Conference Calls as the primary form of organizing and participatory Democracy. 

Intro to our Networks use of Conference Calls

Within the CommUnity Network, we are proposing that the BEST and really ONLY way to organize is though communication systems primarily organized around online conference calls. This would be defined as participatory democracy, where participants are empowered to collectively make decisions, by striving towards consensus, although a simple majority can be enough for certain decisions.

Many people do NOT have a lot of experience or skills collaborating and working on the phone, or though internet meetings, but if we all understand the importance of doing just that, overtime we will collectively gain the skills and experience necessary to have VERY effective, efficient and successful organizations that exclusively exist through online and phone communications.

The purpose of the Network to to help unite all peoples and social movements of the world, and to empower local communities through a “glocal” network. Because this is our goal, we already have a need to organize over vast areas of space, and therefore it is extremely important to communicate and organize via online and phone communications. The alternative is expensive and costly to the environment, having to have people travel from all over a region or the entire world simply to meet for a conversation, and furthermore only those who have the financial resources, and free time, will have the ability to travel in the first place, which limits involvement to wealthy individuals.

Yet we argue that even for Local organizing, it is actually beneficial to organize via online and conference call formats. There are many reasons for this, but the most important ones for us are that 1) anybody can collaborate regardless of where they are at the time the meetings starts, and 2) we need to make sure that local groups are not fragmented and disconnected from regional, state, national, and global networks.

So to sum up, we encourage EVERYONE to collaborate with us, and realize that your participation in online conference calls is a learning experience, and it does take time to get “good” at it, but we MUST learn this skill to be effective change makers. Additionally you are welcome to sign up for our beginners course to online & conference call based movements, either for participants, or for organizers.

Local Organizing with internet & Phone:

We want to spend some time getting into details for why we feel it is SO important to organize online and with conference calls locally. What this means is simply that ALL local meetings, no matter how many people are there, are Always connected via internet and conference calls. What this does is allow anyone who is not physically present at the meeting, not only to listen, but fully interact as if they were physically there in person, with all the same voting and participation rights as those who are at the table.

Before we go into the reasons for why we need local organizing based on internet and phone communications, lets quickly refresh ourselves on the pros of in-person meetings. Obviously looking into someone’s physical eyes, and building the energy together in a physical space, along with being able to hug someone and actually shake their hand, creates an energy and ability to connect and build trust that is simply not possible over the internet and phone. But that is pretty much it. Of the 100’s of reason for why we come together for meetings, everything except the experience and energy of physically being together can be replicated via phone and internet communications. In some ways you could look at it being the difference between being simple friends with clothes on, and having intimate sexual relations. Being naked and intimate is an incredible experience and brings people closer and more connected than ever before, but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with simply being friends and keeping the clothes on.  Yes its not as intimate, and doesn’t create as much energy and excitement, but Friends are just as valuable and important as sexual partners. If we just see our phones and computers as a simple set of thick clothing or sun-glasses that distance each other, and although that disconnects us somewhat, it still allows us to do everything we would do, just at a slightly more “professional friend” level than if you are in-person. And when you add the argument, and what we would say is a fact, that large scale regional, national, and global organizing can ONLY be done in-person with rich people who have the time and money to travel, at great expense to the environment, then we come to the conclusion that there is no alternative BUT to learn to combine in-person meetings with conference calls & internet communications.

Lets go over the primary Reasons why we feel that this is SO important:

1) Open collaboration from anyone regardless of where they are, even if they are simply across town or just a 5 minutes bike ride away.

Some people are simply busy, and don’t have the time to travel an extra 30 minutes across town during traffic to show up at an in-person meetings. That is 30 minutes back as well, which equals 1 hour of driving, which takes time away from the family, and is also travel fuel which harms the environment. Some days it is just raining, and someone rather not ride their bike, or maybe it is just cold and people are sick and want to participate in-person, but simply can’t because they don’t feel well. There are also other people who are literally bed ridden, and even if the meeting is across the street, they couldn’t attend because they can’t get out of bed. Yet if there is the option to simply call in to the in-person physical meeting as well via the internet or a simply phone call, then that opens up amazing possibilities, and could even double if not triple the involvement level when you consider continuity and engagement.

2) Connecting Local Groups - Glocal Organizing

Within our Network, we have all meetings happen simultaneously, regardless of location or level, so it may be more applicable, but even with meetings happening at different times, allowing regional, state, national, and even global participating to listen in and participate with your local meetings will build an incredible experience of inter-connection between the local community and the rest of the world. There is NO other way to do this except using internet and phone based communications during in-person meetings. This experience will also be amazing for local groups and communities, and although will change the feeling and experience of in-person meetings, it will add a new experience and level that can enhance the overall outcomes for everyone. And remember, local groups can always break out into their in-person only sub-groups, so in no way are we saying that all in-person meetings can’t be only in-person, but we are encouraging to always have some type of internet connection.

3) Travel Complications

Travel to a physical location is overall difficult and dangerous. Parking is a pain in the ass, people are simply out of town, or the traffic is just tremendous. Additionally travel no matter what, always takes energy, and at this point in our society it uses huge amounts of carbon and other pollutants which are harming the environment and our own health. By organizing in a way where people can participate via phone and internet, even during local meetings, it allows a reduction in travel and energy use.


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Learning the Ropes:

It is going to take time to learn how this works and feels to be able to do it well, but it is worth it as it brings so many benefits, and although it may feel awkward at times, we must give equal validity to a speaker or screen, as we do to someone sitting in front of us. It takes practice, but it is possible to learn these skills very quickly.

We realize that most people do not have much experience at Conference Calls and online organizing. Therefore we encourage people to continue to experience it, and just like everything else, we will get better with it, and become experts overtime.

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Multi-Group Meetings:

The CommUnity Network functions as a single global network and all of our meetings, local, regional, state, national, and global happen simultaneously scheduled using natural cycles where it is random who in the world has to be up in the middle of the night.

Part of our methodology, besides just connecting everyone via phone & internet communications, is also to limit the number of people in a single decision making group to about 10. In our experience, beyond 10 people it is virtually impossible to allow everyone to speak equally, and come to a consensus based decision. And with the amount of time that is allowed for our work, it is very difficult to do so with groups bigger than about 7-8. So therefore we automatically limit group size to about 10 people.

This creates the exciting and interesting dynamic of a multi-group meeting using sub-groups where we have a very advanced model of primary and sub-facilitation techniques so that even though we may be split up into 2+ groups, we function as a single decision making entity, and have a single multi-group agenda, with a single primary facilitator facilitating all the groups simultaneously. 

For each Sub-group there are 3 main positions needed:
“Runner” Facilitator
Sub-Group Facilitator
Note-Taker

Therefore if we have 3 groups of 7 people, we would need a minimum of 9 people to take on the 3 positions. Its really not that hard, as there is still ONLY one primary multi-group facilitator, so you don’t have to be an expert at facilitation at all, just follow the simple instructions.

Additionally at anytime a sub-group can break off from its runners, and do its own thing, as the sub-groups are the highest empowered decision makers in the Network. So there is no way to have top-down control, as a sub-group can always simply do what it wants, and this includes local in-person meetings, as they can always split away from the people who call in via the internet and phones.

But overall our goal is LIVE integration and overtime we will get better and better at it.