Making decisions as a community

[struggle4progress]

Posted: Sunday, July 26, 2015 12:00 am
By John B. Stephens

... Be sure to have input from different viewpoints as you plan the meeting or forum ... Include small-group conversations ... Set some clear rules for respect ... Try to get beyond either-or choices ... Avoid having a poll or using any group to represent the community as a whole ... Be clear about who will decide, and the timeline for a decision ....

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/local_columns/john-b-stephens-making-decisions-as-a-community/article_72363c20-b11e-52bc-ad6a-9ff4cd6671e9.html

[Igel]

1. Two things.

These are fairly standard guidelines. Sometimes "small-group" discussions are sidebar discussions when a meeting is suspended for a while.

I'd add, "Once a decision is made, allow time for reasoned and balanced feedback, because deciders are people, too."

This works in a community meeting, it works in a meeting between two sides arbitrating, it works in the body politic as a whole.



However, most of the time I've seen them put into action they're bludgeons to be used against other people.

"You need to have my input, and those people need to STFU."

"You didn't call on me, mother fucker, you need to show me some respect, asshole, I have something to say and don't tell me to wait my turn."

"No, there is no compromise. What's happening is offensive and immoral and it needs to change, even if some people need to starting smashing stuff. If you don't agree with me, you're a (insert politically appropriate epithet here)" (And above all, don't ask "offensive and immoral" to whom, as though there could be a different view. That's disrespectful.)

"You have to assume that the people who are here are the ones who get to decide. We can't take into account the views of those too lazy or stupid to show up. We are the community."

Even my addition is problematic, because those 1% or 49% who lost out or think they compromised too much or see feedback on a decision as a way to get the "compromise" to be 80% their view and 20% the views of the other groups on the sly.

And if you look at American politics, that's what you get. Because the problem in all of this is there is no community and too many people don't want there to be (just) one, at least not one that requires considering input from different groups, mutual respect, compromise, full representation, and ceding authority for decision making to somebody we might be suspicious of. Too much hate, too much paranoia, too much suspicion.