Bridport Cohousing is a Registered Society and Community Land Trust. We have a set of Society Rules that were created using a model developed by Wessex Community Assets.
We recognised early on in the project that we would need an effective way of organising ourselves and making decisions together that would allow for collective decisions to be made while enabling all voices to be heard. To do this we chose a system of governance called Sociocracy.
As the project has developed and our community has grown so has our understanding of Sociocracy. Our current structure has evolved to meet the challenges of organising such a large project using only volunteers. We work in ‘circles’, with two representatives of each work circle also participating in the work of its parent circle, ensuring a good flow of information back and forth. We currently have five work circles and three management circles, including six directors.
There are some excellent principles in sociocracy that we fall back on time and again when we’re finding it hard to move forward together. ‘Good enough for now, safe enough to try’ has saved us a lot of time and energy over the years and given us greater confidence in our ability to make effective decisions. Sociocracy also gives us the opportunity to encourage one another as we recognise the skills and understanding members bring to taking on the various roles.