Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "Governance"

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 25, 2015, at 11:04 AM, Sue STIGLEMAN <sstigleman [at] bellsouth.net> 
> wrote:
> 
> I like "organizational structure" to cover the part that defines group 
> structure and the relationships between the different pieces -- like is there 
> a Board, what sort of teams are there, who has what authority, what's 
> required to delegate authority from one body to another.
> And something like Decision-making to cover the processes (consensus, voting, 
> etc) that are used for making decisions.
> From my understanding, sociocracy is sometimes discussed in terms of an 
> organizational structure and sometimes a decision-making structure.  I think 
> it would be great for sociocracy to be its own tag, though.

Sociocracy is a governance structure or organizational structure based on 
consent decision-making.

It can also be defined as a "design system” or an “organizational design 
system" as opposed to a set of practices or methods for doing things. It places 
the emphasis on integral communications structure and a decision-making method 
that ensures equivalence between its members. Full-group consensus and a 
modified form of Robert’s Rules of Order don’t form a system that coherently 
designed. it can work but isn’t optimal.

Sociocracy is designed so communities can continually adjust to changing 
circumstances--new members, disasters, opportunities, etc.--without disrupting 
community life. It values both scientific method of measuring and evaluating, 
and the social values of “freedom and equality for all.”

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Sociocracy: A Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info