GA 2/9/12
Revamping our Consensus Process for Meetings: The GA discussed the process we use for meetings and approved several changes.
Key Changes
Redefined the “Hard Block” – hard block means you believe the decision violates one of the shared principles or values of the group or undermines the movement or the group. It is not based on personal preferences or disagreements. When you issue a hard block, you will be asked to explain how the decision violates a principle of the group and to suggest alternatives
Redefined the “Direct Response” – direct response is used only if you have an answer to the speaker’s question for information; it is not used to counter the speaker’s opinion or to present your own arguments
Added facilitator roles: Greeter to welcome people and catch them up on the agenda topic; Vibes-watcher to monitor the mood of the group
For discussion of concerns about a proposal we’ll use break out groups of 3 to 5 people and let the groups work out the concerns and come up with a recommendation for the GA. This will save time since more than one person will be able to speak at a time (1 for each group). If the proposal is fairly straightforward and there are only 1 or 2 concerns, we can skip the break out groups.
Other Changes
Some minor changes were made to hand signals and steps in the process to make it smoother. You can see those changes in our new consensus document and agenda format linked below:
New summary of consensus process (2 pages): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GKLyEZj4oF6EAIg_FCwtLVSPV7rMqREqDvWOeSh0Xug/edit
New agenda format for General Assembly (1 page): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QR6x2t_4Sr4n8ImPcp3QXK0Hy3nVpw-jOzRwAR_R5SQ/edit
