Civic Strategies Project on
Community Decision Making :::

In 2007, Civic Strategies began a long-term effort to understand how important decisions are made in communities and how they can be made better. This is hardly new ground for us. We've consulted with communities and organizations for years about decision making and change and written widely about these topics. But we've also become aware of how unsystematic and poorly documented this knowledge is. In short, there's a need for clear, systematic thinking, and we'd like to fill it.
 
Our plan is to look at decision making from a number of perspectives, puzzle out a set of rules or lessons for community leaders, then look for examples of good and bad decision making in communities. (Our eventual goal is to produce a book about how successful communities make important decisoins.)
 
This forum is hosted by Google Groups and is restricted. That means that you have to be a member to participate in or view the discussions. And the only way to become a member is to sign up using this form. (You can unsubscribe at any time.) We've created the Decison-Making Project as a restricted site to ensure the discussion remains civil and on topic.

When you sign up, we will enter your e-mail address in the Decision-Making Project member directory, which is private. You'll receive a confirming e-mail from Google Groups, asking if you really want to join. Shortly after confirming your membership, you'll begin receiving e-mails with the group discussions.

Note: You may have participated in bulletin-board forums before, but this isn't like those forums. There's no web site to visit to view the discussions; it's all done through e-mails. So when you post a comment or question, it goes straight to the members' e-mail boxes. (Careful what you say!)

Rules of the group:

1. No marketing of services in the discussions.
2. Civil comments only.
3. No off-topic subjects.

Other rules may be added later.

If one of the rules is violated, we'll issue a gentle reminder. If it's violated a second time, we'll remove the offender's name from the group. Our goal to be sure the Decision-Making Project remains a friendly, welcoming (and commercial-free) forum.

In signing up, we ask for a little information about you but promise not to share this information with outside companies. Please be aware that, in responding to a topic, your e-mail address will be included in your message.
 
If you'd like to join us in this search for good decision making, please click here to sign up for our free e-mail updates.