A couple of weeks ago I have updated and revamped our decision log. Given that I really appreciate the beauty and the usefulness of it, I had a lot of joy taking care of this. (I am adding this not to showcase my nerdishness, but because I don’t want anybody to feel guilty for not having done this - also: the previous version was a bit unpractical and tedious to update)
Where is the file saved?
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In Team Reef > Decision logs: Login – Nextcloud
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For people outside The Reef, this is the publicly accessible link: Decision log #2.xlsx - Nextcloud
What is included in the file?
The file includes a list of more or less all level 3, 4 and 5 decisions (i.e. taken in the plenary meeting).
It’s an Excel file, and decisions are categorised by date and topic (e.g. “recruitment & onboarding”, “building budget” etc).
For every decision there is also an internal link (for Reeflings), and for non-confidential decisons (most of them) also a publicly accessible link.
Why is it useful?
Keeping a decision log is a recommendation for sociocratic organisations*. The reasoning is that if there is no central decision-maker, it is useful for the entire organisation to have access to an overview of all the decisions that have been taken, and of the policies that are in place.
*_See e.g. “Many Voices One Song” (Ted Rau and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez): p. 201 (section 5.4.7) or p. 38 (section 2.3.1)
The file also has a column to keep track of review dates, which makes it a lot easier to keep an overview on when certain decisions need to be scheduled for a review.
I reckon the file can also be helpful for people who are new in The Reef, as this allows them to filter out a certain category (e.g. “building” or “finance”) and catch up on the topics they are interested in.
And finally the idea is also to use this file as an Open Knowledge entry point: anybody who would like to read our (non-confidential) proposals, now has the possibility to do so.
What’s next?
Until a decision log afficionado presents him- her- or themselves, I will joyfully continue updating the file, probably on a monthly or two-monthly basis.
