I’m not sure how the other occupy movements handle decision making, but in Occupy Oakland they have formed a set of guidelines how actions are voted upon at their daily General Assembly meeting which have had roughly 1,000 to 3,000 each night. So far I am surprised at how organized these assemblies have been. Its not an easy thing to get a group of thousands to gather and collectively speak and vote on certain topics. Below are the working guidelines the general assembly uses to vote and pass proposals.
Committees needed for the functioning of the GA:
- ·Facilitators Working Group (FWG): Responsible for finding facilitators for our GA, responsible for refining our decision making process and structure, and organizing the structure of the agenda for the GA; it does not determine the content of the agenda. FWG will also help hold ongoing facilitation trainings twice a week through the Raheim Brown Free School.
(FWG will have an open meeting every day at noon, under the trees in the small plaza near the flower shop– the first half hour will be reserved for concerns and suggestions)
- ·Coordinating Committee (CoCo)*: CoCo gathers the content of the agenda of the GA. It is responsible for taking proposals, concerns, and announcements from committees and other groups in Occupy Oakland to the FWG. (please see below under “decision making process” for further details on this.) CoCo is independent of the FWG.
*this committee needs to be formed and does not exist yet
Proposed agenda for GAs:
- ·Welcome & Opener
- ·Agenda Overview, overview of process and hand signals
- ·Committee announcements
- ·Action announcements
- ·Proposals from committees
- ·Proposals from other groups, caucuses, affinity groups, etc.
- ·General announcements (open)
- ·Forum
Decision Making Process (Proposals)
The below decision making process is a modified consensus process, which means it strives for full consensus (100% agreement) by allowing ample time to discuss everyone’s questions and concerns and make amendments, but will accept less than 100% consensus if after addressing questions and concerns, consensus cannot be reached. (see the step by step process below for details.)
Only Occupy Oakland committees or groups (which we define as 3 or more people who are a part of Occupy Oakland) may make proposals to the General Assembly. The proposal made to the assembly must have 100% consensuswithin that group or committee and must have 3 members attending the GA to present the proposal (all three or more people must speak). The proposal must be written down or said aloud to the proposal note-taker at the GA(there is a proposal box at the info tent). If it becomes apparent that the group giving a proposal needs to gather more information or take more into consideration, the coordinating committee may have them bring their proposal back for later.
*Note: In order for the GA to make a decision on a proposal, at least 50 people should be present (this may be amended as the occupation goes on).
Step by step of decision making process:
1. proposal: written and presented as thoroughly as possible
2. stack: clarifying questions*, pros and cons, suggested amendments (with full explanation)
3. test for consensus; 90% passes proposal
——————————————
- ·if 90% approval is not reached, consider friendly amendments and repeat steps 1-3 and try for 80% approval to pass proposal
*clarifying questions can be immediately addressed by those giving the proposal
note: facilitator may use tools such as a straw poll, group break out discussions, according to their discretion
GA Facilitation Roles (these will be rotating):
-Co-facilitators: core facilitation, announcing agenda items
-Coordinating Committee presenters: gives brief summaries of subcommittee announcements
-Participant advocators: addresses points-of-process concerns and factual responses from crowd, counts during tests for consensus, directs people to stage to speak, answers questions about decision making process
-Note-taker: takes notes of announcements and decisions made during assembly, gets notes to the web committee
-proposal note-taker: takes down new proposals for the current GA or a later agenda
-Time-keeper: holds up visual reminders of time available for speakers and announcements
Most recently, they general Assembly passed a vote on Wednesday for a city-wide strike on November 2nd.
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Hi Sam,
Are you out in Oakland? That photo is pretty amazing.
I’m struck by how similar the consensus process of #occupyOakland you describe is to the Book of Commons for Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, an owner-developed, owner-financed sustainable housing development Still Water is partnering with, and whose prototype was just named LEED Project of the Year.
It has taken the founding families of Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage four years to get their finances in order and actually break ground (just this month!). Maybe that’s because the cohousers are putting their financial well being on the line…but it’s still impressive how quickly the Occupy movement has developed a governance infrastructure.
I’ve noticed that successful many-to-many communities run really tight meetings. I wish I could say the same for traditional hierarchic organizations!
Hey Jon,
I’ve been living in Oakland for a little over a year now. It was kind of funny, there was not much support for the occupy movement in Oakland (myself included) until the police raided the camp on October 25th., They shot flash bangs and tear gas in to crowds putting an Iraq veteran in the hospital in critical condition.
http://www.baycitizen.org/occupy-movement/story/iraq-vet-critically-wounded-occupy/
It was after this that the group grew from a few hundred camping out, to a couple thousand meeting every night. The general assembly, which I think was started with the occupy campers, really gained support after the raids and started to gain some numbers on the 26th.
One of the first proposals passed by the GA is for a general strike of the city, that is going to take place Wednesday. Already the SEIU (largest union in Oakland representing 50,000 workers), Oakland Education Association, Oakland’s Carpenters Local Union have all endorsed the strike.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/30/1031673/-BREAKING:-Largest-Union-in-Oakland-(SEIU)-Reportedly-Joining-OccupyOaklands-General-Strike-on-11-2
So far I’m surprised by the the General Assembly, and its cohesiveness, especially in such a diverse city. I’m also surprised at the amount of support from unions the strike is gaining. There are plans for a group to gather Wednesday and march on banks and the port of Oakland (which is one of the larger shipping ports on the West Coast.) Hopefully everything goes peacefully.
Thanks for the details on GA process and the surprising reference to cohousing. I just wanted to put in a shameless plug for East Bay Cohousing Meetup group and for the training we either produce or link to on learning to create and facilitate consensus based communities for living and working. Also check out sociocracy and a slew more direct democracy practices in use around the world, at Tom Atlee’s “Co-intelligence Institute” at http://www.cointelligence.org
My understanding is that the GA process adapted from OWS in New York City, drew inspiration from the organizers behind the Egyptian and Tunisian movements, who trained with the Bosnian non-violent youth movement that brought down Milosovich. And the Bosnians learned their methods from…? (help me here!) Let direct democracy go viral.
Thanks,
- Betsy Morris
cohost East Bay Cohousing
resident Berkeley Cohousing
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the energizing feedback from Oakland. It’s inspiring to see the many New Media strategies appear in these new governance models–the many-to-many paradigm, the frustration with hierarchies and their enforcements.
The consensus model has many ancestors, from Quaker meetings, to family meetings, to the Transition Town uses of Open Space (itself indebted to programmers “open source” models of collaboration and trust building), to the consensus governance of many cohousing and ecovillages project, like the one Jon & I belong to that he mentioned above. What has impressed me most about our model is what we do when we disagree.
We have provisions for “standing aside” which means we disagree personally but see some value for the community in the action proposed, so we defer to the community; or there’s a rarely used “block” which means that we disagree personally and on behalf of the community. That means we feel so strongly that unless the community can convince us otherwise, the proposal may be delayed or withdrawn. We do this not to put forth our own agenda but to warn the community when it is taking an action that we feel is so problematic that we take responsibility for preventing the group from moving forward. There are ways to get around a block, but if a respected community member blocks, it’s a good idea to pay attention. In this model the process of developing consensus–so that everyone feels heard, feels committed and feels a part of the vision emerging–is what develops a strong community. The need to communicate with each other helps a stronger vision, and a deeper wisdom emerge. Because well organized groups are smarter than individuals.
Democracy is a living process and must be continually generated and developed, so it’s a privilege to be part of this energy. Thanks for keeping us in the loop about your activity–it energizes all of us!
For more info on these resources.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupywallstreet
http://mainecohousing.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux_LFjFeCvg
http://transitionculture.org/2007/01/16/10-first-steps-for-a-transition-town-initiative-5-use-open-space/
http://transitionus.org/
http://transitionus.org/stories/occupy-and-transition-resources-creating-lasting-change