This guide is intended to kick start the creation of new teams. Before starting a new team, hop into the DNF Discord and check if your city already has one!
So You Want To Organize?
“Change isn’t easy. Whether internal or external, it requires intention and action. Without intention, it lacks focus, and without action, it does not manifest.” – Daniel Freeman
We recognize that activism isn’t easy. It requires intention, action, and organization. To help, we created this guide to get you started.
Assembling Your Team
Your first task will be to assemble your team. We recommend starting with these core roles:
- Leader – somebody to guide the team and hold it to the vision
- Facilitator – somebody to keep the order in meetings
- Secretary – somebody to create and maintain records
- Delegate – somebody to represent and link the team with other groups
It is highly recommended that each of these roles be assigned to a separate person. If there are not enough people to fill these roles, one person can temporarily take on more than one. For example, the leader can temporarily act as the facilitator.
Setting An Agenda
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that’s okay.” – Steven Lieb
An agenda is a critical tool for staying focused on the task at hand.
- To form an agenda, categorize each decision into a report, an exploration, or a decision. Then list each item in order.
- Make sure the agenda is manageable within the meeting time.
- Anything not covered in the meeting can be added to the next meetings agenda.
- Agendas help to avoid the following issues:
- Unnecessarily long meetings
- Off-topic discussions that distract from the purpose of the meeting
Making Decisions
To help with decision making, you can use these four core pillars of dynamic governance:
- Small, decentralized groups
- DNF is organized into small, interconnected groups such as committees and local chapters
- Rounds – On each agenda item, everyone gets a chance to speak.
- Everyone’s input is valuable
- Consent – Decisions move forward when there are no objections. Objections are issues which would run counter to the purpose of the decision.
- You might prefer pizza, you might tolerate a sandwich, but you would object to a food you’re allergic to.
- Group linking – an explicit connection between groups.
- Groups in DNF are interconnected, meaning that they communicate with each other.
For more resources on dynamic governance, visit Sociocracy for All.
Get Involved With DNF
Ready to create your team? Reach out to us!