Outsider Party Governance
A re-usable framework and our specific implementation.
Our Goal
The Outsider Party will develop and document an effective model of governance. Our model, that is our framework, our blueprint, will be documented and shared transparently. Our living implementation of our model will also be documented and shared transparently such that our innovations and successes can be used as a template for the re-imagination and improvement in our US Constitutional, 50 State Constitutional, and other Constitutionally-bound governing bodies.
Our Model
This governance model assumes that participants in any implementation of this model understand and are in personal alignment with a set of premises. The model then sets forth guidelines for group participation, decision-making, and conflict resolution. Additionally, the model sets forth a practice of remembrance to maintain connection to the agreed-upon premises.
Premises: Foundational Axiomatic Agreements
There exists Members and Teams of Members.
The Principles of Equality, Betterment, and Non-Force guide Members.
Equality acknowledges that Diversity in views exists. Therefore, a Juror Mindset is encouraged.
A Juror Mindset cultivates
Transparent, forthcoming communication
Dispassionate, critical analysis
Professionalism and respect in interactions.
Pillars of Decision-Making and Action: (3) Guidelines for Collaboration
Consensus: Teams will seek consensus.
Autonomous Transparency: Actions can be taken by consensus by any Member or Team. Actions are taken in the open and are archived for historical and investigative purposes.
Honor for Objections: Objections to actions and grievances will be respected and systematically processed.
Remembrance: A Practice to Retain the Premises, Pillars, and Happenings
To persist the foundational premises and pillars above, a regular meeting will be held. Containers for this meeting can be created of any size or level within the group, from a Member to a specific Team to an organization-wide Team.
Happenings will be archived and shared transparently, respecting privacy objections of Members. This process supports the persistence in memory within individual Members and a recorded history.
Elaboration on Decision-Making and Action
Any "grassroots" action can be taken on by anyone.
The Members of a Team work towards a consensus. The Team will agree upon a form of democracy or deciding appropriate for their needs.
The Team will agree that the action they are taking upholds the Principles of Equality, Betterment, and Non-Force.
Before any broadly impactful or potentially objectionable action is taken, the Team will archive a report about their actions.
Actions are taken in good faith and boundary crossings are processed if objections occur. A simple example: At a meeting, a Member might take action to prop open a door without first gaining consensus. Only if someone objects to the door being open does there need to be a consensus process to decide about a door-use policy.
Team Members will seek consensus in the micro-decisions of their team as they move towards greater degrees of agreement.
Clarification on Members and Teams
There is no codified role or Team that must exist.
Voluntary creation and participation in Teams is encouraged.
If a Team decides that it needs a moderator, facilitator, or other particular roles, each Team will follow their process of filling roles and process any objections as they arise, either internally or via a Trilateral Panel Review, outlined below.
There is no one "president." There are Members who collaborate on Teams. Teams may designate roles within their Team.
Members may join Teams so long as there is no objection. If there is an objection, the objector and the "non-Team Member" must join the Team and be involved in the process towards resolution.
Roadblocks in Decision-Making - The Trilateral Panel Review
If a Team cannot agree on a decision or if there is an objection from a Non-Team Member, a special Team called a "Trilateral Panel Review" will convene.
The Trilateral Panel will consist of 3 random Members who will review the Team's process and make a decision by consensus
If the Panel cannot agree on a choice or if the Team objects, a second Trilateral Panel is selected, and the second Panel attempts to make a decision that is acceptable to the Team. This step is repeated another time if needed.
If three Trilateral Panels fail to reach consensus or their decisions are not accepted by the Team, the Team is encouraged to flip a coin, to try a decision path, and to see how it goes.
If the Team will not agree to a coin toss, then a party-wide vote will occur and simple majority rules.
A Team may defer a coin toss or party-wide vote if they reach consensus on how to continue their deliberations.
Granular "Happenings" of a Trilateral Panel Review will be recorded, shared, and archived.
Objections
Members will review the actions taken by Members and Teams either directly or via the published and archived "Happenings."
If a Member makes a complaint, accusation, or objection about a Member or a Team, the Member can join the Member or Team to form a new Team to process the conflict. This Team that consists of the accuser and the accused can call for a Trilateral Panel Review.
If a Trilateral Panel Review is convened, the Review will question all sides and make a determination for what, if any, subsequent action is needed, such as making a statement or retraction, calling for additional processing, and so-on.
The same process of gaining consensus is followed for any proposed action plan by a Trilateral Panel. The guideline is to attempt a maxium of 3 Trilateral Panels to reach consensus. If consensus cannot be reached, a coin toss or party-wide vote will follow.
If an objection would block critical party functions, critical functions will continue until a decision is made regarding the objection. For example, bills will still be paid; commitments will be kept. The objection will receive high prioritization for resolution.
Our Implementation - A Work in Progress...
What follows are some ideas for tools and Teams that we might choose to adopt in our implementation of the above Model of Governance.
Tools
A monthly "Moment of Remembrance" could be offered. This meeting will include a simple guidance to hold a silent reflection on the Principles of Equality, Betterment, and Non-Force and connected principles such as Liberty and the Juror Mindset. Include time for announcements and socializing. Containers for this meeting can be created on any level of the party, such as a national Team, a regional or functional Team, or a sole Member.
The Party could use Open Forum, Zegg Forum, Improv Theater and other group process forms to explore subject matter, strategize, and maintain open and constructive conversations within the Party. Soliciting feedback and opening dialogue will help us to avoid blindspots.
We could leverage AI to help with checks and balances by assessing the degree to which our actions align with the 3 Principles.
Teams
An Archive Team could be created. The Archive Team will record details about the actions of Teams. The Archive Team will publish the planned action in a robust website feed for all to see. Member privacy guidelines will be established. The Archive Team will record and preserve Party history.
We could create an Ethics Team. Their scope of action could be to track feeds, monitor Teams, and follow Trilateral Panel Reviews. Ethics Team Members raise objections and join Teams, the same as all Members. The existence of the Team is to embody a Team-based version of the individual work that Members are encouraged to do to hold our Members and Teams accountable to our Principles.
We could create a Website Team. This Team could manage SEO, monitor traffic, and other web admin functions. They could contact music artists to ask permission to link to their songs. (not to endorse the party). This Team could make sure the images on the site are properly licensed.
We could create a Platform Team. The team could solicit feedback from Members in a brainstorm fashion and iteratively organize the concepts until a motion to adopt the platform is made.
We could create a Cast Essays Team or Speak Out Team. This Team could create an anonymous way of collecting viewpoints, collating them, and studying them.
The goal would be to raise awareness about the needs and priorities of our Party. We could use AI for good to provide meaningful summaries and statistics which might contribute to a data-driven approach to corroborate our perceptions and conversations.
We could use an anonymous platform to brainstorm about specific questions like: How can we succeed with less money? What are the best ways to reach registered voters? How can we try to reach everyone who might want to register to vote? How can we continually assess to determine what we are missing, who are we not reaching, where are our blindspots?
We could create a Parks Blocks Team. This Team could create a public platform that is similar to the "Cast Essays" platform. ParksBlocks could act as a virtual public square where people can share political ideas in a feed or Kanban style, grouped by category. It could Include aggregated totals about the percent of the content that is coming up. Do not track any data besides the content of the post. No images. Just words. No selling data. All anonymous posts.
We could create a Spoken Essays Team. This Team could create AI illustrated videos with the voices of Members talking about the Principles and Platform of our party. The animations could be from North American flora and fauna.
We could create an Written Essays Team to curate written essay submissions for the website.
We could create a Promotional Materials Team to create and curate flyers and share strategies for getting the word out.
We could create a Roadmap Team to learn the requirements to become a recognized party and propose a plan to achieve this goal.
We could create a Resources Team to curate website sections or pages to collect recommendations and share links to resources like journalism, education, advocacy groups, vendors for promotional needs, etc...
We could create a Corruption Evidence Team. This Team could compile and publish high caliber evidence of corruption. Then, name the specific corrupt behaviors, list the impacts, and prioritize the need to fix and make proposals to fix and demonstrate the proposals are likely going to fix the issue.
We could create a Representative Invitation Team to market our party to all of federal and state representatives to ask them to consider joining our party.
We could create a Party Outreach Team to engage other Parties like the ReformParty.org, Libertarian Party, JoinCommonGround.org, etc... Lessons learned? Overlap? Collaboration?
We could create a Candidate Incubation Team. This Team could recruit candidates and work with them to create a supportive readiness program to assist with their needs and help them grow their skillsets.
We could have a 10th Amendment Team to advocate for States' Rights with the State Legislatures, Governors, and US Congress. Work to oust the Cartel Mindset from D.C. and reinstate the Constitution Mindset.
We could have a Messaging Team. This Team could assist with clarifying and tailoring our message during outreach. This team could provide examples, scripts, and coaching. This Team could get feedback from Members on what phrases are most impactful to them. This Team could suggest talking points.
We could have one or more Social Media Teams. We could decide on an approach, a tone, and collaborate on our social media presence.
We could have an Etiquette Team. This team to share options for communication styles. It could encourage principles over personality, encourage naming behaviors rather than name-calling, for example.
We could have a Logo Team. This team could have conversations about the mountain symbol and associations to mountain. Maybe there are other symbols of betterment that are more globally recognizable? Maybe there is a way to update the logo in regional materials or to show more aspects of the diversity of our lands.
