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SOCIOCRACY
Sociocracy is the method of group participation that Compassion Response Network uses in its planning sessions. It has revolutionised business, social and political meetings and organisations because of its scientific methodology with its approach of empowering all members within a meeting or group to have meaningful participation in the decision making process.
Our Inner Planing Circle (management committee) of six members living in four different continents, convened over Email and collectively debated and agreed upon the ideas and policy decisions that developed eventually into the extensive planning and details for the 2003 AIDS projects for Kinshasa and Harare.
Two of our members have extensive Sociocracy experience, and although other attempts have been made, this is believed to be the first time in the world all parties were willing to participate throughout the meeting in a Sociocracy meeting by Email. This is therefore a global first in pioneering Sociocracy through Email meetings.
The Compassion Response Network has group leadership through its Inner Planning Circle. Important decisions are made through the group. Members of the Inner Planning Circle, despite not being able to meet physically, are able to convene a deep discussion and make decisions on many fine points, because they are assisted on the objective level by the Sociocratic Method. In Sociocracy, the circle consultation method results in airing of many views and variations of emphasis, but nevertheless the essential group (or circle) harmony remains. And Sociocracy provides an avenue to reach to a deeper level of group understanding and agreement about objective issues than is possible with groups working mainly upon subjective levels. In the Sociocracy way of doing things, the final decision is definitely a group decision, and the group accepts the responsibility.
In the Constitution of Compassion Response Network, our objective with respect to Sociocracy is defined in this way:
To develop the Science of Sociocracy which provides a methodology for organisational management and for empowering people to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. (Sociocracy was founded through the pioneering work of Gerard Endenburg and is globally co-ordinated through the Sociocratisch Centrum Nederland.) To integrate Esoteric Science with the Science of Sociocracy and to unite the two in one spiritual undertaking. To integrate the methodology of Sociocracy into a global organisation to provide a compassionate response to human suffering.