for Collaborative Group Processes (sample)

1. Everyone who participates needs to be “solution oriented” toward achieving consensus. We do not place blame. Every member is responsible for the progress, success, and quality of work of their respective Committee(s).
2. We commit to listening with respect to each other, to recognizing the legitimacy of everyone’s concerns and feelings about topic(s), to asking questions for clarification, and to making statements that attempt to educate or explain. We commit to no personal attacks directed at individuals and/or organizations.
3. Each of us takes responsibility for getting our individual needs met, and we also agree that all relevant issues identified by any member must be addressed by the group. Participants are encouraged to be proactive in bringing forward issues for discussion.
4. Participants commit to giving the same priority to solving the problems of others as they would to their own problems.
5. Participants will recognize a lack of information when it exits, and seek to address “unknowns” through further information gathering or adaptive management.
6. A consensus decision making process will be used. We define consensus as a decision that allows every member to say, “I can live with the decisions and accept it, even though it may or may not be exactly what I want.” Consensus will be attempted and participants hereby commit to working diligently to achieve it.
   If it is not possible to achieve consensus, then based on listening to all of the ideas and concerns of each participant, we agree to document the dissenting opinion(s) in the meeting minutes along with the name of the person(s) who disagrees. We will then move on to the next issue. We may occasionally postpone making a decision on an issue, deferring the consensus decision-making process, until a future meeting so that new information may be brought forward.
7. Final decisions made must be ultimately acceptable to the private landowners. These after all are the individuals owning the land on which the practices under discussion will be implemented.
8. Attendance at each meeting is an expected responsibility of each member. Members who miss more than two unexcused consecutive meetings, or three meetings in a year, may have their participation rights revoked. Members are encouraged to send an alternative representative if they are unable to attend a meeting. These alternate members are expected to be pre-briefed on the issues under consideration.
9. It is the responsibility of each member to inform those they represent about issues, progress, and decisions so that these organizations stay well-informed on developments in this collaborative process.
10. Committee members are expected to carry out assignments on schedule.
11. We agree that interested observers can attend meetings. However, only written input or statements from non-participants will be accepted and considered by the group.
12. Committee members are expected to respect/support the integrity of this collaborative process outside the meeting room. No participant will attribute suggestions, comments, or ideas of another participant to the news media or non-participants. Members speaking as individuals must specify this when speaking to the media.
    Participants agree that all official communications representing this collaborative process with the news media will be the responsibility of ____________________ (or their successors), unless other arrangements are specifically made.
13. The Committee reserves the right to request a replacement committee member from a specific organization if these ground rules are not being met by the participant. It is the responsibility of that organization to bring this new person up-to-speed on this collaborative process.
14. If you hear a rumor, call the facilitator before acting on it.
15. Anyone may leave this process and the above ground rules, but only after telling the Committee why and seeing if the problem(s) can be addressed by the group.