Paradise Restoration Project
Consensus Council



The Purpose


To give every Caretaker equal  input
into all the decisions and
actions of the Project,
regardless of ability,
financial or other contributions,
experience, personality,
or for any other reason.


The aim is to come to the optimum solution
by completely mutual agreements on
the largest amount of input
on issues before the Council, even
if it requires mutual compromise,
rather than Council members trying
to simply sway others over to their way of
thinking or ideas.




Council Agreements



All Caretakers are automatically considered
to also be Council members, having already
agreed to and signed the


Basic Caretaker Agreements
sheet.


(These Agreements include being in total
agreement with the concepts
presented on the Project's
website.

If there are disagreements with the basic
concepts presented on the Project's website,
these can be taken up in special Council
meetings to hear input on the subject,
but such meetings should be placed at
a lower priority than regular Council
meetings).


The provisions of the Basic Caretaker Agreements are
binding upon all Council members.


Every Caretaker must
participate in regular Council meetings.


If a Council member has good reason
for not being able to attend a Council
meeting, the Council member must notify the Council
first, either during a Council meeting, or
by posting to the Council bulletin board
as soon as possible.


If a Council member does not attend
a regular or special Council meeting
the Council member's input will not be regarded until
the next Council meeting the absentee
Council member attends.


If it is determined by the Council that
a Council member does not have good
excuse for attending a regular Council meeting,
the potential absentee member must either
attend the meeting they had planned
to be absent from, or
it will be recorded that the absentee
member did not have good cause to
show up for the regular meeting.


Any Council member who is absent from
[three or more]consecutive or
[ten] non-conseutive regular Council meetings
will be deemed to be no longer a
member of the Council for a period
of time to be determined by the Council.


If a Council member is present at a
Council meeting and chooses not
to vote and/or give input,
they automatically agree to
accept the Council's decision
on whatever issues the Council member
chose not to vote and/or give input on.


Council members may be absent from
as many special Council meetings as they
choose without losing their vote in the
Council for non-attendance of special
Council meetings.


The absentee
may still attend any later special
council meeting and give their input
at that time.



Guests


Guests may participate in the
Council meetings as members,
but may not vote, and their input will
be taken after all Caretakers
have given their input.





Preparations


The Council area should be set up with
paper, writing instruments,
and any audio or other recording
devices to be used at the meeting,
in advance. They should be placed
in the center of the meeting area.


All Council members should try to
position themselves in a circle
so they are all at an equal distance
from each other and the center of
the meeting area, and to facilitate
easy and fair,
"round-table" discussion,
each giving their input in order.



Every Council member must remember to be
patient with every other Council
member, giving each Council member adequate
time to make their presentations or give
input, realising that agreement on
issues is more important than getting
the meeting(s) over as quickly as possible.


Some sort of refreshments
should be made available for
breaks
and break times should be planned
and agreed to by the Council.


It is suggested that all Council members,
whether presenting or giving input, or
receiving other Council members' input,
take several deep breaths in silence to
clear their thoughts and instill patience
and cooperation amongst Council members.


All Council members must do one or more of
the following to insure that no time is
wasted and that their presentations
will be properly given and received:


1) Presentations must be legibly written,
typed, or printed in advance, copies being
made available for study by Council members
during the meeting(s) or in their spare time


2) All Council members must agree to have
the entire meeting put on audio tape,
speak clearly into the microphone
(two microphones provided, one for members
making their presentations
and the other for other Council members
to ask questions. A slow-speed recorder
or dictation recorder is best for this
purpose).


This insures that
all input is heard and properly recorded,
helps to record spontaneous ideas,
helps to resolve disputes
over what was said,
saves time and energy
writing down what ocurred during
the meeting, and helps the Council members
to learn how best to convey their
ideas to others.


3) In the absence of both of the foregoing,
members will be limited to a previously
agreed upon time limit for their (unprepared)
presentations, which should be measured on
some sort of timer.


4) In larger Councils, members may always be
limited to an equal maximum time for their
input, regardless of written or other
preparations made by the presenter(s)
beforehand.



Process



Council members "draw straws" to
determine who presents first.


All Council members remain silent
during other members' presentations.


(Interjections are not allowed during
other members' presentations, because
input will be taken from all concerned
Council members after each presenter
finishes giving their presentation to
their own satisfaction.

Interjectors
should write down their questions for
this question and answer period).


Each Council member makes their
presentation until they are satisfied
that they are finished.


After each Council member's presentation,
the presenter goes around the circle
to answer questions and receive input
from other members of the Council.


When each and every member of the Council
is also satisfied that they have fully
understood the presenter's presentation,
the Council moves on to the
next Council member's presentation
and the process is repeated.



Voting


Each member, in turn,
can now bring up motions
to take whatever action the member
proposes,
based on what was learned in the
foregoing Process.

The same presentation/
question and answer input
process begins again,
this time with the end goal
of voting on action(s) to be
taken, rather than merely to
discuss issues or concepts as
previously.

After all presentations have
been satisfactorily made and
received,
a vote is taken.


If the results of the vote
are unanimous, the proposed
action(s) are noted down as
agreed upon, and the specifics
(time, date, place, who does what,
etc.) are worked out by the Council.

If the results of the vote are
not unanimous, the Process is repeated
for the purpose of clarifying issues
and discussing alternatives.

During this stage of the Process
it will be necessary for each member
to speak in turn while the others are silent.

Any other members who are silent may
raise their hand in order to interject
a question.

The presenter at this point may immediately
acknowledge the interjector and answer their
question, or may wait until they are finished
with their clarified presentation first, but
must try to answer the interjector's question
before going on.

This clarification Process is done
just like in the first stage, each
member clarifying their presentation
as necessary and until satisifed
and each other member receiving clarification
until satisfied, going around the whole
Council.


This clarification Process is done
until:

Unanimous decision(s) are reached and
scheduled on the calendar.



In the event of a stalemate on critical
issues:


The 
Basic Caretaker Agreements,
Founding Document (Our website), and
Consensus Council Agreements

(together referred to as "the General Agreements")

are consulted in order
to show and clarify what are critical
issues, and all members must vote
unanimously pursuant to these basic
documents.


In the event of a stalemate on non-critical
issues:


The Council may split up into two or more
divisions on non-critical issues and
test their theories in practice,
as long as their methods of
implementing their voted-in plan
of action does not violate the
General Agreements of the Project.

These factions can then meet up
in later Council meetings to
see how the different approaches
and/or Projects worked out and
compare notes.






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