News & Notes 890:Emergency RA decision to approve a provisional RAD process
Emergency RA decision to approve a provisional Topic::Residents' Assembly Decision-making process
Dear Community, after sharing a proposed interim RAD (Residents’ Assembly Decision-making) process and calling for feedback, 24 individuals responded. A group consisting of 2 members of the Working Committee, 3 members of the Council and 3 from RAS went through the feedback in detail and made revisions in the proposed process (https://bit.ly/3AJ4ukK).
There are several points we ask you all to keep in mind:
- We acknowledge and agree with the strong call for a system with no voting, and a participatory process to come up with a completely new approach to decision-making will be proposed soon. Two residents expressed that an interim process should not be put in place because this may result in a relaxing of the need for something new. However, there is a need for a process now and during the time it will take to create a new proposal and get approval from the RA, and there are 4 RAD’s that have been pending for quite some time already. Therefore, the attached interim proposal will be used until a new process, approved by the RA, is in place, which we are aiming to have done within 9 months (including the RA approval process time).
- There are several categories of feedback for which many people gave input, but that have not been addressed in this proposed interim process because we feel it is not in our mandate to make major changes at this time. All the feedback in these categories will be handed over to those involved in coming up with a new process proposal for consideration and possible integration. These categories that have not been changed in this proposal are related to Emergency RAD’s, the quorum needed to validate an RAD process and the percentage needed for approval of an option in an RAD process.
- Several categories of feedback have been partially addressed and will be handed over to those involved in coming up with a new process proposal for further consideration and possible integration. An example of such a category is the number of ‘voting’ options.
- It is recognized that the Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) mandate needs to be reviewed, and the RAS itself has requested this, so it will be done in a separate process.
We thank all those who took the time to send feedback.
After some discussion between the Working Committee, Auroville Council and the Residents’ Assembly Service, it is felt that even though this will be an interim process it is important that it is accepted/ratified by the RA.
Therefore, the Working Committee is initiating an Emergency RAD process as per the current/old policy. We acknowledge that this is not an emergency, as such, but we, the Council and the RAS do believe it is urgent to restart RAD processes and so have decided to go forward in this way in order to save time.
Emergency Ra Decision:
- Please select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for the following statement:
- I agree that the Provisional RAD Process can be used until a new RAD process is in place (stated intention within 9 months).
The Emergency RAD will run until Sunday, October 17 2021.
How To Participate:
ONLINE: Use your personalized voting link sent by the RAS on 2nd October. Look out for this email and participate in voting online. Web based Gmail interface users, check the Promotions tab in case the email is not in your inbox. Good to also check your Spam / Junk folders. If you are an Aurovilian and didn’t receive this email, please write to raservice (at) auroville.org.in or visit us at the RAS office, town hall on Monday 2pm – 4:30pm, Thursday 10am – 12pm, Friday 10am – 12pm. We are happy to help you register your decision.
IN PERSON: A printed voting slip is available from the RAS sounding board in Town Hall. Fill out your ballot and hand it over to the RAS members. In-person voting (meeting of the Residents’ Assembly) will be organized at Solar Kitchen on Sunday October 17, 11am – 2pm.
The community will soon be informed about the review of the RAS mandate as well as the participatory process to create a new RAD process that is more reflective of the spirit and intention of Auroville.
With best wishes,
For the Entity::Residents’ Assembly Service,
Sathish A, Tatiana S, Verena H