White Hawk's Decision-Making Process
Decisions at White Hawk are
made by consensus. Each member has equal
opportunity to participate in decisions. Committees and individuals are given
authority by the membership to make certain decisions.
Consensus is a cooperative, democratic decision making process. All members
of White Hawk work together to make the best possible decision for the
group. Any concerns are raised and resolved, sometimes one by one, until
all voices are heard. Consensus is based on the belief that each person
has some part of the truth and no one has all of it. It is also based on
a respect for all persons involved in the decision being considered. Decisions
are adopted when all participants consent to the result of discussion about
the original proposal. When concerns remain after discussion, individuals
can agree to disagree by acknowledging that they have unresolved concerns,
but consent to the proposal anyway and allow it to be adopted. Therefore,
reaching consensus does not assume that everyone must be in complete agreement.
Consensus decision-making requires a means to get adequate input from all
the members. In order to achieve this, we support two methods, “normal”
and “major/urgent decision” which are differentiated by their
financial impact on members and time available for a decision. For all meetings,
presence by telephone is considered equivalent to presence in person for
the purposes of decision-making.
NORMAL DECISIONS
Decisions involving policies or small dollar amounts without an urgent deadline
are made by the “normal” method. This requires a minimum of
three member households to be present at a General Meeting. A consensus
(no blocks, as defined below) of the members present is required. If this
is achieved, the decision stands provisionally, and is entered into the
meeting minutes. These minutes will be distributed to the membership within
four days of the meeting.
Within the two weeks following the meeting, any members who were unable
to attend the meeting are expected (on their own initiative) to review the
minutes. Any blocking objections may be raised by email to the White Hawk
Members Yahoo group or by being present at the General Meeting two weeks
following the provisional decision, and raising them at that time. Any decision
not explicitly blocked in this time period becomes a final decision. The
change in status (provisional to final, or provisional to blocked) should
be recorded in the minutes of the next General Meeting.
MAJOR/URGENT DECISIONS
For decisions where time is of the essence, or for any decision that requires
a financial commitment of over $3000 per household or $3000 for the entire
community, a different method is required. Such a decision can be made immediately
only if all member households are represented at a General Meeting.
If any member household is not represented at the meeting, an email must
be sent to those members. This email must detail both the proposed decision
and the deadline for a response. In the case of a decision needed between
meetings, the email must be sent to all members. In either case, it must
be sent individually and not through the Yahoo groups, using the “receipt
notification” feature to document that the member has received the
communication. If a receipt notification is not received for any of the
addressees within 24 hours or by the deadline, they must be contacted by
phone instead. Members who wish to discuss or block the decision should
reply to all the recipients or to the Yahoo group so that all the members
can understand their concerns.
Once every effort has been made to contact all the members, a major/urgent
decision may be made at the time of the deadline as long as a minimum of
50% plus 1 of the members have responded, and none of them have blocked
the decision.
GUIDELINES FOR CONSENSUS
1. The proposal should be a positive statement in clear and simple language.
It is important that the issue not be stated in such a way that an answer
is built in, but that there be an openness to looking at all sides of the
issue.
2. Whenever possible, every major proposal should either be suggested to
the Steering Committee for presentation at the next General Meeting, or
should be presented directly at a General Meeting. This allows the greatest
number of members to consider the proposal, and ensures that it can be openly
discussed.
3. Whenever possible, the proposal should be made at one General Meeting,
but the consensus decision-making process should be done at the next General
Meeting. If this is not possible, it is recommended that the proposal be
submitted by email or other means to ALL members not less than 2 days before
the meeting date at which it will be discussed. This allows the members
time to evaluate the proposal thoughtfully.
4. Members should have to opportunity to ask clarifying questions.
5. Everyone present should have a turn to express his or her perspective,
feelings, and concerns. Group time should be spent on identifying problems,
not resolving them. This requires discipline. Reactive comments, even funny
ones, and resolutions, even good ones, can suppress the creative ideas of
others.
6. Once the problems have been identified, the group should explore resolutions.
7. Once a decision has been adopted by consensus, it cannot be changed without
reaching a new consensus. 40% of the membership must agree to reopen a decision
that has been made by consensus. If a new consensus cannot be reached, the
old decision stands.
CALLING FOR CONSENSUS
When the facilitator senses that a consensus is reached, s/he states the
proposal and asks, "Do we have a consensus?" Members can answer
in three ways: yes, block, or stand aside. There are several possible outcomes
to this process:
· Reach Consensus. If consensus has been reached, the note
taker records the decision accurately. The decision is then recorded in
the Decision Log. A decision may have a clause included that specifies either
a date on which the decision will be revisited or terminated, or that it
is provisional by the process described above.
· Stand Aside. The decision is adopted with unresolved concerns;
these concerns should be explicitly listed in the minutes.
· Declare Block. A block must be justified based upon White
Hawk’s principles, and should also be recorded in the minutes.
· Send to Committee. If a decision is complex, it may be
appropriate to send the decision to a committee for further research or
better-defined proposals and alternatives.
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