This page contains all the loose ends from decisions that have already been made. They will be moved to the bottom of this page once they have been completed.

Loose ends around Decision Making

• A decision was made at the KC meeting, which met with some concerns after the meeting. The wording accepted at the meeting was "We empower the members present at face to face meetings to make decisions for the entire group, if we have a quorum and if the decision areas are announced ahead of time." We recognize 3 areas that need further clarification:

1) We need to determine what will constitute a quorum.

2) We need to clarify what we mean by "decision areas" (Our intention is to NOT be so specific as to need to list every single decision/proposal that will be decided, and yet to also NOT be so vague so that simply announcing a general topic will suffice.)

3) We need to find a way or a process to fulfill our desired intent that those members not able to be present are able to give their input ahead of time and that there has been adequate time for every member to be involved in discussions leading up to a decision.

This whole decision has been referred to the Process Team to make recommendations to the group.

From the Consensus Decision Making process that was agreed to on 6/10/07:

• From the Preamble:

1) Defining “non-essential decisions”

2) Creating the process for making any decision by any method other than this default process

3) Are there any class of essential decisions that might be made by a non-consensus method?

4) Working on our “tool box”

• From STEP #1:

1) What is the process for introducing a topic or issue that there is a desire for a decision about?

2) Further definition of what a topic guide is, whether it is always necessary to have a topic guide, and what about topics that don’t have a topic guide
3) Role of the facilitator needs to be defined and how that interacts with topic guide.

• From STEP #4:

1) What are the possible selection of tools and methods that can be used for resolving concerns?

• From STEP #6:

1) Define what is meant by “Agree”, “Stand aside” and “Block”, and determine if we want to have another option between “Stand aside” and “Block”.

Loose end from Membership path

• When consensus was reached on inviting Aimee to become a member, we also agreed that we want to develop membership criteria and a more formalized path to membership. Some of the ideas that we have so far can be found Here.

Loose end from Behavioral Ground Rules

• Developing the tools and methods that can assist in implementing these behavioral ground rules.

Loose end from payment and consequences of non-payment of dues

• Defining our "restorative justice process".

Loose ends that have been resolved

• The particular consensus process or model that our group wants to use still needs to be further defined and a Process Team was formed to review our options and provide a proposal for the group to consider at the June/Earthaven meeting. (This loose end was resolved with the decision about our consensus process made on 6/10/07.
• Fix the grammar for the whole consensus decision making proposal. (This loose end was completed on 7/25/07)
• When we say that "everyone who can block a decision needs to be trained in consensus" we need to clarify what kind of training and what process or style of consensus we want to be trained in. These questions were referred to the Process Team to make recommendations to the group. (This loose end was completed on 10/16/07)
• Loose end from Supporters:Establish a time frame for supporters introducing themselves. (This loose end was completed on 10/16/07)
• The idea of an "Inactive member" status for members who want to leave the group but retain some linkage. (This loose end was completed on 12/23/07)
• Loose end from payment and consequences of non-payment of dues: Defining the role of treasurer/s. (This loose end was completed at the Summer meeting in 2008 with final approval on 7/29/08.)
• Loose end from Behavioral Ground Rules: Clarify and define for ourselves the term “Sacred Wounds”. (This loose end was completed on 8/15/08)