The Nonprofit Democracy Network is a community of practice and peer support network for organizations working to make their organizations – and the broader nonprofit sector – more liberatory and transformative. We want the nonprofit sector to be more effective at creating a just, joyful, and sustainable world. We want our organizations to be living examples of the equitable, caring, and effective communities that we know are possible. And we know that there is a rich field of experimentation and practice of democratic self-governance from which we can learn and which we can help grow by building and sharing with one another.

We launched the network at our inaugural gathering in fall of 2017 (read more about it here). At our second gathering, March 27-29, 2019, we’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of co-creating forms of collective self-governance, taking on topics like compensation, inclusive decision-making, the impact of identity and culture on participation, coordination and accountability, and collective budgeting of time and money.

Participants in the inaugural Nonprofit Democracy Network gathering

Are you part of an organization experimenting with any of these areas? We would love for you to join us! This is an opportunity to learn about the state of the field, connect with fellow practitioners, learn from groups at the forefront of experimentation, and deepen your own organization’s practice.

We’re looking for organizations that are:

• Committed to undoing dynamics of racism, patriarchy, and other forms of structural oppression;
• Playing with more democratic internal structures, regardless of how far advanced; and
• Interested in being part of an ongoing network to deepen this work.

More details:

Format:This three day gathering will include education, conversation, and co-creation around common themes of collective leadership. The first day will focus on frameworks for organizational design and how those relate to systems change, identity, and liberation. On the second day, participants will break into smaller groups to dive deeper into specific issues and growing edges (e.g. staff/board structure, compensation policies). The third day will focus on identifying next steps and how to integrate learnings into your organizations.

Cost: Sliding scale from $400 – $1500 based on organization’s annual operating budget. We want participation in this cohort to be as accessible and community-driven as possible. We also want to justly compensate our facilitators, organizers, and other vendors. (Cost includes venue, facilitation, and meals over three days for 2 org representatives.) More information on cost included in the application form.

Organized and facilitated by: Participants in the 2017 Nonprofit Democracy Network, including staff from Sustainable Economies Law Center, Community Development Project, 350 Seattle, Reflex Design Collective, and more.

For more information and to apply: Fill out this Application by December 5th, and we will get back to you by the end of December.

WHEN
March 27, 2019 at 9am – March 30, 2019
WHERE
Exact venue TBD
Oakland, CA 94612
United States
CONTACT
Chris Tittle · [email protected]

Photo by CIFOR

The post Tools for Collective Self-Governance: A Nonprofit Democracy Network Gathering appeared first on P2P Foundation.

I’ve been wondering about what the spectrum of violence looks like further to the left, before assault, before harassment, before intimidation. What are some small acts of violence that we can detect well before there is physical contact between bodies? Maybe by noticing and changing these small injustices, I’ll be better-positioned to address the big ones.

In many radical communities, “consent” is a focal point for governing the interaction of bodies, especially sexual interactions. Before you touch my body, check what I’m up for and respect my answer. Consent is the antidote to assault.

What happens if we pay attention to consent in situations that have nothing to do with people touching? Could you seek consent before your sound system fills my airspace?

Can we push consent beyond the bounds of human interactions? What would a cow say if I asked for consent to barbecue her?

There are many cases where even the request for consent is harassment. An unwanted sexual advance can severely limit my freedom to participate in a group, especially if the advancing party has more physical or social power than me.

If consent governs physical interactions, what mechanisms can regulate other less intense interactions? When I speak: how can I express myself in a way that respects your subjectivity? What is my posture saying? How can I listen? What can I read from your body language?

How can I own my subjectivity and celebrate yours?

Are there little micro-behaviours, expressions we can practice?

“You should.” → “You could.”

“You’re attractive.” → “I’m attracted to you.”

“Life is like…” → “My experience is like…”

What happens if we extend consent to include many people simultaneously? What can we all agree on? How might we grow that island of agreement to fit more people? Can we make a map of the islands? Can we build bridges between them?

When I was a good patriarchal young man, I always tried to inflict my subjectivity on others. You might have seen the feminist placard, “Objectivity Is Male Subjectivity”.

The collective decision-making process I participated in during the Occupy Movement was a training ground where I learned how to be much more careful about owning my experience without invalidating others. Rather than saying, “People are like…” I learned to say, “My experience is like…”

In many political spaces, we attempt to argue on objective terms: here are the facts, these are the definitions, let me persuade you of their rightness. This is an excellent method for wasting hours of talk with no tangible outcome. But what happens when we stop trying to float above our messy subjectivity and embrace it?

What gets me so excited about collective decision-making is when the process shifts the participants from a purely objective/analytic mode into an affective/relational mode. Instead of competing with facts, we inquire with feelings. Of course facts are important, but it’s much easier for me to hear them when you pay attention to my feelings. When each of us owns our subjectivity without trying to collapse others’, then I can see my place in the spectrum of perspectives. My understanding has grown, without you having had to persuade me of anything.

p.s. if this little article has whet your appetite, I highly recommend this essay by Emmi Bevensee which examines consent and power in much greater detail.

p.p.s. if you want to support my writing, you can throw me a few bucks on Patreon

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Photo by criggchef

The post What comes before consent? appeared first on P2P Foundation.