[Community Rights Network] Response from the Process Team
dougmck at mcn.org
dougmck at mcn.org
Sun Apr 6 11:51:22 PDT 2014
Baile,
Just wanted to let you know that I have added all the members from
the group that have expressed interest to date (70 people). The
list serve should now be fully functional. Many have expressed they
are receiving too many personal emails and hope the list serve will
simplify communications.
Remember, there is an option for a daily digest in order to receive
all emails in a daily batch, and it looks like currently we must
"reply to all" or your email will only get sent back to the original
sender. I can make that automatic in the settings.
If you have any questions or know of anyone who is still left off the
list serve, please contact me at dougmck at mcn.com.
Doug McKenty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Baile Oakes"
To:"Michael St. John"
Cc:"Tim Rice" , "crn at lists.mcn.org"
Sent:Sun, 6 Apr 2014 11:14:56 -0700
Subject:Re: [Community Rights Network] Response from the Process Team
Hello Tim,
What a wonderful step everyone took with the process committee.
At the same time, for clear communication with our entire
organization, please send this document on to the full email list.
Many, many people are not receiving communication from the CRN list
serve.
All important communication needs to be directed original email
addresses until such time as full confirmation of clear communication
with our group can be established.
Thanks,
with love,
Baile
On Apr 6, 2014, at 9:04 AM, Michael St. John wrote:
Tim, Robin, Willow, and Charles: Well said! Thank you for this!
I was torn about which teams to sign up for, and if I had more time,
would surely have signed up for the Process team. I find myself in
synch with your summary of where we are and were we might be going,
and informed by the wisdom reflected in your analysis of what is
now past and suggestions for the future. I am confirmed in my
belief that we will work our way past the struggles of inclusion and
will bond more securely as we work on the larger goal. I
particularly like your articulation of the link between process and
purpose. Be well. MStJ. Michael St. John
St. John font-size:12pt;"> FROM: Tim Rice
TO: crn at lists.mcn.org [3]
SENT: Sunday, April 6, 2014 8:24 AM
SUBJECT: [Community Rights Network] Response from the Process Team
Greetings from the Process Team
What an interesting week. Well, actually a couple of weeks.
There is much good stuff here that'll take more than a 30 second scan
so settle in, get comfortable, and we'll get started.
For us, the process team, this e-mail as a learning/teaching moment.
Our understanding is that since we are in a living system, the
cutting edge is constantly changing. Learn from this e-mail and teach
back
to us how you respond. What are your questions? How are we being
unclear
for you? This is not cause and effect, it is dialog and deliberation.
A conversation.
This organization is just getting its "sea legs," so we're all a
little
off balance. That's OK, and that's also to be expected. We did not
know
what we did not know and we were sure our community was different So
here
we are laboring under very tight deadlines, and setting very high
standards
for ourselves and others. The getting used to working together and
getting
to know each other process takes a while, and we request your
patience
and positive intentions to do your best, to chip in, and to help
co-create
this community rights network of Mendocino County boat.
We'd like to provide a perspective about some recent conflicts. We
request
you bring an open mind to these matters. We ask that you join with us
in
an investigation into the truth of the matter. We provide some data
points
below, but we acknowledge that there is more to the stories below.
These
issues aren't settled yet, but we are working in that direction.
(1) Let's start the most recent thing - Scott M.
=======================================================
We had the presenter of a meeting (Shannon) request that we only
invite
those that have taken one of Paul's workshops or attended Democracy
School to the campaign school. Why? So she would not have to take
time
figuring out how to
pack two days worth of information into a few minutes to bringing new
people up to speed. A reasonable request. Now in some peoples minds,
the request to limit the invitees to those that would not have to be
brought up to speed, morfed into a hard and fast rule that the entire
group agreed on, and it was later transgressed. Let's be clear that
it
was never a hard-and fast rule.
It is clear to the process team, that a request by a presenter at
a meeting does not automaticly become a rule agreed to by the entire
group.
Some things the group should know:
(a) Scott had been working with the coastal group for about a month
before
the campaign day got underway, and he attended three meetings on the
coast
before campaign day, and was accepted by the coastal group. Jim
Tarbell was
also at one of these meetings (Jim will be a proponent of the ballot
measure).
(b) Scott made himself (and his qualifications) known to Shannon and
Peter
before Democracy School. Shannon welcomed his participation.
(c) Scott made known to Shannon and Peter that due to his extensive
work in
community organizing and his personal financial considerations, he
would not be
attending Democracy School.
(d) Shannon has told us that she enjoyed her interactions with Scott
last
Sunday and felt he would be a valuable member of our team.
(e) Shannon has offered to personally bring Scott up to speed if that
will help smooth things out. Scott has expressed a willingness to put
in
some study time to make sure he's on the same page with those of us
who have
gone through democracy school.
(2) Now let's look at the (unknown to most) person that showed up a
little
after the meeting started and was asked to leave the meeting - Mr. No
Name
First we need to back up a bit. Do you remember that moment in Paul's
workshop and/or Democracy School where you had that "ah ha" moment
realizing
just how much our minds have been colonized as it relates to our
government?
Did you also wonder in what other way our minds are colonized? Were
we
unconsciously fighting amongst ourselves the way that our culture
taught us
to be, so that we don't pay attention to the fundamental injustice
and
exploitation of our system? Is this same approach really what we want
to
be using going forward, or is a more open and embracing attitude
toward
fellow members of our community now called for?
OK, now back to last Sunday. A number of things were going on here.
One
we've covered where a simple request in order to save time became a
rule
in some people's minds. Then there is the fact that exclusion (us and
them) is a large part of our cultural conditioning. Add to that most
of us
went through the public school system. Many things were learned in
that
system some consciously and some unconsciously. One of the (possibly
unconsciously) things we learned was to yield to authority. So when
someone
in our group got up to ask the person to leave with the conviction
that
they were acting on the will of the group, many of was were in shock,
many
unconsciously yielded to their "authority." And it all happened so
fast,
that many of us did not have a chance to ask ourselves what was going
on.
And unfortunately we may have lost an ally in the cause as a result.
(3) And now we go back a week earlier to a disagreement between one
of the
attendees and the organizer of Democracy School. Again, there were a
number
of contributing factors. One factor was that both people involved
have
a styles of interacting that have neeeb observed to make people
uncomfortable
and sometimes even get people angry at them. Now put them together.
Hmm.
But that's only part of it. Many factors. There is the tendency of
humans to
(often times unconsciously) claim ownership for some endeavor they
have
put a whole lot of time and effort into. Then there was the confusion
within the group (and probably still is) about what we were
attempting to
accomplish. It's not really about fracking (or water, or hack and
squirt,
or food sovereignty, or ...) it is about the right of a community to
govern themselves. Fracking just looks like the most likely to
succeed
vehicle (for lack of a better term) to get our ordinance passed so
we can start the process of governing ourselves. And then the big
one.
The blurring in some peoples minds of the organization (and
organizational structure) of producing Paul's workshops/Democracy
School
and the organization (and organizational structure) of getting a
county
wide ordinance passed
It is clear to the process team, that there has been a transition
point
from the organization (and organizational structure) of producing
Paul's workshops/Democracy School to what we develop now to get
this ordinance passed.
Preparation for this Ordinance has so far not included studying,
planning
and designing to invent an organization.
Now that this critical juncture has been reached. Along side the work
of the
working-groups to get signatures, educate the public etc, a parallel
effort on
inventing an organization should be started now.
That is: - doing now what we should have been doing last year.
This current Ordinance is limited by the short time line so the group
may find it difficult to prioritize resources toward creating the
kind
of organizational culture that this work requires. Which brings to
mind
the phrase "There is never enough time to do the job right, but there
is always enough time to do it over".
People could begin the process of decolonizing their minds and
imaginations
of the out-dated and inappropriate command and control hierarchical
model
of organizational design, with its centralized concentration of power
and
the autocratic behavior it engenders to sustain itself.
That governance model cannot cope as it clashes head on with the
complexity
of the emergent systems-based self organizing network of freely
associating
self-governing people.
Consequently, conflict, distrust and fear are erupting in the
Ordinance
group.
This is a spiritual problem that can be addressed by implementing a
conscious, radically democratic organizational structure complemented
by
wide ranging common study, and under-girded by routine practices that
support the human spirit in difficult times - singing, meditation,
exercises like Joanna Macy's work and regular circling.
This is why Paul says it takes years to prepare to lead these
Ordinances!
We must be the change we want to see - and that takes time we don't
have.
To begin the process the process team proposes the following:
- each of the working-groups could create a Mind Map - a
graphic,
intuitive, interactive rendition of its role and contribution to
the whole
Ordinance effort.
Mind Maps access the right brain, giving it an opportunity to express
itself bypassing the left brain's drive to analyze, verbalize,
interpret
and direct.
If you are unfamiliar with this technique - here are some links.
Each of these 4 links has a piece.
http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/ [4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map [5]
http://www.google.com/search?q=mind+maps&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=f2NAU4a4NevfsASw94KwCA&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1237&bih=776
[6]
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm [7]
If you need clarification on this process, call Willow.
This Mapping could be done by working-groups meeting in person -
which is ideal.
However, given the constraints of geographic dispersion, travel etc,
each
person in a group could make their own Map and distribute it to the
rest by
emailing photos or other digital versions.
This collection of Mind Maps would be the stuff of the on-going,
longer-term conversation within the whole group about how to organize
an
emergent systems-based self organizing network, capable of adapting
to
changing circumstances that - as we have seen - become increasingly
demanding.
Ultimately, the whole group would see all the working-groups' Maps,
and would
then gather in carefully designed workshops to integrate them -
and
see what emerges!
- Process and Conflict Resolution Team: Tim Rice, Willow Rain,
Robin
Sunbeam, and Charles Wood
[ever notice how all four of our last names are nature
elements/manifestations?]
P.S. You may have noticed in all of this that nowhere did the process
team say "this is how the group will function" or "this is how it
must
be done". That was intentional. We're doing our best to model how
autonomous self governing people interact.
--
Tim Rice Multitalents (707) 456-1146
tim at multitalents.net [8]
_______________________________________________
crn mailing list
crn at lists.mcn.org [9]
http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/crn [10]
_______________________________________________
crn mailing list
crn at lists.mcn.org [11]
http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/crn
Links:
------
[1] http://www.stjohnandassociates.net
[2] mailto:tim at multitalents.net
[3] mailto:crn at lists.mcn.org
[4] http://www.tonybuzancom/about/mind-mapping/
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
[6]
http://www.google.com/search?q=mind+maps&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=f2NAU4a4NevfsASw94KwCA&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1237&bih=776
[7] http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm
[8] mailto:tim at multitalents.net
[9] mailto:crn at lists.mcn.org
[10] http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/crn
[11] mailto:crn at lists.mcn.org
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