I think this is an issue of not having a clear vision and agreed upon boundaries on the get go. I brought this up at the Consensus workshop at BikeBike and no one heard me. If the collective is the goal then members should be meticulous and thorough creating clear consensus to establish a vision that eliminates these issues prior to schisms and splits. It takes time given the structure of decision making. There is no short cuts. In an entity that is a decentralized collective the process takes as long as it takes for all to be heard, understand and all to make a choice. No one said it was easy. I wish you well and applaud your sharing a real issue.

On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 1:10 AM, thethinktank-request@bikecollectives.orgwrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. drugs, alcohol and our mission (John Boyer)

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Message: 1 Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 00:10:02 -0700 (PDT) From: John Boyer worldbfree2b@yahoo.com Subject: [TheThinkTank] drugs, alcohol and our mission To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Message-ID: 221816.14863.qm@web52811.mail.re2.yahoo.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Now I realize this is not going to win alot of people over but here goes anyways!?I am strongly opposed to a slack, go with the flow, biochemical personality run?environment for our cause.? Let me explain,? My collective exploded recently?due directly and indirectly?to a paranoid environment that split the group into 2 groups and cost us alot of time finance and momentum.? "the new reality crew"" banded together with a constant flow of weed use and subsequent paranoia.? The following attacks on those that didnt party literally spun off alot of good people. The few that questioned the devisiveness of this""know best" group were then railroaded out by smear campaigns induced by the amount of weed smoked on a?daily basis.??I truly feel we will never? overcome the?barriers ahead of us if we create a place where drug use is?the common denominator in the collective movement.

? This call out is not an anti drug message. Im the first to?open a bottle of wine after a long day of riding and wrenching.? Its just?a call out that we can do better when we are all rooted in the reality that we have a lot of work ahead of us.??Here in the?States the car rules right now?and we will have to do a better job united and communicating effectively?to change our?reality to a bike friendly world.

Be?steadfast in creating an environment friendly to all walks of life and ability?and we all win.

Thanks for your time reading this.??????