Part of what we’ve been exploring since we put forward the NJCDC proposal is Sociocracy or “Dynamic Governance.”
This is a very useful system, though unfamiliar to most of us, so I think we’re all finding it a bit awkward in the implementation. For instance, are the sub-circles supposed to be able to make decisions for the whole group, or is their role to bring proposals to the full membership? Also, how we’ve divided up the circles may seem arbitrary, and of course the topics — Membership; Finance & Legal; Site Assessment, Design & Construction; and Organization & Community Development — overlap, and cover issues that affect all of us, so all of us need a say in them.
I’m sure I’m not the only one confused about these things, but two new sets of insights have helped to clarify them for me.
In yesterday’s Sociocracy for Co-ops webinar Jerry Gonzalez pointed out that there are real differences between the way Sociocracy is used in established organizations and start-ups. In start-ups things need to be a lot more fluid, and the entire membership needs to agree on the structure of the organization and the responsibilities of the different circles before any real responsibilities can be delegated. So that’s the first thing.
The second is that Sociocracy only deals with half of what’s needed for a successful cooperative and ecological project, the “planning” and “doing” parts. This is the left-brain half. The other, right-brain half, has to do with the “dream” that created and sustains the project, and the celebration or acknowledgement of its accomplishment. This half — which is really the fun and creative and community-oriented half — is the focus of a methodology called “Dragon Dreaming,” developed by John Croft and the Gaia Foundation of Western Australia, which is currently being applied to and integrated with Sociocracy into something called “Dreamocracy.” Here are links where you can learn more about this:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj1EHdKFK6h4cN4d8sfgruNzj5mf3WVjf (Dragon Dreaming videos)
http://www.dragondreaming.org/dragondreaming/what-is-it-exactly/ (text and background papers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NvcMxuqWE (Dreamocracy, Aug 2019, Session 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NvcMxuqWE (Session 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUxPCA1RiWU (Short intro, 2018)
I’m proposing that the NJCDC “explore” this approach, just like I proposed that we explore Joel Rothschild’s Ecovillage Alliance Community Land Cooperative model.
This brings me to the request. Using Dragon Dreaming, the Gaia Foundation has no membership fees. “Instead we act as a community which encourages its members to make any appropriate financial gift or provide any voluntary labour that they feel expresses their support for our organisation, its projects and its purpose… Membership is conferred through these eligible individuals and organisations making the effort to call themselves ‘members of the Gaia Foundation’.” I suspect we probably want something more formal for membership in the NJCDC. But the first step is to “make the effort to call yourself a member,” and express this commitment in some way. Part of it, I suggest, will be to post and maintain a personal profile at cdc.ecovillagenj.org. (And if you already have the technical skills to do that, perhaps you can help pull the site together as well. Just email me if you would like to be involved.)<
By the way, the Membership Circle’s current proposal on the membership criteria is posted here. Also, by the way, all of the original circles that were set up have met, and have done useful work and had important discussions. What’s now needed is to translate all of this into further action. And this too is happening. There’s a meeting being scheduled in Princeton, and one in Trenton, to consider practical steps to establishing a neighborhood or cohousing community in each location. And there’s an ongoing discussion of Farrell’s property and the opportunity that exists there.
And frankly we need a lot more in the way of participation by the self-declared members of the Cohousing Development Cooperative. If you’re one of those who expressed interest but did not join a Circle, or step forward in some other way to take action, now is the time to do so. What that looks like is really up to each of us as individuals, but your voices need to be heard, your needs, interests, and abilities shared, and your commitment fully engaged. Please step forward and be heard, acknowledged, and celebrated.
And in case you were wondering, as I was when I started learning about Dragon Dreaming:
“So what is the Dragon? The dragon represents what is outside our comfort zones. As we step out into the unknown, we do not have to go searching for our Dragons, they will come looking for us.
And as we learn to dance with the fears of our Dragons, so we liberate our personal powers that currently lie sleeping. Our experiential exercises show us that where our fear resides, there hides the Dragon, the true source of our power. We cannot slay the Dragon but we can face it without flinching, harnessing its energy to our greater purposes. Going forth to re-engage within a dysfunctional world takes great strength. We cannot do it without acknowledgment and celebration of who we really are, and the tasks and purposes of our own unique life. How do we build celebration into all aspects of living? Only then do our lives become truly sustainable, contributing to the great turning from a cancerous society of never-ending growth, to a world that is truly life-sustaining.
“The great teachings unanimously emphasize that all the peace, wisdom, and joy in the universe are already within us; we don’t have to gain, develop, or attain them. We’re like a child standing in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight. We don’t need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds, and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realise what is already here, who we really are–as soon as we quit pretending we’re small or unholy.”
Jonathan Cloud (9/5/2019)