Our Internal Council

The following is a post made by us on Mosaic Minds on the workings of our internal council. Please note that the population headcounts mentioned then are not necessarily up-to-date.

An explanation....
Posted by MD on January 24, 2002 at 11:16:37:
In Reply to: hi md posted [...] on January 23, 2002 at 17:19:51:

Hi [...],

You asked why our kids (and teens) don't have a vote if they sit on the council. That's a good question, and we'll do our best to explain how things work for us.

[It's like] boards of directors in 3d. So we'll explain it that way. Our council is loosely modeled on the board of directors for the organization we work for. Of course, our council is much smaller. But like the 3d board, there are voting members, members without vote, and committee members. Those without vote and those on committees get to provide input, which the voting members always welcome and take into consideration. But ultimately those who vote make the final decisions.

The voting members are five bigs. We have two other "bigs" that don't sit on the council because they are more like entities than people, and they're not active enough to participate. At one point, we had only four bigs, and one of the teens volunteered to age to adult so we wouldn't have to worry about tie votes. (She also had other reasons for becoming older.)

Then there are our 12 teens and our 19 kids. They participate as nonvoting members or as committee members.

Our nonvoting members are Laura, who's 17 1/2, and Allegra, who's 17; they're the two members of our group who are out front the most. The responsibility of being "frontrunners" gives the two of them the right to sit in on all council meetings, to see that the needs of the "front" are met appropriately. Their being frontrunners is a completely separate issue from their being teens. We believe that everyone in our group has a choice to be at whatever age they choose, and that being an adult brings both privileges and accountabilities. The accountabilities include being responsible for the kids and teens. The privileges include being able to vote. When Laura and Allegra chose to remain as teens, they did so with full knowledge of what the age groups entail.

Now for the committee members. As with our country's government, we have representatives from each group to speak for the group they represent. Two committee reps are chosen by each age group: teens (12-17+), middles (8-11), and littles (7 and younger). The committee reps only attend council meetings when they need to give imput on an issue directly affecting them. Laura and Allegra represent the teens. If for some reason their duties as frontrunners/nonvoting members conflict with their duties as teen reps, two additional teen reps may be appointed on a case-by-case basis. Jeannine (9) and Hannah (10) represent the middles. And alyssa (5) and josie (6) represent the littles.

In certain special cases, the teens and kids will get to vote. It depends on the nature of the decision. Voting on what to have for dinner is very different from voting on which bills have to be paid first.

The opinions, feelings and ngeds of *everyone* in our group are important to us. Every member of our group has value. But we also need to keep in mind each person's level of development, needs, interests, and abilities. It's a system that works well for us.

We hope this answers your question. And we're glad you've given us the opportunity to explain things.

MD

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