Opening the discussion about decision making
What we propose :
* Decision making will be divided into different categories.
* Day to day decisions will be taken by the teams that are responsible for them and will be transparent to the whole community.
* The council will meet periodically or at need to discuss and vote about any needed issues. For example,
it can be development , new members , new projects , directions etc.
* To arrive to a decision , a vast majority is needed. We would like to offer that a majority of 80% will be needed for decisions. It might take more discussions and maybe more time yet it gives a lot of importance and priority to make everyone happy.
Please add your feedback and let's start a discussion
Blessings
Vismay
Thanks @vismay for the proposal.
Think practically I'm asking myself what are the most relevant decisions that are going to be made by the community? (@vismay @nicole @oran maybe you can share from your experience)
Currently I see the following areas:
1. Projects & Investments
Land Purchase
Roads
Energy
Agriculture
Buildings
Main decisions: What is the concrete objective and purpose of the project? Who is responsible for the project? What are the financials and necessary investments?
2. New Community Members
Amount of lots to be issued
Member selection
Financial contribution
Main decision: How many lots are we going to issue? When are we issuing these lots?
What is the current valuation of a lot?
What are the requirements to join the community?
3. Member Agreement
a. Internal structure (communication, day to day & general decision making, council etc.)
b. Changes and adjustments of agreement
The 80% margin for arriving at a decision sounds good to me, as it gives us alignment and yet a certain flexibility to move forward.
A first example of how we make decisions could be the escrow account vs. direct transfer of the funds once we have them together:
In this case a RESPONSIBLE would make a PROPOSAL to the COMMUNITY. This could be done through our common Zoom Call where the proposal is presented in all detail and diligence. Then after a certain time of QUESTIONING we would end the discussion and make a decision through VOTING. If the voting doesn't reach the 80% margin we return back to discussion until a CONSENSUS (> 80%) has been reached.
It could be a great start to think about the first decisions that are going to be made by the community in the upcoming months and come up with a simple way of how we are going to make decisions and realize the projects. Makes it more tangible, less hypothetical.
Looking forward hearing your feedback and perspective.
Aho, Chris
Hello Chris & all , thanks for your input.
As I see , we are striving to create a reality where everyone's voice can be heard.
Sure , not every small decision need to have a vote , some of those decisions will be taken in the moment yet according to the guidelines that we will create.
here is my opinion/experience on the points that you mentioned..
1. Projects & Investments
Land Purchase
Roads
Energy
Agriculture
Buildings
Main decisions: What is the concrete objective and purpose of the project?
* This has been described in the presentation and it is the fundamental aspect of the project attraction. I am sure we will expand and refine it and make it more solid and it is very open to discussion yet it is defined as a spiritual ecological community and I hope it will always stay like this.
Who is responsible for the project? What are the financials and necessary investments?
* We hope to get more people on this team that manages the project , until now it is managed & planned by SOL .
* About roads and infrastructure , We would make available all the information and we can decide together between the options that will be available. There will be a person/ team that will overview the primary process and will take small decisions .
* We would like to set either a time that we meet all meet here or a electronic communication to discuss our progress in the first years. With energy , construction , agriculture etc.
2. New Community Members
Amount of lots to be issued
Member selection
Financial contribution
Main decision: How many lots are we going to issue? When are we issuing these lots?
What is the current valuation of a lot?
What are the requirements to join the community?
* A suggestion for this was given in the member agreement , it will be open to discussion
* We suggest to issue 12 lots now and then evaluate when is the good time to issue more.
3. Member Agreement
a. Internal structure (communication, day to day & general decision making, council etc.)
b. Changes and adjustments of agreement
* this should happen in the Florestral Council
* I think it is a good idea to discuss the escrow vs direct deposit in our next zoom and practice our decision making.
Thanks again
Aho !
Hey @vismay , appreciate your reply.
Quick thing to clarify: With the questions that are written underneath the sections, they were not intended as questions to be answered right away, but rather as guiding questions for our decision making process. Sorry for not being clear enough on that ;)
So whenever we face a new Project eg. "building roads", we would determine what the objective/purpose is, who is leading the project, what are the financial projections for the project etc.
Whenever we issue new lots we would have to decide on how many lots, what their valuation is, what the requirements are etc.
Same applies to the other sections.
I intended to give an overview about my perspective of how to approach a decision in any given section. I hope I could make that clearer now.
Let's make it applicable with the escrow vs direct transfer decision. This would be a "project" which requires someone who leads the conversation (a "responsible") who gathers all the information and the proposal including all implications.
Coming back to the question from before: For this "project" we can then apply guiding question that could be the same for any project, as in Q1: "What is the purpose of this project?" Answer might be: "To guarantee a secure and cost effective way to purchase the land within 'Florestral Land Expansion Phase 1'"; Q2: "What are the financial fundamentals for this project"....
Any project would therefore start with a LEAD (someone who takes it), for the "Escrow Project" I would suggest @vismay or @oran as you have already looked into it. With having the LEAD does not mean to take all the workload on oneself but rather to initiate and to take it further.
Blessings,
Hello Chris ! Yes I do understand better now and support this way of organizing it !
Thanks for the detailed ideas about the decision-making process. I would feel at ease about the 80-percent rule, and yet I don't feel that it should be a requirement that one be physically present to vote (this was mentioned as a possibility at a meeting). As long as you can be available during an online meeting, for example, votes could be cast that way.
Perhaps it could be decided that if you live at Florestral for so many months per year, you get 1.5 votes where more of a sometimes-visiting resident gets one whole vote. But I do think that if you own a lot, you should at least have one vote in community decisions. Another thing to consider is whether the votes are per household or per individual; for example, in the cases where a couple may have purchased a lot. Do they each get a vote, or is it one vote for the partnership?
This may seem nitpicky, but I do think it's necessary in getting at an accurate 80%.