On Decision Making (Guest Post)

Today's guest post comes from Garrick Beck on how important decisions are made.

************Being Guest Post***************************

I have been following at a distance the many discussions about Thanksgiving Council and Harvest Council, listening to the numerous points of view.

To my thinking, there are lots of sound reasons to shift to an earlier date, and also to shift what that Council calls itself: more temperate weather; more potential regional scouting opportunities; conflicts with people’s traditional Thanksgiving family dinners and get togethers; and conflicts with the peculiarities of the name and its association with displacement and devastation of Indigenous Peoples.

All of those reasons make good sense for change.

At the same time, our Council is rooted in traditions that carry forward the decisions of the past into the future.

We don’t have any officials. We don’t have any written laws. We don’t have any hierarchy of power. What do we have? Who are we? We have processes that we voluntarily abide by. These processes taken together become a creed, a Way of Being, a way we relate among ourselves.

For example, in a long past Council there was a decision to change the dates of the Gathering from July 1st– 4th to July 1st – 7th. This change had a lot of very good reasons behind it that I don’t need to go into here. But a number of voices spoke up and said it wasn’t right, or fair, or good, or something-like-that to make a big change without consulting the rest of the Family. So runners went out to all the camps and kitchens that evening and announced that the idea of changing the dates was going to be brought up at tomorrow’s Council. And so it was. And everybody felt included, because everybody was included.

Same here. If the visions of change want to include everybody then there has to be a process that actually includes everybody.

That’s been our tradition and our process. If council wants to decide something that affects everybody long term, then find a way (and there are various ways) to bring everyone (or as many people as reasonably possible) into the decision-making process.

The differing Councils need to come together and listen to each other, co-ordinate with each other, work together, work things out in a way that is as all-inclusive as possible. That’s the way to make change that will last. Because continuity over time is what gives us our strength and our survival as a Tribe and as a People.

If this isn’t clear, or too vague, think about this:

Suppose you want our Council to get more citrus fruit for the camp. Great, consense on that and send that message to the kitchen council and the magic hat. But now suppose that you want our Council to consense to get only citrus fruit and no other type of food. Well that involves everyone for an ongoing period of time – and not just that council for that day. So, either you act like imperial dictators and decide that for everyone, Or you send runners, messengers to all the camps and kitchens that you can, and tell them that this idea is going to be brought up in Council tomorrow and they should be there if they have an opinion. That’s fair and inclusive of our Family Tribe.

Same goes for changing major Council dates, and other larger issues that have ongoing effect. Make sure to get everyone you can involved. Otherwise we become a bunch of mini-deciders hiding from the light of the People’s eyes and ideas.

Let’s not go thataway. Let’s be sure to be as all-inclusive as we possible can. Otherwise small cliques take the control and we lose our vast and true powers of communication and openness.

There are several ways to resolve this confusion over the two fall Councils. It’s not a question of old vs. new. It’s not a question of right vs. wrong. It’s a question of continuity, of continuing the arc of the Rainbow from one generation into the next in an unbroken succession.

It’s a matter really of respecting our processes. Ways that have worked now for five decades – that’s three or four generations depending on how you count ‘em.

Consider especially the processes that we have evolved and how these processes have kept us together through all kinds of attacks and challenges. Can we change what we do, and how we do things? Certainly. But the process of how we change does matter. If it’s a decision that affects all of us, and brings us together to be decided, then it’s a keeper and everyone will value and respect it.

I don’t have to suggest any of the various ways to resolve this, (there are many ways to do this) but communication and recognizing that many voices are clearer than a few voices is a good start.

Garrick