Something I've often thought of but *have not* implemented, regarding officers within power structures, is to preclude individuals from seeking those positions themselves, filling them instead only through election. The system would only work if eligibility for election was mandatory among all members, barring of course any relevant disqualifying factors. So, mandatory among all fit members. What constitutes fitness is imagined with the creation of each position.
The way it would work is that a requirement of membership is an agreement to serve as an officer if elected. Seeking office would not happen. Voting would happen as in any election, various voting methods notwithstanding, and people would just choose who within the organization should serve in what position. Having agreed to serve if elected, any member elected must then fulfill the duties as best they can.
Basically this is something I thought of as a way to prevent power seekers from gaining power, police officers and politicians being the best examples. Those who seek power over others are often the ones who should be prevented from same.
Anyway, sorry to not have scintillating first-hand examples. In practice, I've only ever done just the plain vanilla election process, and the two positions in existence now at Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles are just a plain interview/hires from our parent organization.
Good luck Josh & co.!!
-Cyclista
On 2017-09-18 20:09, Josh Bisker wrote:
Hello compadres! So, we're trying to go from a create squads to handle different arenas of planning and activity -- like Shop Management, Communications, Programming, Volunteer Coordination, Partnerships, etc. Each squad will have a captain. *Here's the request for help: *We're looking for your insight and experience to help us figure out how to pick our captains, especially this first time.
- How have you dealt with electing / selecting leaders?
- What lessons have you learned about good ways to do this?
- How about bad ways to do this? What should we be careful of?
- How can we best inoculate ourselves against interpersonal
conflicts muddying the process?
- Are there anonymous voting systems, consensus systems, or other
systems you recommend for this kind of thing? (FYI, our group is nascent enough that we don't yet have a strong consensus model in place for making big decisions.)
For reference about captains in specific:
- Captains are the squad’s points-of-contact, coordinators for its
activities, and default squad spokespeople. They’re responsible for the squad’s workflow, and for communicating with the collective about the squad’s initiatives, progress, and needs -- also for structuring how volunteers can participate in the squad’s activities.
- Captains’ stated mission also includes supporting and engaging
with ideas from their squad members and from the larger collective too -- and calling for extra teamwork when the squad needs it.
More about the squads model from me soon, but in the mean time some feedback here would be grrrrrreat!
Kisses,
Josh
Josh Bisker 914-500-9890 New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/ 596 Acres http://596acres.org/ Bindlestiff Family Cirkus http://bindlestiff.org/
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