Summary:
It is suggested that a small core leadership group be selected to be
responsible for the start-up of the Village with that group operating under
consensus among themselves. Then, after
the Village has been constructed, the physical Village would be turned over to
the residents and operated under consensus by all the consensus members and at
that time the core group would be disbanded.
Justification:
1.
Consensus
decision making can be dysfunctional unless all the people involved have had
consensus training and have been screened for the consciousness and ability to
use consensus. At the time the Village
is being planned and built, not all the base of people involved will have had
an opportunity to have had this experience.
Meanwhile, the core group can proceed with starting to make the
decisions to begin creating the community.
2.
Private
investors will invest ten million dollars upon taking collateral on a shared
vision of the physical Village to be built.
The Village is financially designed to be constructed in twelve
months. If disagreements about the
physical Village get out of hand drastically changing the vision or the
construction is interfered with placing the completion date in jeopardy, the
investors will probably back out.
3.
The
construction of the physical Village will require a lot of specialized skill
sets, such as that possessed by architects, engineers, contractors, developers,
financiers, all construction trades, certain business trades, legal, etc. A huge amount of decisions will have to be
made quickly by these professionals, under the direction of the core group, in
order to meet the construction deadline.
Until residents have been trained and screened in consensus and become
“members”, consensus cannot be used to reach timely decisions where a majority
of the members do not have the technical expertise to understand the
ramifications of their decisions.
4.
The
natural inclination of most new residents is to go back over the physical
aspects of the Village, especially housing. This sidetracks the foundation as it must stop
all work to go back over the same plowed ground again and again. A good review is needed occasionally but
there comes a time when it no longer serves a purpose. The project is a matrix in which some parts must
be set in stone so that they will not change other parts of the matrix.
5.
When
a Village begins to seek investors to start-up the Village there may be as few
as ten members. Once construction begins
an average of seven residents will join per week. In the meantime the work must progress.
9
What we are dealing with here is when and how do
three guys in ‘Frisco transcend from majority rule to consensus & focus
groups successfully? You cannot get consensus training until you have
enough committed members to warrant paying for the training, training your own
permanent trainers and then offering classes every other week to new
arrivals. In the meantime you are in a world of hurt. You cannot get the
required minimum number of committed members until you have pushed your project
far enough along to attract those members. In the meantime you are in a
world of hurt. During all of this time a
special breed of people will have to devote themselves full time to the start-up. Other members will still be holding full time
outside jobs and will not be able to keep up with all the decisions being made.
How do we transition from one method to another?
Recommendation:
Therefore, it is proposed that prior to construction a Phase-In plan be
decided by the consensus members. This
plan might have the following characteristics:
I) Core Leadership
A.
A
small core leadership that has the skills needed to cause the erection of the
Village will be created. The size of the
core group might be between 3 and 5 persons.
This core group would be the Board of Directors and would be expected to
secure the financing and secure the experts needed.
B.
The core leaders would act using consensus.
The group may decide by consensus that one or more of the core group make
decisions for the area of their expertise and empower that person(s) with the
authority to do so. Consensus does not mean that every decision is
made by the entire group.
C.
Areas
of responsibility would be clearly defined for this core group, such as design,
financing, construction, timelines, division of labor, work schedules, supply
etc.
D.
Areas
of responsibility not to be under this Core Leadership would be clearly
defined, such as the focus groups “How Do We Bring Forth Inner Wisdom?” or “How
Do We Enjoy Ourselves?”.
E.
The
Core Leadership will have the responsibility to transfer duty areas over to the
consensus groups as soon as it feels the consensus groups are prepared to take
that responsibility. This should occur
as soon as that physical part of the Village is completed.
F.
A
definite phase out date of the Core Leadership will be in place. This would probably be no more than eighteen
months after construction begins. Again
keep in mind that by this time most of its areas of responsibility will have been
turned over to the Focus groups. It
should only be working on a few construction projects remaining.
G.
This
Core Leadership would report to the Main Hub on a monthly basis.
H.
The
Core Leadership will have the authority to make necessary adjustments and
changes to the rough Village plan.
I.
All
members of the Core Leadership would be required to file Non-Profit Taking
Affidavits monthly to insure that they are indeed representing all of the
residents equally.
J.
The
Core Leadership will operate and report all activity under the Village
Transparency policy.
II) Definitions:
1. "Consensus Members" are defined as
people who have been screened for the consciousness and ability to use
consensus decision-making. As part of the consensus training, they will
be required to be screened and approved (to participate in the consensus
decisions of the Village) by the "How Do We Expand Our Community?"
Focus Hub.
2.
Residents: The Village may have "Residents"
who live in the Village but have not, as yet, been accepted as Consensus
Members by the "How Do We Expand Our Community?" Focus Hub.
.
III) Plan Ratification
All residents will accept and ratify the rough plan as laid out by the
Foundation. This consists of all areas
of the plan.
This will give a working plan, although not complete, for the
construction and running of the Village.
The members can then come back and make changes to it later by consensus
only. For example, menus are in place
now for the construction period. Changes
can be made to it later, but in the meantime a plan is in motion.