Sociocracy online resources

Online Resources – Sociocracy/Dynamic Governance

1. Six-minute video: Members of Lost Valley Educational Center/MeadowSong Ecovillage, a permaculture-based Intentional community, describe how they changed from consensus decision-making Sociocracy, which they see as a permaculture approach to self-governance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyw0gBsDeho Comments on his video were made by folks who are self-admittedly “Sociocracy beginners,” which makes them good at introducing It to other beginners.
2. Artide, ‘’Sociocracy: A Permaculture Approach to Community Evolution,” by Melanie Rios, Communities magazine. Describes how Lost Valley, the same community as the above video, community who made the video noted above as they were first adapting their governance to Sociocracy. http://communities.ic.org/articles/1504/Sociocracy
3. Sociocracy and Consent, An interview with Sharon Villines, from an article in Cohousing magazine, in Cohousing.org http://www.cohousing.org/cm/article/sociocracy Sharon lives in Takoma Village Cohousing In Washington DC, and is co-author with John Buck of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy, a book introducing Sociocracy to the US. This book had not yet been published at the time of the Interview with Sharon.
4. Handout, “Introduction to Sociocracy,” by Sociocracy trainer Diana Leafe Christian: Diana at ic dot org
5. John Buck’s Dynamic Governance “Cheat Sheet.” A quick outline of the (s)election process, circle meetings, operational meetings, proposal forming process, and consent decision making. http://www.usgbcnm.org/resources/Documents/DG%20Cheat%20Sheet%2005%202009%5B1%5D.pdf
6. Equality In Governance: An introduction to Sociocracy. An outline prepared by Sociocracy Trainer Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, who lives at Pioneer Valley Cohousing in Amherst, MA. Ask Jerry if he makes copies available: j dot kochgonzalez at gmail dot com
7. Six Introductory videos by Ted Millich. If you already have a bit of Sociocracy/Dynamic Governancebackground, consider jumping straight to with video #3.
   a. Beyond Democracy 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQpebvIX71A
   b. Beyond Democracy 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f0jzAEcOvY
   c. Beyond Democracy 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnOCLsKn_9U
   d. Beyond Democracy 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNtAMaYetFM
   e. Beyond Democracy 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWI_ai6ptmo
   f. Beyond Democracy 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKweWdueABY
8. Or you might just read about Sociocracy in wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocracy and search “Sociocracy” or “Dynamic Governance” online and within youtube.
9. The following websites are not professional or official Sociocracy websites, but sites which seem more useful for beginners as they were written by beginners themselves, and thus know what to emphasize.
   a. http://www.sociocracyinaction.ca/
   b. http://mainesocio.weebly.com/what-is-sociocracy-aka-dynamic-governance.html
   c. http://www.adeeperdemocracy.org/sociocracy-dynamic-governance/
   Most of the following official/professional organization’s websites seem aimed at the experts who serve as consultants and seem not as helpful to beginners, but still do offer Information: SocioNet, Sociocracy.info, GovernanceAlive, the Sociocracy Group, the Sociocracy Consulting Group, Global Sociocratic Center.

Adapted from List compiled by Tina Smilie, M.D., 2013, Green Haven Cohousing, New Haven, CT http://greenhavencohousing.org

Also distributed by Sociocracy trainer Diana Leafe Christian, http://DianaLeafeChristian.org