What is a collective?

A collective is a group of people working together towards a common goal. A collective is different from a club or committee in several ways:

· Collectives actively aim to avoid hierarchies of power or information. This does not happen on it’s own and requires conscious work.

· They are a form of participatory democracy in which every person’s opinion is given equal weight in decision making

· Collectives primarily make decisions by a consensus process

· Collectives usually have stated or unstated participants’ agreements that the group works within. These include challenging racist, sexist, and homophobic or classist statements and actions.

· Collectives are a political form of organising because they aim to break down power structures in society.

The Wholefoods Collective

Collective meetings are held weekly during semester, and less frequently during the holidays. At these meetings, we make decisions regarding the day-to-day running of Wholefoods and eat cake. Yum!

Whether you're a staff member, volunteer, or are just interested in learning more about Wholefoods, you are most welcomed to come along.

At Wholefoods Collective meetings:

*We practice consensus decision making – this is a process of discussion and negotiation in which all participants viewpoints are considered and the final decision is unanimously accepted by the group. You'll find more about this at the actual meetings. It's dynamic and we think it's much better than traditional means of decision making which often mean some opinions get left out.

*To enable equal participation we keep a progressive speaking list (the speaking list may be edited to prioritise people who have not spoken before) and strongly encourage self facilitation of all participants.

Next Collectives

For dates and times, check out the blackboard to the right of the cafe.

Location: Wholefoods space.

Agenda: Check the blackboard or email collectivelist@wholefoods.org.au to be on the email list.

Participants Agreement

-to be uploaded-

The Consensus Process

But what on earth do the hand signals used at Collective mean?