ONLY
PLANET
Manchester
The
Process
There will be monthly meetings of the editorial collective, which
will- to begin with at least- be open anyone who wants to come along.
We're going to try to do this as transparently as possible, but this is
NOT a "democracy" where at any meeting the decisions of previous
meetings can be overturned and the whole sorry spectacle has to start
again. The editorial collective will have final say over the process and the product, though obviously we are very
interested in people's opinions- why else ask?
Click here for a pdf of the flowchart that we're working from.
And here's the reasons why for the above statement:
Too many meetings and too little action.
Most
people would prefer to act on something concrete rather than sit at a
meeting wrangling or trying to "reach consensus". Some meetings are
usually necessary, but try to keep the frequency down, the time short,
and the number of participants small.
A related problem is too much deciding and too little creating.
Every advocacy group needs to generate options for action. To do this
well, participants need to switch off their Voice of Judgment and
brainstorm. Unfortunately, when people get together for a meeting they
usually switch on their Voice of Judgment in preparation for decision
making. If they remain in this critical frame of mind, they will
generate few options for action; nothing will get done, and no one will
have any fun.
The wrong people
Because
building democracy and community involves working with others, most
people assume they should welcome anyone interested in joining. But
this wholesome impulse can lead to rapid decline. Few are willing to
admit what is obvious in any grassroots group: some people are assets
and others are liabilities. While every group can handle a small
portion of people who are very angry, or very combative, or very
controlling, or very lonely, or very long-winded, or really
out-to-lunch, as the ratio of these people increases, level-headed,
friendly, competent people begin to leave. As the imbalance increases,
even more leave until the group is reduced to a grim residue. Those
interested in growing the grassroots need to address this all too
common phenomenon.
from The Citizen's Cookbook, by Charles Dobson, the chapter "how citizens' groups destroy themselves"