Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Sociocracy and Consensus

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Monday, March 31, 2003, at 12:03  PM, Alan Bleier wrote:

> I think sociocracy circles are a good fit, with one circle per 
> neighborhood
> and a circle for the village.  I agree that getting people who are
> accustomed to consensus by everyone to have open elections sounds 
> scary.
> But when we get to have 3 neighborhoods here I think it will become 
> clear we
> need something like that.

The first time I went through an open election I was very dubious but 
it turned out to be a very affirming experience. When people discuss 
the job to be done and why they think a particular person might be a 
good person to do the job, you really find out so much about the job, 
the person being nominated, and the person doing the nomination. It was 
really a revealing experience -- in a good way. In the end everyone has 
a much clearer understanding of what the job is and why someone was 
elected.

The fear is that people will be dumped on but in a group people don't 
do that the same way they do privately. They really struggle to figure 
out why they want this or that person to take the job and what the job 
entails -- ti becomes much less of a popularity contest.

And people are more likely to serve when they hear why they are being 
asked to serve and how much support they have.

In addition, the person elected also  knows who the other people are 
who were nominated and what their strengths are perceived to be so 
leading becomes that much easier. The process is an educational one, 
not a competition.

Volunteers are not always the best choices, and closed elections 
produce very odd results. I've been elected and not elected in so many 
situations where I had no idea whatsoever what was going on. Why was I 
elected? Why was I not elected? One can only guess. The open process is 
much more affirming and productive.



Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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