I looked through the list of posts in the General Discussion section to see which have gotten the most replies and whether they interested me. The second post got 13 replies and it interested me. It’s titled:
Coordinating efforts and creating synergy between movements (Jun-Jul 2021). The participants who may still be active were:
Kare Wangel started it and made a list of orgs that might be good to collaborate with. I think almost everyone wants a better world for all, so I think the goal should be to form outer circles with reps or delegates from every org in the world. They could share with each other their orgs’ ideas and plans for making the world better and look for ways to collaborate among orgs. I think Kare’s list would be a good place to start looking for delegates from orgs for the outer circle. Some on the list are political orgs, apparently in Europe. I’d like to invite a U.S. political org to send a delegate, i.e. RFK Jr’s campaign.
Does anyone know if Kare has pursued the idea? I’ll try to message Kare and the 3 others. I’d like to get involved in such a project to form such an outer circle. I’d like to hear others’ comments and see if anyone agrees that almost everyone probably wants a better world for all and see if anyone has interest in collaborating like that. Below are the Orgs that Kare listed (to which I would like to add Foundation for Intentional Community (ic.org)).
The main ways SoFA collaborates externally is through partnerships, which I believe @rhonda.baird holds the domain of in an Ecosystem Circle operational role.
Internally, organizations can join as organizational or individual members and individuals can participate as working members in sector circles or as organizational or individual members in communities of practice related to the sectors they are involved in. I’m not sure who is coordinating communities of practice lately, as there seem to be non other than SIPS at the moment.
The Intentional Community community of practice is also up and runnning really well
Just to let you know CJ…
I don’t think this is much support for your project though Lloyd!
@TedRau, @ashley.chase and I did some work in the Partnership Circle in 21/22. But in the end I didn’t have enough time on my hands myself to contribute enough to the work.
I am currently working with a couple of organizations to couple Sociocracy with indigenous wisdom traditions and to engage with civilizational scale meta problems. Primarily 7th Generation Labs (Stephanie Nestlerod), Nordic Bildung (Lene Rachel Andersen) and Metamoderna (Hanzi Freinacht).
I would like to create a space, if even just momentarily, where these organizations can meet around and open question like: “What do we understand the problem, and what do we need to do about it?” or “How can we help each other in our efforts to reach a post-capitalist society?”.
I do, however, have very little time on my hands, because I am primarily focused on building our consultancy coop, Crossing Circles. But I’m very open to meet for a preliminary talk!
Thanks for replies. I plan to keep looking for ways to entice lay-people to try out sociocracy for fun, so that it can viralize and solve all of the world’s problems. If anyone has suggestions how to do that, please spill the beans. Could gamers do it? I’m not a gamer, but I’ve had ideas for educational video games, so maybe educational sociocratic video games could enter into existence. Right?
No one wants to try forming an outer circle for SoFA? It could be a way to cut the Gordian knot, not? It would have to involve one or two insiders, as I understand circle structure. Are all members sworn not to experiment on anything independently, like that?
Anyone familiar with Idea Parties? Barbara Sher used to promote that and what little I did with that was fun. Everything else failing, I guess A.I. will come to the rescue eventually. Eh?
What do you mean by insider and outsider? Do you mean people who are members, and people who aren’t members?
I’m already in more sector circles than I have time for, which are go used on sharing sociocracy with specific sectors, and like many others I am already also bringing sociocracy to other organizations and communities who are not already member organizations or individuals.
It seems like the question is: where do you resonate, and which group would you like to join? Or do you prefer to start something new rather than join an existing effort?
I find that SoFA members have no shortage of projects and places to plug-in and many joined because they wanted to support already existing initiatives, so it may be that you’re more likely to find the collaborative energy you seek at SoFA by joining an existing project, rather than looking for people who aren’t already engaged in projects.
It’s clear we’re all working towards the same thing, and even within SoFA, there are many strategies!
There’s no member agreement not to participate in other organizations or experiment with sociocracy (how could it be anything but an ongoing experiment?), again, most members are involved in multiple other projects that are either using or interested in using sociocracy, and many even have their own consulting projects on the side. (Though SoFA is developing ways to make that more symbiotic.)
Yes, by insiders, I meant SoFA members. I wanted to join SoFA, but my GF is having legal problems that I’m trying to help with, so I can’t spare unnecessary expenses for now. But I believe the best things in life are free, so I try to find ways to do good things without spending much if any money.
Couldn’t this forum serve as an outer circle venue?
Hi Lloyd
You are welcome to engage with topics here.
I’m not sure if you will continue to have access if you’re not a paying member, though.
I get that you need to cut expenses, but SoFA is mostly a voluntary organization, so member fees are crucial for our ability to do the work needed to run the organization at all.
