A Little List (for the political)

Governance With RCS: Many in the U.S. are considering brand new political organizations on a wider than usual scale.

 

 

                They want organizations capable of working with large numbers of active citizens effectively. They are expecting wider participation in self governance. They want to do that which effectively furthers their aims right now.

We might analyze those aims into organizational aims and platform aims, but here here I will just offer a first draft of a "to do" list. It seems OK to call our organization political for now.

To Do Now:

* Restate clarified goals and aims.

* Arrange to have each member help in achieving those goals.

* Arrange to take care of all business promptly.

* Arrange for the ongoing education of all members.

* Make each member an educator.

* Keep in mind that teaching one another is important. Outside help is seldom as good as that which you do for yourselves.  

* Demonstrate abundant and appropriate trust for each member.

* The fewer secrets the better and "no secrets" is the best policy.

* Be inclusive. Help anyone who wants to be a member to be a member.

* Let each member know that he or she is in building and maintaining the organization, its philosophy, and its doings.

* Lay out clear steps for important and doable goals of your organization.

* One goal must not only be important and doable , but also a truly  attractive, challenging,  big deal. 

* Set out two or three goals to be worked on today. You want an organization where there are happenings right now.

* Every member needs a job they can do right now.

* Make clarifying the "grand vision" of your organization an ongoing activity. (Learning and teaching participatory, democratic, self-governance would be an attractive"grand vision" for me.

* Aim to govern yourselves by practicing self governance. Begin with teach-ins.

* A big enough vision for a brand new political organization might be "Govern ourselves and help others to govern themselves.

May you find that your consideration of my early hints lead you to thoughts of your own organizational plan and action. I wish you active citizenship.

Many in the U.S. are considering brand new political organizations on a wider than usual scale.

They want organizations capable of working with large numbers of active citizens effectively. They are expecting wider participation in self governance. They want to do that which effectively furthers their aims right now.

We might analyze those aims into organizational aims and platform aims, but here here I will just offer a first draft of a "to do" list. It seems OK to call our organization political for now.

To Do Now:

* Restate clarified (party) goals and aims.

* Arrange to have each member help in achieving those goals.

* Arrange to take care of all business promptly.

* Arrange for the ongoing education of all members.

* Make each member an educator.

* Keep in mind that teaching one another is important. Outside help is seldom as good as that which you do for yourselves.  

* Demonstrate abundant and appropriate trust for each member.

* The fewer secrets the better and "no secrets" is the best policy.

* Be inclusive. Help anyone who wants to be a member to be a member.

* Let each member know that he or she is in building and maintaining the organization, its philosophy, and its doings.

* Lay out clear steps for important and doable goals of your organization.

* One goal must not only be important and doable , but also a truly  attractive, challenging,  big deal. 

* Set out two or three goals to be worked on today. You want an organization where there are happenings right now.

* Every member needs a job they can do right now.

* Make clarifying the "grand vision" of your organization an ongoing activity. (Learning and teaching participatory, democratic, self-governance would be an attractive"grand vision" for me.

* Aim to govern yourselves by practicing self governance. Begin with teach-ins.

* A big enough vision for a brand new political organization might be "Govern ourselves and help others to govern themselves.

May you find that your consideration of my early hints lead you to thoughts of your own organizational plan and action. I wish you active citizenship.

by Richard Sheehan

 

Active Citizen Two: A brand new political organization

  A Brand New Political Organization.

Many in the U.S. are considering brand new political organizations for many reasons: a new national party, a coalition, an ad hoc effort to promote a special bill or effort, for social betterment, and on and on. They want organizations capable of working with large numbers of active citizens. They are expecting wider participation in self-governance. They want to do that which effectively furthers their aims right now.

There is much which needs to be done and many of us to do it. However, just now I will offer a list of hints which may prove helpful to an organizer. 

The hints:

~ Be inclusive. Help anyone who wants to be a member, be a member.

~ Keep in mind that teaching one another is important. Outside help can be useful, but that which we do for ourselves is more important. Each a learner, each a teacher.

~ Clarify aims and goals. Restate them often. Better them when you can.

~ Arrange to have each member have opportunities to help in achieving those goals. How will that be done?

~ Arrange to take care of all business promptly. How will it be done. Arrange for the ongoing education of all members. That's education in the skills and understandings necessary to the organization and organizational aims.

~ Make each member an educator. You do not have to use any of these hints; but anyone of them can be very useful.

~ Demonstrate abundant and appropriate trust in each member.

~ The fewer secrets the better and "no secrets" is the best policy.

~ Let each member know that he or she is participating in the creation and nourishing of the organization, its philosophy, and its doings.

~ Lay out clear steps for accomplishing the important doable goals of your organization. 

~ Remember you are not alone. You are part of an organization. laying out, demonstrating, making, and doing are group affairs and  doings. Members want to be active. Let them be active. 

~ It is best that a goal members undertake not only be important and doable, but also ought to be attractive, challenging, and a big deal.

~ Set out a goal or two to be completed today. That is you as in you all set out a goal. You all want your organization to be where the "doings" are.

~ Each member deserves a worthy job he or she can work right now. What a power house an organization can be! Your organization is a big powerful group.

~ Make clarifying the "grand vision" of your organization an ongoing activity. A grand vision for me might be the ongoing practice of active self-governance. or the ongoing practice of participatory democracy.

~ Ends, goals, objectives, aims can all be good. However, to be well done is important and the way it is done can be the most important.  

~ Aim to govern yourselves by practicing active self-governance of the whole. Begin with "how to do" teach-ins.

May these hints/suggestions help you in your action plans.

We have a lot to learn and a lot to do. Its that there are a lot of us to help with that learning and doing. 

As That Active Citizen

As a participant in a meeting it is fair and useful to:

~ Show up.

~ Speak up.

~ Name the problem.

~ Team up.

~ Find a partner.

~ Frame the discussion.

That is: be there; address the group; Clarify the topic; Identify those of like mind; make a friend; listen and learn; sum up what the meeting has been about.

It all starts with showing up and being there.

RCS

  

A New Political Organization

 Communication, co-operation, organization, working together with common understandings through dialogue practice.

 

                The title of this blog begins with the word governance. For me, governance is about taking care of ourselves. To take care of ourselves takes co-operation. To be effective, cooperation takes organization.

Co-operation and Organization

                A new political organization is much like an old political organization. It takes people to organize, but many of those thinking to organize are new, not old. It's good that new people often can learn fast and well, because there is a lot to learn.

                An organization is made up of individuals; it's a group of people. A group of people is often a mess. A mess of people is a pretty poor organization. There is a lot to learn about organizing. To become an organization there are many things a mess of people can do. They mostly do it one thing at a time, but but sometimes nearly all at once. They do it with a bit of togetherness called cooperation.

                We already know a lot about cooperation, but there remains much to learn. For the moment we can begin by remembering that cooperation begins with operation. The heart of operation is work. By the way there is no law about work being fun or not. The "co" in cooperation means ''together." So, it is good to remember that cooperation is about working together.

                There is much to learn about politics and about organizing. It helps to know much about individuals and much about society. Still, one need know very little to make an important beginning. The less we know the more mistakes we are likely to make. Each mistake may be a great learning experience; a chance to enhance our understanding and effectiveness.

                One can try to find out how we have organized in the past. It is helpful to consider the nature of a successful organization. For exampled, the quality of communication may me important to the success of an organization. 

                I am about to begin a new blog called Dialogue With RCS It can be an aid to the oral communications of an organization and to the process of organizing.

                                                                    rcs

A New Political Organization (with a little update)

 Governance With  RCS: A New Political Organization, with 3 people you can have one

                A new political organization is much like a old political organization. It takes people to organize, but many of those thinking of organizing are new not old. Its good that new people can learn fast because there is a lot to learn.

                An organization is made up of individuals. It is a group of people. But a group of people is a mess. A mess of people is not an organization. There is a lot to learn about organizing. To become an organizations there are many things a mess of individuals can do. They mostly do it one thing at a time with a bit of togetherness. Co-operation may be the best second step.

                Now tell me how ought a good new political party look? What ought its main goals be? Sorry, you can't answer these questions here because Google has eaten the ''comments" app for this blog site.

 

 

                                                                                            RCS