Background to Governance of Sociocracy UK

[Francois Knuchel]

Sociocracy UK started as an informal network in 2010, and has become more formal over time in the sense of being governed using the principles of sociocracy (modelling).  Until summer 2012 there were 6 core members who met monthly, there are now 7, with 2 additional members joining in the quarterly face to face meetings.  Two of the monthly meetings are done by tele-conference, followed by a third which is face to face, so far held in Brighton and London alternatively.  The core members meet to decide policy and discuss the development of sociocracy in the UK and all that that involves.  We have sociocratically elected roles, specifically Operations Leader (last year Martin Grimshaw, currently Sue Bell) and Secretary/Logbook Keeper (last year me, Francois Knuchel, currently Martin Grimshaw).  The meeting facilitator role is done by each of us on a rotation basis, as a learning exercise.

We decided (consented to) last year to publish a short summary of each of our meetings on this Ning site to keep all interested parties informed about our meetings, and to allow members to raise issues to be discussed at future meetings.  Because we are running Sociocracy UK on our own time on a volunteer basis, the reality is that many things we have endeavoured to do have either taken very long, or have not been done at all.  The meeting summary is one of those endeavours that so far in fact has not been executed, but now that I am no longer secretary I have said I would write summaries after each meeting - hence the creation of this new section 'Governance'.  Please be patient, however, if this does not happen instantly - but do watch this space.

One of the agenda items which we have discussed but have not come to any clear conclusion is how to manage membership, and how to manage the governance team.  At the moment we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible, and as such any members willing to volunteer some of their time to attend meetings and do some of the work are welcome - we do not as yet have a clear policy on this.  Therefore anyone who would like to join or like to express views on governance issues, please feel free to use this Governance space to do so.  And feel free to ask questions or query issues.  Thank you!  (FK)