Illustration by Susanne Gold/ text by Ted Ganten
In this clip you will get more information on “Terraism”.

I am aware of many inherent risks of both Terraism and the proposed form of organization. However, the conlcusion of the first weeks of this blog that some topics do not work in the current structures and that there is a significant need for change remains true. Taking risks seems to make more sense if we are aware of the future, which is very likely to happen if we do not change anything.

North Star

The following suggestions are very concrete. Some of them can also be understood as suggestions for the organization of democratic structures. In any case one must agree on a “North Star”, a goal. The equivalent of a business purpose. The human rights of our constitution as pure balancing criteria are helpful but not sufficient. For our democracy, the current “North Star” could be somewhat cynically formulated as follows: “Increase the prosperity of as many people as possible, create sufficient jobs and a clean, orderly infrastructure, as far as possible without violating fundamental rights of others –  and take environmental protection in account where it does not interfere with any of the aforementioned”. In my example the North Star is Terraism. The weighing of values of all members as a guideline to management should be aligned at the election year for the presidency.

Organs of the association

In an association only the meeting of the members and the executive committee are legal prereqisits. Everything else can be agreed upon in the articles. All in all, it has therefore a very adaptable structure. When I speak of president in the following, I mean the head of the the executive comittee from a legal point of view. He is supported by a board of executive directors. As a controlling body of the board of directors outside the general meeting, I propose a “Council of Elders”. The council would – beside other controlli ng rights – have the right to call for a shareholder meeting anytime. In most cases a comparable body is called advisory board or supervisory board. For the general meeting I also use the term plenary meeting or assembly. The plenary assembly is the highest organ of the association and all rights are derived indirectly from it.

In the following weeks I will roughly sketch out the framework of the above-mentioned structures, the most important content and some details that seem important to me.