The Community is committed to consensus decision making. All members must complete the consensus training process described below in order to fully understand and participate in decision making. Exploring members must successfully complete the consensus training before they can become a member.

Consensus training:

For exploring members:

1. All exploring members are paired with a mentor when they enter the exploring member phase. The exploring member receives an exploring member packet from their mentor containing the group vision and mission statements, the consensus process, the Behavioral Ground Rules, the membership path, and other agreements related to the community's consensus process.
2. The exploring member and their mentor review the packet and clarify any questions.
3. The exploring member will receive consensus training at a face-to-face gathering.
4. The mentor will make an assessment of the person's understanding of the community's consensus process. If further instruction is needed, the mentor will make recommendations to the exploring member. When the mentor is comfortable with the exploring member's understanding of our consensus process, a statement of support will be offered to the other members by the mentor.

For founding members:

1. All founding members will be responsible for reading the vision and mission statements, the consensus process, the Behavioral Ground Rules, the membership path, and other agreements related to our decisions making process that are available on the wiki.
2. The founding members will be responsible for engaging in conversation with other members to ensure their understanding of these documents and the consensus process.
3. Each founding member will receive consensus training at a face-to-face gathering.
4. The founding members will have until the end of the Spring meeting 2008 to complete the conversations in step two (2) and the consensus training. The founding members will be able to block decisions during this time. If the founding members do not complete the consensus training process by the end of the Spring meeting 2008, they will no longer be able to block decisions. The founding members may appeal to the group for an extension. An extension may be granted for extenuating circumstances, by consensus of the members.