Language: Español Português   Presenter Bio Kathleen Livingston, spent most of her career in middle management in the not-for-profit sector. Having certified as a Master Gardener, upon retirement she started […]

Language: Español Português  Presenter Bio Leon de Vreede is one of the founders of Treehouse Village Ecohousing. Together with his wife Cate and son Dylan, this “burning soul” undertook the […]

After having experienced several coliving projects (as an employee and resident), I realize that dynamic governance is a key piece for the model to work.

So you’ve rolled out Sociocracy in your community. Whether it was years ago or just last month, you probably participated in some sort of training as a group and had opportunities to practice and develop your skills together. Now a new member household joins your community? What do you do for them?

Intentional communities value inclusivity, but sociocratic practices can be a barrier to those with less education, different first languages, and other backgrounds. This workshop will be an interactive discussion on ways sociocracy can be used with all types of people in the service of community.

The size of Treehouse Village Ecohousing’s Full Circle has tripled since it was formed. During its development, this cohousing community has transitioned from all members participating in most major decisions, to a Full Circle which is largely a forum for social community-building, learning and fun. Hear what we do when we meet as a whole community, how we keep all members informed, and what happens when a decision does need to happen at the Full Circle.

Language: Español Português   Presenter Bio Ted Rau is a sociocracy trainer and consulting. He has worked with dozens of cohousing communities in all stages and he has lived in […]

patterns of how a proposal can flow between the small work circle and the plenary (or all-member meeting). The patterns are useful to let many voices flow into a proposal while still keeping circles focused on moving their work forward.

After two failed attempts, the de Vreede’s knew it was going to take a different approach to beat the odds and form the cohousing community of their dreams. In this presentation, Cate will share the piece of advice that made the difference in setting up their 3rd launch for success. She’ll also share why she feels Treehouse Village Ecohousing’s first ever collective decision (to govern using sociocracy) might just have been their best yet.

Cohabitat Québec bought land in 2010 and moved in in 2013. Since the beginning, we have been using the Sociocratic Circle-organization Method (SCM) with 6 functional circles, a general circle and a mission circle (legal board). With years of experience and a lengthy reflection, we decided to bring the board into the general circle. We will present our rationale for doing so and observations from the first year of implementation.

Transparency is a foundational value of the Sociocratic Circle-organization Method (SCM). Power is an unavoidable element of human relatings. Intentional community is consistently a crucible for issues of transparency and power. We will explore concepts and aspects of power in human interactions and how they relate with our experiences in community and elsewhere. We will also explore how transparency relates with implicit and explicit power in groups of people.