CB.13:2 - Problem

Discussion, influence, ownership and a right to decide are different. A popular contributor can understand participants’ needs without representing them. A sponsor can control the use of its room without being entitled to decide every question of the group. An elected representative can have a narrower mandate than their title suggests.

A proposed governance form can also omit the work that makes it effective. Representatives may have no way to obtain views or return reasons. A vote may have no defined electorate or result rule. Local groups may be called autonomous while every useful exception requires central permission. A challenge to the decision-makers may have no recipient.

The problem is to construct enough shared authority and procedure for the actual work, make it effective through the people entitled to do so, and preserve a workable way to correct or end it.