Community Issues

[rmauersr]

Assuming that community living will become more popular as something new replaces the current system in a state of collapse, who can share a fair and workable method for group decision making?

For example:

• What decisions are left to the group, assuming all other decisions are left to the individual?
• In any community some members will have more resources than others. Does this influence community decisions and consumption of resources?
• A founding member may have significant investment in farmland that could support a community. How does this influence group decision making?
• New members, with little or no resources, may be looking for a port in a storm. Who decides what group resources are available to the newcomer?
• How does the group respond to dysfunctional behavior by group members?
• Who defines dysfunctional behavior?

There must be some successful models out there.

[Tibouchine]

Did you ever hear about Holacracy? It’s a practice for structuring, governing, and running
an organization. I’ve studied it for a while and I think it’s a brilliant system. You might
check out this website www.holacracy.org

Two months ago I paid a visit to an eco-community near Berlin, Germany. They’ve introduced
Holacracy as a governing method for their community in 2009 and I was curious how they
were doing with this system. They are probably the first intentional community having put
this method into practice and they are quite happy with it. They’ve told me that other
communities are planning to implement Holacracy as well.

The website of the eco-community ZEGG is http://www.zegg.de/english.html?Itemid=112