As I consider the idea of what it means to be a cooperative organizer, I want to go back to the ideas that I wrote down sometime in 2014.
- 1st, I am a free-radical, which means that I keep my arms open to anyone & voluntarily attach myself where cooperation mutually benefits. To do this I must listen with empathy, and I must maintain a distance without seeming to reject. I make compromises for movement toward consensus goals, & I discredit snitches.
- 2nd, I organize cooperative collaboration, which has the goal of developing a cooperative process that eliminates supervision by a leader, that replaces leader’s initiative with collaborative initiative. To do this I create opportunities to distribute authority & responsibility as horizontally as possible. I promote & focus a rotational process of authority, facilitation & responsibility. I readily pass on authority, and to do so, I develop other cooperative facilitators who can promote these goals.
- 3rd, I am an educator of collaborative processes. I must become a natural collaborator, who always seeks consensus with those around me. I constantly model the cooperative process by establishing protocols as ‘starting processes’ and develop collaborative, cooperative organizers with the long-term goal of eliminating hierarchic leadership roles by creating new, horizontal, distributive organizations.
- 4th, I focus discussion. I apply my listening skills and always work to develop democratic, safe, egalitarian processes for discussion along the lines of the circle discussion process. I focus discussion by monitoring everyone’s time to speak, limiting by prioritization the topics to discuss, breaking up large discussion groups by topic into smaller, voluntary groupings that then report back to the larger group. I need to develop other individual's abilities to facilitate discussions.
- 5th, I produce ideas and suggest them to others, by not dictating or determining them alone. To do this I build consensus around viable ideas whether self-created or ones that I remain open to hearing. Being open to ideas means valuing all ideas as potentials. Ultimately the ideas are facilitated through consensus & democratic discussion from idea creation toward implementation.
- 6th, my goals & expectations revolve around the idea that collaboration should be practiced when beneficial, but that self-reliance is a standard expectation for those with whom I chose to collaborate. The cooperative process can become the norm and spread without becoming a dominant status quo. The ultimate goal is the elimination of hierarchy & leaders, so that consensus-built cooperation becomes the normal process for accomplishing what cannot be accomplished alone by a self-reliant individual.
