What do you think of this Social Justice Statement proposed for SoFA?

[cj.oreilly]

Thanks for sharing @talya-sagoba’s thoughts @Andrew.Grant

I also wonder if there should be some mention of similar frameworks that exist in sociocracy. I think it’s good to remind folks that sociocracy didn’t come out of nowhere, it’s been influenced (presumably) by other POC and indigenous cultures and naming that is important.

There was some discussion about this in the thread on how the ‘origin story’ of sociocracy is told, but it seems like more research is needed to determine definitive influences.

Here are some pertinent posts:

How to tell the origin story of sociocracy?

Early Quakers in the colonies had deep and respectful interactions with Native Americans. There is, for example, a well-documented visit in 1761 by John Woolman with Indians in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. He sat in council with them day and night, giving and receiving messages usually through an interpreter but sometimes not. For me, the suggestion is valid that Quakers interacted with and therefore learned Indigenous council practice. However, I do not know of Friends speaking in round…

How to tell the origin story of sociocracy?

thanks Andy for resending the link. As a student of the Iroquois Confederacy, I’m always so heartened to see people honoring the oldest living participatory democracy. Indeed the US Constitution was modeled after the Iroquois model of governance thanks to Benjamin Franklin - a quaker. During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin left the window open so that the Iroquois could hear the proceeding and then counsel Franklin in the evening. Unfortunately, our white forefathers left out the rig…

How to tell the origin story of sociocracy?

I’m currently writing on a semi-related topic in the Writers Workshop. My article does not speak to the origins of sociocracy in its entirety, and instead is an exploration of the history of circle gathering, benefits of gathering in circles, and the modern application of circle-based meeting formats (which spawned its own topic, how sociocracy integrates linear and circular models of facilitation for effectiveness and connection). I do not draw a direct link between sociocracy and indigenous c…

I wonder how much it makes sense to talk about sociocracy’s origins in the mission statement or not. Perhaps just a line about acknowledging what this thing is that we’re doing - or perhaps in the suggested appendix where sociocracy would presumably be defined…