Holacracy Community of Practice Archive, 2015-2019 Community Holacracy Web Site
Posted in Practicing Holacracy • By Koen Bunders • 05/20/2016

Losing core circle membership during Governance

In a governance meeting a proposal is accepted to create a sub-circle  and move some of the existing roles into that  sub-circle. 

That could mean that after that proposal is accepted there are people in the meeting that are not a core circle member any longer. How to proceed with that?

  1. Allow them to attend for the rest of the meeting as if they are still core members?
  2. Allow them to attend, but exclude them from making proposal or objections (they would not be valid)?
  3. Ask them to leave?

 

Your reply is appreciated!

Koen

6 Replies
Andrea Faré
05/20/2016

 

My take:

As facilitator, I would pick b) , but I do not think they could even react if they wanted to, they would be plain witnesses.

c) would be possible but not polite

by picking a) (which I do not think is possible without a dedicated policy)  I wonder how their contribution could go beyond simple reactions...

 art 3.3.1 would still give you some tools:

two of them  may still be re-invited by the Rep and Lead, or a policy could be proposed  to generalize the problem, while still keeping in mind the issue related to the kind of tensions they could process or help process.

 

David Locke
05/20/2016

Article 2.3.4 also gives the Lead Link another tool.  The Lead Link could appoint the effected partners as Core Circle Members for the rest of the meeting.

David

Andrea Faré
05/20/2016

Yeah David I think you've picked the best one for this specific situation.

Karilen Mays
05/20/2016

I assume they are there for the duration of the meeting Koen (in absence of a policy clarifying anything different).

It has only been questioned a time or two in my experience, though if anyone had a different interpretation and I disagreed, I would maybe ask the Secretary.

This is the only reference I can think of (which Andrea also mentioned), which does not directly address this: http://www.holacracy.org/constitution#art331

Kevin
05/21/2016

We've run into this several times, and it is a bit awkward.  Our most typical response is in line with option B, but I am not sure that has been conscious; most often, those people don't attempt to propose or object.

Ruben @ Springest
05/22/2016

We have had this on one occasion and just leaving the meeting right away felt logical and natural. You want to get back to work, and start working on your "new" circle right? Not awkward at all IMO