Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Appeals policy?

[Diana Leafe Christian (diana]

Hello Abe Ross and everyone,

I was surprised to read your post because Treehouse Village Ecohousing uses 
sociocracy, and in sociocracy (which I know well as a sociocracy trainer), 
there is no appeal process per se, since sociocracy is designed for decisions 
to be made by members of the circle (committee) that covers its own particular 
domain or area of responsibility. That is, the way sociocracy is designed, 
someone who's not a circle member cannot object to a decision made by another 
circle. 

However, there ARE things the group can do to respond to someone's concerns 
about a decision made in another circle. So first, the person in the other 
circle, and, I assume, everyone in the group, should perhaps be reminded that 
trying to object to another circle's decision isn't how sociocracy works. 
However, there are several things a person can do if they think a circle's 
decision is a mistake. (1) They can speak to one or more members of that circle 
and ask them to revisit that decision and give their reasons. If they're 
trained well in sociocracy (and they understand how community works!) they'll 
know their reason would not be about their personal preferences about 
something, but rather, whether the decision somehow violates the Aims of the 
circle that made the decision, or somehow violates the Mission and Aims of the 
whole community. (For those who know NVC, in sociocracy the Aims of a circle 
are like the circle's Needs, and objections are about the circle and the 
community's needs/Aims/Mission, not an individual person's needs or wishes.)  
(2) If they do this they can also ask if they can attend that circle's next 
meeting and give their reasons for their concerns. (3) Or they can describe 
their concerns to both the circle and the community's General Circle, asking 
that issue be revisit the decision. (4) Or they can share their concerns with 
the circle and the General Circle and ask that the issue come to a Whole Group 
Meeting for everyone to revisit the decision, depending on the issue, of 
course. And please remember that in sociocracy "objections" are not blocks; 
they are concerns and are meant to be resolved.

Circles can absolutely help reduce the likelihood that people will have 
concerns about another circle's decision if they seek their opinion first 
through a community survey, asking questions and seeking suggestions for how to 
manage the issue the circle wants to make a decision about. When an intentional 
community uses sociocracy member surveys are invaluable! I'll be happy to send 
anyone my new handout on creating community member surveys, Just email me for 
this. My upcoming six-week Sociocracy Course, Part One, starts April 30. The 
Early Bird Discount, and the Five-Person Discount for this course ends 
tomorrow. Here's information about the course: https://tinyurl.com/zfbak8cj or 
email me for the direct link. 

Diana

> On Apr 9, 2022, at 10:44 AM, Abe Ross <cohoyote [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> As our community, Treehouse Village Ecohousing, moves from being a 
> development corp (planning and development) into a condominium corp (living 
> together), we are drawing up our declaration, bylaws and governance policies. 
> One question which has arisen is what a member can do if they object to a 
> decision or policy made by a circle of which they are not a member.Is there 
> an appeal procedure?I have reviewed the listserve and can’t find any 
> discussion of this question.I have put in the search terms “Appeal 
> policy”,“Appeal”, and “Appealing” none of which have brought up answers to 
> our question.Our question is, does your community have a formal procedure (or 
> policy) about appealing decisions made by a circle/committee/task force?  If 
> you do, what is it?
> 
> Abe Ross
> Treehouse Village Ecohousing
> Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada
> 
> --
> 
>