Effective communication is essential for any organization, especially one committed to democratic decision-making and collective action. Over time, our group has developed a shared vocabulary to describe our principles, structures, and strategies. However, without clear and consistent definitions, misunderstandings can arise, and new members may struggle to integrate into discussions.
The following document is a list of terms we would like to define, but others may be added as necessary.
This is a living document that if adopted may be amended at will by the membership.
Additionally, we would like to schedule a workshop so that we can work together to come to a consensus about what these terms mean.
If you have any suggestions, additions, or criticisms, please comment below or message Reilly or Basma ( @HipGnosis or @Bozzii ) here or on Whatsapp.
We will be taking a vote to decide whether to standardize WCU’s terminology at the General Meeting on March 6th 2025
Just checked this thread out and I like the idea- but im just curious how we might be able to retool this as it feels subjective and might detract from our goals if people disagree on the defintions we vote on.
Ultimately I like to imagine people who might be less educated on these terms will come to their own conclusions given our actions.
I agree with the fact that this may cause disagreements and honestly I don’t think we’d be able to have concrete definitions in just one meeting, so my suggestion would be to have a conversation about how people define things so we at least know where everyone’s head is at. How would you feel about that instead?
I think questioning our own beliefs in my opinion would be a nice critical thinking exercise and not only help us gauge the overall beliefs of the org, but we can use it as an educational opportunity later on if we see that a lot of people don’t know how to define a term we use often.
In my experience having loose definitions leads to frustrating conversations where people talk past one another.
And if our job is to educate people that includes educating them on topics that we aren’t currently engaging in.
Additionally, it’s pretty easy to interpret an event in many different ways. Building networks of mutual exchange might look like charity to one person, mutual aid to another, and ideological predation to another.
A lack of clarity is only beneficial to those who need to obfuscate the reality of their ideas with blurry language.