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Wise Democracy Victoria
Exploring genuine democracy in Victoria, BC, Canada... and beyond
This site serves as a collaborative tool to help our group convene Wisdom Councils and to engage those interested in Wise Democracy in Victoria.
Group emails are archived on our Google group site.
NOTE: This site is growing, and there are lots of pages listed to the left under "Navigation" - just scroll up & down.
Wisdom Councils precipitate energy, enthusiasm and HOPE for the Future:
Past participants have indicated that the experience was transforming and energizing because they felt that their voices could actually make a difference!
Three Wisdom Councils have now been successfully convened in Victoria, including the first in Canada and one in the close-knit neighbourhood of Fernwood. In each case the Council members have prepared an amazing statement of community spirit!
Even though the council members did not know one another prior to meeting and came from a wide diversity of backgrounds and experiences, in each case they have prepared a powerful, unanimous statement.
#1 Statement of the First Canadian Wisdom Council
#2 Statement of the Second Victoria WC
#3 Statement of the Fernwood WC
RESOURCES AND VALUABLE LINKS:
- For an historicalHistorical overview of Wisdom Councils in Victoria see the excellent article by Caspar Davis - Creative democracy: wisdom councils at work.
- For moreDetailed information on Wisdom Councils seeis available at the Center for Wise Democracy
- Jim Rough has a series of videos available online to explore how we can facilitate whole-system change in very large systems.
Many Wisdom Councillors, including those on the latest Fernwood Council, have indicated that the- Random experienceSelection wasas transforminga andtool energizingfor becausedemocracy they-- feltour thatgroup theiris voicesbecoming couldincreasingly actuallyimpressed makewith athe difference!PLEASEvalue JOINof USrandom ONselection OURfor JOURNEYgenuine TOWARDSdemocracy.... GENUINEkey DEMOCRACYwebsites byinclude: readinghttp://globalpublic.org/id1.html, theseConall statementsDoyle, and inviting others to take a look. Do these statements resonate with you?Ben Wilbrink
Draft Vision Statement for Wise Democracy VictoriaOur vision is to help engender wise democracy locally and globally by:
- continued experimentation with processes that enable high-quality dialogue, such as Wisdom Councils (empowering citizens),
- working with communities to "grow" these processes from within (empowering communities)
- communicating replicable models to communities everywhere (further empowering global civil society)
Any ideas on improving this vision statement??vision??
PLEASE JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY TOWARDS GENUINE DEMOCRACY by reading the statements and inviting others to take a look.
Do these statements resonate with you?
WC #1: First Victoria Wisdom Council --
Canadian History in the Making!
The First randomly selected Canadian Wisdom Council deliberated on March 30-31st, 2007 and reported to the public immediately afterward.View the Council's Statement Page.
The event created quite a stir in the Capital city of British Columbia. Our eldest member was 71 years and our youngest 17. Click here to read the following article from the Times Colonist newspaper. The youngest member is Simon Nattrass who took a run for Major of Victoria at age 19 in 2008!
In early March we mailed nearly 500 invitation letters to Victoria residents who were randomly selected from the phone book.Out of those invited, 12 participants agreed to participate as members of the first Wisdom Council.
Jim Rough - Introductory Remarks, First Victoria Wisdom Council
