Decision Making Quick Reference

For more expansive guide on each step see the Decision Making Steps document.

When Crafting a proposal from the beginning

[Exploration] Understanding the topic

Understand first the topic before sharing opinions/ideas or deciding what to do. Include the community and any other knowledgable/affected groups or people.

Most importantly: Should we do anything about this? We may choose not to if:

The circle lacks the experience, diversity, knowledge to act effectively (its okay to say “I/We do not know”)
The act of doing may bring more constraints than it actually solves (structural, technical, social)
It may bring more complexity than the circle or the community can handle (structural, technical, social)
The circle may need more research to increase knowledge and outreach to people affected before deciding they can do something
It may bring the circle in a position where it forces its culture and subjective morality on others. See White Savior and Charity. In these cases the circle should opt for empowering the affected people to be able to do self-determination independently and help alleviate any roadblocks, hierarchies or structural problems instead.

See also the Not Doing page and Observe First page in the permacomputing principles.

What do we need to know for a proposal to happen? What should we be mindful of, avoid or give special attention to?

Share whatever idea comes to you, realistic or not. We want as much plurality and diversity of ideas as possible.

[Synthesis] Proposal forming

Combine as many ideas as you can into one proposal. All feedback (concerns/ideas/objections/suggestions) is heard and added to the proposal by modifying the proposal. (See the Decision Making Steps document for more).

Don’t bother with details yet since the proposal may change drastically during public feedback period, focus on general ideas.

Deciding on a written proposal

[Decision] Present the proposal

Present the proposal to the circle in clear-easy to understand language.

[Decision] Clarifying Questions

Give people time to ask questions and understand the proposal. No questions about why or how are allowed, only questions to the understand the proposal at hand.

[Decision] Quick reactions round

Speak your mind freely about what you think of the proposal. This doesn’t have to be about your stance on the proposal, just general thoughts and feelings.

The facilitator asks everybody to consent to the proposal or share their concerns. Incorporate concerns, but if the proposal changes too much the steps reset back to the “[Decision] Present the proposal” step. If Objections are discovered see Objections document.

A concern or potential objection IS an objection if:

it compromises a core value of {Community name} written in the Code of Conduct, Governance or any other Governance documents and Community-wide agreements. This includes any additional guidelines and frameworks that the community follows (Cooperative Software Guidelines, Permacomputing Guidelines, Consentful Tech, Security Guidelines etc.)
the Circle document and/or the Circle agreement (if it exists), See the Circles Structure document for these documents.
compromise the domain that the circle has the power to act in. For example the translations circle can not decide to shut down the spanish translations circle unilaterally or the website circle can’t decide what happens on the server.
compromise the aim of the circle, aims are written in the Circle Document and they are the foundational goals and values of a circle.
contradicts/goes against an earlier RFC that is still active or duplicates/obsoletes an RFC implicitly or explicitly (if the proposal is an RFC).

A concern or potential objection is NOT an objection if:

the circle agrees that it does not fulfill any of the above criteria
it has been decided by the circle that it was accounted for or has been integrated into the proposal

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