April 18th and 19th (two standalone days)
9:00 – 5:30 each day
presented by Diane Leafe Christian
Cost: This workshop is graciously offered as a gift. We invite you to make a contribution if you are able.
Enright Ridge Urban Ecovillage and Imago are excited to bring back Intentional Community expert, Diane Leafe Christian for two separate days on ways that healthy communities can govern and make decisions. Diane will share her wisdom from studying and guiding several intentional communities. Each of the two days stands alone, you can come for either or both!
Saturday April 18th: Effective Governance & Decision-Making in Cohousing, Ecovillages, and Other Kinds of Intentional Communities.
In this workshop we will explore the elements of a healthy, thriving community, and the importance of community governance and decision-making. We will examine and compare commonly used governance practices, as well as decision-making practices such as classic consensus and the N Street Consensus Method.
We’ll have an overview of Sociocracy, the governance and decision-making method Diana highly recommends for communities and practice Sociocracy Elections, an effective way to fairly and transparently choose people for roles in community leadership.
Sunday April 19th: Sociocracy/Dynamic Governance
This workshop takes a deeper look at Sociocracy, especially in the areas of electing people for roles, governance structure, and measuring, evaluating, and later changing implemented proposals. Any group, even those not using Sociocracy, can use many of these tools.
About Diana
Over the last 20 years Diana has visited more than 120 communities in North America and internationally in order to find out what helps communities get started successfully and function effectively and harmoniously. She interviewed dozens of community founders and long-time community members about what works and what doesn’t work. She lives in community herself, at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.
Diana is an author of two books on Eco-villages, Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Eco-villages and Intentional Communities and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community. She has offer numerous workshops and consultations, on starting successful new intentional communities, and how communities can become healthy and thriving.
“Diana’s workshop was fantastic! She truly is a master at taking complex material and making it simple, plus the way she engages workshop participants is brilliant. . . . she clearly is a master at putting together workshops, teaching, and facilitating.” —Gaya Erlandson, co-founder, Lotus Lodge Community, North Carolina, Sociocracy workshop, Earthaven Eco-village, 2012
About Sustainable Communities
While we can do many great things to be sustainable as individuals, our impact can be much greater and more fulfilling when we work as a community. There has been a steady rise of intentional communities and cohousing as people work to realize their green goals. As a part of an intentional community you get to collaborate closely with others in creating a sustainable life that benefits you, our planet, and future generations.
