[Via the Consensus Tools e-newsletter]

Dotmocracy is an established facilitation method for collecting and prioritizing ideas among a large number of people. It is an equal opportunity & participatory group decision-making process. Participants put dots next to written ideas to show which ones they prefer. The final result is a graph-like visual representation of the group’s collective preferences. Unlike voting, debate or consensus decision-making processes dotmocracy easily scales to allow a large group of people to communicate their preferences on a wide range of options. It can be used as part of a meeting or with a larger group of people over a longer time frame by being posted in a common area. More information on Dotmocracy including handbook and tools can be found at Co-op Tools (www.cooptools.ca/tiki-index.php) who focus on the group communication needs of co-operative organizations.

Sandy Heierbacher

Sandy Heierbacher co-founded the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) with Andy Fluke in 2002, with the 60 volunteers and 50 organizations who worked together to plan NCDD’s first national conference. She served as NCDD's Executive Director between 2002 and 2018. Click here for a list of articles and resources authored by Sandy.

Tags: decision making, tools

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