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Geodemocracy Lesson 1 -Structure |
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Geodemocracy Lesson 1 -Structure |
The Geodesic Direct Democratic Network Lesson One -Structure
The I-Team or IcosaTeam
There seems to be, among humans, an ideal size of interaction, where our individuality is preserved but group interaction is also preserved. This size is from 6 to 12 people. With less, the individuals can be overawed by a single strong willed and powerful voice, intimidating any less powerful individual into agreeing against their own conscience. With more than 12, the individual can become secondary to the group, and the same thing can happen. With 12, the social forces balance out, so a loud powerful individual is faced with a group that can follow their conscience against that individual's intimidation, while the group is small enough that everyone can know everyone else thoroughly enough to naturally include them in all considerations. In the Geonet, each group of 12 is called an I-Team)
Since the structure is designed with built in inclusiveness as well as preserving small group diversity, the balance is natural and supported no matter who is in the group. The decisions of the group, as well as the dynamics of the interaction, which is often synergetic and rather overwhelming, is balanced by each individual being part of two groups instead of one, with only one other individual in each group connected to the same two groups. This causes the feedback loop that is required for true critical investigation and wholistic consideration of all proposed ideas and actions. It preserves the individual's self-analysis in the face of group dynamics at the same time it preserves the unity of the group in the face of individual self-delusion. Inotherwords, it keeps the group from overwhelming and controlling the individual at the same time it prevents the individual from deliberately disrupting the group.
Within the structure, there is no individual choice of their position or which groups they connect. Positions are chosen initially by computer at random, and while the individual can ask for transfer to a different group of 12, (I-Team), they will have no choice as to what group they get transferred to. This prevents 'buddy' groups from forming, which are cliques which have disproportionate synergy in the operations of the structure. Average over the whole system, which prevents mob mentality, it is essentially impossible for anyone to get in an I-team which will give them a platform for power seeking, so the designs of those attracted to power will be thwarted.
At the same time, it is likely that most I-Teams, even with widely divergent beliefs and ideas will work out their differences and find their commonality within that group, but not be able to take that outside of that group of 12, so they will not produce disproportionate synergy towards a set of actions that most everyone will not agree with. With no delegation of individual power, anyone will be able to withhold their energy and money from something they disagree with, but they will not avoid working out with the others in their I-Teams why they are doing that, to the other's educational benefit.
Expulsion from an I-Team requires a lot of agreement from many separate I-Teams to proceed, and even then, the individual is just randomly transferred to an I-Team separate from the I-Teams which rejected them. Only violence in their personal life can cause a member to be rejected from the Geonet itself, and then only for the time as set by courts of law in the outside society. If the Geonet was to become the government, then the Geonet, with hundreds of millions of members at that time, would be required to come up with a way to deal with violence, something that would require a level of discourse about the subject far beyond this author's considerations. Hundreds of millions of minds will likely come up with something really spectacular once freed from the almost binary thinking of most existing systems.
The 4 Positions
In any meeting, there are usually coordinators, who have the responsibility to lead the discussion or, often, in socially unfettered groups, promote discussion on the subjects they wish to talk about and convince the members to accept. In an I-Team, there are four positions that are filled in a rotating manner, and are obligatory for all members.
They are;
Peace Keeper, who has the job of staying detached from the discussion enough to halt it if emotions start to boil. The heated subject can then, at the Peace Keeper's decision, be restarted or put off until the next meeting. The Peace Keeper cannot otherwise choose the subjects. That is determined by the Team as a whole and filtered by the next position before the meeting starts.
Interface, who directs and focuses the discussion to the subject at hand, who draws in members who are not participating, and chooses before the meeting what subjects are talked about. There is time during a meeting, which lasts approximately an hour, for 12 Subjects, and that will be talked about in the next section. The Interface has absolute decision making power as to what subjects are talked about, but cannot stop a discussion or filter it in any way. The Interface also has the responsibility to keep the discussion upon the Subject, and can ask a member or members to drop any extraneous discussion and apply themselves to the Subject. If an individual is disruptive, mean, threatning, or personally insulting to other members, the Interface can write a strong worded message to be inserted in the General Record of the I-Team, to be read by the six other adjacent I-Teams and all other I-Teams which are interested. The Interface's message can, with other such messages be used in a request by an I-Team to have the individual to be randomly reassigned to a different I-Team.
Recorder, who keeps a short succulent account of the meeting for publication in the General Records, available to all members and anyone else who is interested. This account cannot be altered or deleted once posted in the General Records, and passes into the I-Team section of the General Records Archive for historical reference, where it also cannot be altered or deleted. (See Lesson Five -General Archives) The Recorder also has specific duties concerning changes in Finances for Projects. (See Lesson 4 -Finances)
Last, the Timer, who simply keeps time and announces a warning a minute before a Subject's time is up, and when it's time is over and it's time to go on to a different Subject. While members can access and read anything, and talk about anything anytime, the meetings are very structured according to what mode the Team is in. This is discussed in following sections. The Timer has additional duties concerning Finances and Projects and assists the Recorder during Ongoing Meetings. (See Lesson 4 -Finances and Lesson 6 -Projects)
The Meeting
There are three kinds of meetings. There are Ongoing Meetings, Live Meetings, and Face Meetings.
Ongoing Meetings go on all the time. Any member of an I-Team can access the Ongoing meeting and talk with others about the Subjects or anything else. The messages are recorded, like email lists are recorded, in an Archive, and can be found and referred to.
Live Meetings are very time restricted one hour meetings, highly structured, and occur once a week per I-Team.
Usually the Live Meeting will occur at the same time and on the same day of the week as every other I-Team in a region, but for some members, they may have Live meetings at any time day or night. Those members, called Link Members, volunteer for those randomly selected meetings, but have no say over when the meeting occurs. A link meeting has time zone considerations and restrictions and is set by which two I-Teams the member is assigned to.
Face meetings are meetings in name only. A face meeting occurs once a month for local members to meet and get to know each other in person. They are purely social meeting which will usually occur on the weekends at an agreed upon location. Link members do not have to go to remote Face meetings, but any I-Team members who can should. No business of the Geonet should be spoken of at a Face Meeting, only the personal chitchat which helps people to get to know each other. These meetings are optional, but intended to be fun. I-Teams can merge their Face Meetings with other I-Teams, and occasionally, O-Teams should have organized Face Meetings.
An I-Team, throughout the organization, is tied to a Cycle, which is 2 weeks in length. The first week is called the Self-education Week, while the second is called the Consideration Week. All the positions rotate every 2 cycles, and are randomly reshuffled once a year. This means every person holds every position once a year.
In the Self-Education Week, the I-Team members seek out data on subjects they proposed or proposed to them by other I-Teams. There are 1 to 6 Exterior Subjects from other I-Teams, specifically the other I-Team each person is part of. There are up to 12 Interior Subjects, (1 to 12), or subjects which the individuals in the I-Team suggested. During the Self-Education Week, all sources of data the individuals can find on the Subjects are perused and discussed, and from the 1 to 12 Interior Subjects, the Interface picks the 6 Interior Subjects to be discussed at the Live meeting, known as the Opening Meeting, during Self-Education weeks.
In the Consideration Week, during the Ongoing meeting, the members discuss what they have learned and consider what they will choose action on during the Live meeting, also known as the Closing Meeting during Considerating weeks. When the Live meeting convenes, the Interface introduces the Subjects, Interior and Exterior, the same ones from the previous week, and short discussion occurs for that Subject, until, at the end of the time, each member gives a Yay, Nay, Global, or Pass on each subject electronically.
Pass does not mean that a member is undecided, but rather that the member wants that Subject to be passed to the adjacent six meetings as an outgoing Exterior Subject for those I-Teams. If two or more members Pass on a Subject, it has to be considered as a possible Exterior Subject, and if more than one Exterior Subject is selected by members passing on it, the Interface has to choose one only. Only one Subject can be sent out to adjacent I-Teams as an Exterior Subject. The others become Internal Subjects for the next Cycle. For each External Subject an I-Team has received, a Response has to be generated during the Ongoing meeting during the Consideration Week to be sent back to the originating I-Team. The External Subject can become an Internal Subject for the next Cycle, with a single sentence notifying the originating I-Team of this fact in the Response.
If six or more members choose a Yay on a Subject, any action on that Subject is authorized for those six or more members. The only actions which the I-Team can pass is either local, (putting the money they have in their I-Team account into something local, or doing something like cleaning up a vacant lot or getting together food for someone, etc) or Project oriented, putting the money in their I-Team account into an existing Project or a proposal to start a Project, or for that matter, closing down a Project. (See Lesson 6 - Projects.)
The Global vote is reserved to indicate the individuals desire to promote a Subject to a higher resolution Mode, explained in the next section.
Modes, also known as Priorities
Modes are the way that problems that are more than local can be addressed. A Mode Request, indicated by six or more Global votes, is put out during the Closing Meeting of the Consideration Week to all six adjacent I-Teams as the I-Team's External Subject. The Mode Request can then be considered by all six adjacent I-Teams and if they agree, the Mode Request can become an O-Team Mode Request, drawing in all the I-Teams in the originating I-Team's O-Team. There are six I-Teams in an O-Team, and the Mode Request becomes the only Subject for all six I-Teams for a Cycle. If the problem seems to be too large for the O-Team level, it can be sent out in the next Cycle to the I-Group size, and so on through all the sizes of organization up to the entire Geonet, whatever size that is at that time.
The idea of this is to always put enough brains, enough points of view, enough understanding, enough effort and --ENOUGH RESOURCES--, out to solve a problem rather than just putting a Band-Aid on it. For the individual member, there would be no difference between a meeting dealing with a Mode Request than with any other meeting, except there would be less subjects to deal with and more data on that subject to study during the Cycle. The structure itself is geodesic, which means it readily combines into any sized unit desired. How big it gets when considering any particular Subject is decided on from the bottom up, by the perceptions of the individuals involved. With no hierarchy to deal with, even when forming larger units than the I-team, the structure stays bottom-up.
Octa-Team Graphic Icosa-Group Graphic Octa-Group Graphic
SUMMARY: Overview
The Geonet is a concept for a structure that is self-organizing, totally individual driven, and small close group oriented. Most meetings have agendas, that is, a set of concerns or subjects which are to be taken up by the meeting and resolved. The Geonet is an agenda driven set of small meetings where the agendas form the structure, with the subjects in those agendas being flexible and chosen by the individuals involved rather than an leader or someone elected to a position. The positions are not elected, but are rotating, so all will eventually have each position at some time, for the same amount of time as all others. The number of subjects have limits, but the subjects themselves do not. All decision making is in the hands of each individual, and the Geonet allows those individuals who wish to do something together, to do it together, with the assistance of all the knowledge and wisdom found in any group.
Geodemocracy Introduction -Overview Geodemocracy Lesson 2 -Process