When I started studying and writing on sociocracy, it was almost totally unknown in English-speaking countries. The first effort was to collaborate with John Buck, the first certified sociocratic consultant outside of the Netherlands, on an authoritative handbook in English — and for me to learn enough to do it. I worked with John Buck, or he worked with me until I understood all the ins and outs of the theory and could integrate it into my knowledge of organizationsThe Delibrative Democracy Consortium (DDC)u is an alliance o... and businesses. I even got pretty good at translating from the Dutch using online translators and the dictionary he brought back from a trip to the Netherlands.

Our book, We the People, has been translated from English into Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. Individual chapters have been translated for use in different parts of the world in other languages. And more books on sociocracy are appearing or are in preparation.

I like new projects so to have worked on this one for 18 years is a record. I tried to renew my energy last year by writing on the ways sociocracy could fix democracy. But there is now a general alarm that democracy is showing cracks, so there is lots of action. There is so much written on democracy and the growth of tyranny now that even keeping up with it is impossible. It would be more effective for me to comment on other sites on democracy rather than building a new one.

Sociocracy for All (SOFA) is now wonderfully busy and active. Ted is a marketing godsend. Jerry is a dream consultant who has a great depth of experience in better social functioning in organizations. Ted and Jerry have built a very responsive organization with an ever-adapting range of studies and practice groups. And books and handouts and videos and charts. All well designed.

The Sociocracy Consulting Group is established and doing both training and professional consulting in all the English speaking countries. Other forms of sociocracy — like Sociocracy 3.0 and Holocracy — are no longer emerging but are established. John Buck’s Tedx talk at the University of Maryland is a popular step into the mainstream flow of ideas. The field of Agile has integrated sociocracy into its community of thought and John has published a book on that. The YouTube videos on sociocracy are innumerable—in each search, only some of them emerge.

And there are unknown numbers of organizations using sociocracy everywhere, almost literally. Monasteries, nursery schools, retreat centers, coops, intentional communities, environmental groups, art schools, and everything else.

As I step back, I know things will proceed very well. I won’t be abandoning a fledgling movement anymore or leaving people in a lurch. There are now many leaders and followers.

My other organizational interest is in reasonably priced cohousing. I’ve started a website to explore that just as I did Sociocracy. The focus of SustainableCohousing.org is low-cost cohousing, “How do we build it?” Cohousing is now established in the housing market but is increasingly only available to the upper-middle-class. In my community, the larger units now require two professional incomes to purchase and maintain. Even the 2-bedrooms are only affordable for older people downsizing from a home in which they have accumulated significant equity.

All the while the housing crisis persists so that almost half of the US population is not “home secure.” Rents increase regularly and households are uprooted. Purchasing a home is impossible for people who earn the minimum wage. So this is my next project—to see what I can do to focus interest in low-cost cohousing. I could go on but read this blog post and you will understand the problem: “Why Not Rent?”

So if you are interested in assuming more leadership in the name of Sociocracy.info, please let me know. I’m not sure what I will do with the website otherwise. The information has to be continuously updated to keep the site active in Google searches.