Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consent / Consensus Decision-Making [2asAppeals policy?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Apr 9, 2022, at 12:55 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Apr 9, 2022, at 10:44 AM, Abe Ross <cohoyote [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 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? [snip] 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?
> 
> So the issue is whether everyone consents to allowing the decisions delegated 
> to a team to be made without review. The bylaws should state whether this is 
> absolute authority or authority subject to review. Review of whom? And what 
> process of consultation does the team have to conduct before reaching a 
> decision?

Another point when discussing delegation and sociocracy that is very important 
and easily forgotten — I forgot it myself yesterday when I wrote this! 

In the formal sociocratic circle-organization method, team members are 
selected, they are not volunteers. People can nominate themselves and be 
considered equally with other nominated persons. But the larger decision-making 
group selects and consents to the composition of a team. 

So in effect, when a team is constituted, the group is giving consent to them 
in making the decisions delegated to that team. For a difficult decision it is 
also possible to form a short-term circle or a helping circle whose delegated 
aim is to draft a policy to which everyone can give consent. In the case of a 
controversial cat policy, for example, all the people who have particular 
interest in this decision could be charged with writing a proposal that they 
can all accept.

This is very important. If 5 people volunteer to be on a team without the 
consent of the group, why would they be allowed to make autocratic decisions 
that no one can overrule or modify? An autocratic decision is still an 
autocratic decision governing 40 people is still an autocratic decision if only 
3 people consented to it.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
"Behavior is determined by the prevailing form of decision making." Gerard 
Endenburg