma Village doesn't use all the elements of sociocracy, the Decision-Making Authority and Responsibility Policy both tells circles what they can decide and ensures consultation. It specifies which decision are routine, significant, and major; how each of them has to be announced; and how objections should be raised. This way teams can make decisions, announce them, and proceed if there are no objections. Only the issues that we can't agree on, the annual budget, spending funds of a certain amount, etc., have to come to a membership meeting. Teams have been known to slip decisions by under the radar or pretend an action isn't really a decision but it catches up to them if anyone objects down the line. In the end, however, how well the community makes and executes decisions depends on the skills and energy of the residents. One responsibility of sociocratic circles is to engage in self-development. The Circle is expected to have a development plan so they are improving in their ability to strengthen the community. A part of their budget should be set aside for educational activities. Sharon ---- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org
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scenarios to work out what are "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions peterpiper, January 31 2012
- Re: scenarios to work out what are "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions Sharon Villines, January 31 2012
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A table clarifying "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions peterpiper, October 6 2012
- Re: A table clarifying "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions Sharon Villines, October 6 2012
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