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In December 2007, Communities publisher Laird Schaub started a blog of "Commentary on Community and Consensus" at communityandconsensus.blogspot.com. As he explains, "For 20-plus years I've been a community networker and group process consultant. I believe that people today are starved for community-for a greater sense of belonging and connection-and I've dedicated my life to making available as widely as possible the tools and inspiration of cooperative living. I'm on the road half the time teaching groups consensus, meeting facilitation, and how to work with conflict. This blog is a collection of my observations and musings along the way." We asked Laird's permission to reprint his May 8, 2008 entry, which is particularly relevant to this issue's Politics theme as it plays itself out within groups.
This is the counterpart I promised to my May 4 posting on how to get the most out of plenary Discussions. After you've flushed out all the factors that the group agrees need to be taken into account (the main objective of the Discussion phase), then it's time to start crafting solutions. Often this step is begun by a committee, but sometimes the plenary is on a roll or there's time pressure encouraging the group to proceed with all deliberate speed. In any event, I will offer here four aids for efficient and...