Anytime people come together, there are said and unsaid rules to how they interact. I think it’s best to talk about governance lest you fall into the Tyranny of Structurelessness, but also if all you do is talk about how you talk to each other, you’ll never get anything done. We’ve outlined a few approaches here to get you started, that you should iterate on based on action and lived experience. I bet you also already have ways of interacting you’ve figured out with your neighbors already.
Start with shared values. Think about what failure modes you want to fail into when/if that happens. Both of those will shape what your flow of information looks like (we talk about a cluster model) and how you deal with money if any starts heading your way.
This cluster can be shaped many ways, but a successful cluster is comprised of folks invested as heavily in considered action as they are in governance structures.
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Dealing with Money in disaster response
At some point, if you are visible enough, people will want to give your group money to do what you’re doing in responding to the crisis. Ideally, you will have been tracking who is putting money into the response so you can later pay them back if outside donations start coming in. Have a spreadsheet…
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Failure modes
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Flow of information
This is based on how Occupy Sandy worked, with nodes like kitchens or distribution (distro) centers, with nodes forming a network. You will have learned new tips and techniques in the meantime – trust your gut and what already works for your community. Structure Nodes included, but were not limited to: Skill share within a…
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Community-led disaster response values
When disaster strikes, people want to help. However, when it comes to helping communities in crisis, something is not necessarily better than nothing. If responses to disaster are not grounded in accountable relationships with the communities experiencing crisis, such well-intentioned efforts tend to waste resources and can even deepen the trauma experienced by survivors.