Grand Council of Jediism Proposal/Idea

I had an idea while chatting with my apprentice,he informs me it is very similar with the First Council of Nicaea of Christian history and I'd recommend looking it up.

After some of the disagreements over policy and the amount of difference between different orders in the past. Some of this coming from the issue of what I will call the hood incidents with the UK church of Jediism.

The thought comes to me that having a neutral council, made up of a senior member of each of the major(possibly minor too)Jedi Orders and Realism groups could be beneficial to the Jedi community as a whole so that policy issues and knowledge could be discussed and shared. I notice that there is both unity and borders in the Jedi community, and that unifying the community under one roof is probably impossible, but it could be a good way to keep each group informed of various findings, or dealings in a civil manner.

In my view the council would be like a Jedi U.N. in which issues could be resolved in civil manners, ties could be shared between different communities, and fair discussion always allowed.

This would also help with transfers of students or knights between orders and any other cross order interactions.

[If this has been talked about before apologies as the search function is iffy on the best of days]

Everyone's thoughts are welcome

It's a noble idea. The notion's been floated around for years by folks from various groups. We've owned the URL Jediism.info for years. The idea is to have a simple directory of all Jediism and Jedi Realist groups with a short description, date of inception and contact information.

It's not happened yet.

I'd think that would be the fist step towards a 'Jedi United Nations'.

Then there is the issue of what is Jediism? The real story of the Holyhead group is that Daniel Jones' brother copied a couple of sermons from the old TOTJO in 2007 and then without any training or or bothering to read what we are about got a few folks together to dress in Jedi costumes and said \"We're a church\". What little teaching they offer is almost all nonsense.

I don't consider it Jediism.

If anyone wants to have a go at the Jediism.info project it's available.

it would be a great thing if it can be done...considering that all the major religions have something similar while they each maintain different methods they unite under one main concept to discuss and exchange ideas...jediism would benefit greatly by such a thing...the trick is the unifying concept (one would logically think that the force would be enough, but different groups define it differently)...

the jedi.info would be a big step in that direction by listing each temple, it's policy, and a council member to contact. i wish i could build websites worth a darn, then i'd volunteer to work on it myself, unfortunately my xhtml programming skill is less then a 2year old's....

the holyhead church certainly did do some damage with a few very simple ill timed missteps....at least it's been relatively quiet about them as of late...perhaps they have found some guidance on how best to manage publicity....

in addendum, i think what we need in order to establish a grand council would be a clear cut list of rules pertaining to how the council would function, how members are chosen including how the head of the council is chosen(though i think it would be better without a head), and a charismatic speaker to play ambassador to the various orders...someone eloquent enough to persuade others to see the benefits of such a thing and encourage participation in it....

I've actually been thinking about the same parts
This is what I've got so far
Rules:
- No Council head, all members have an equal voice
- Council members are chosen by their respective Jedi Order, each order may devices their choice in their own way
- Would need a non-administered forum with access to only the council members, possibly an account with username/password per Jedi Order, instead of individuals... ie TOTJO says to TOTJF bla bla bla...
- Council members would report back to their orders and disclose what they feel appropriate, any secrets that are said in the council will need to be flagged as council only
- ALL Jediism groups are allowed a representative, including the holyhead group, as all of them reflect the image of Jediism as a whole, even if a minority, and they could use guidance from the older orders. If we exclude, then we are defeating the purpose. This also allows us to discuss policy and keep things from getting out of hand with groups that we may not normally associate with.
- Either a monthly, quarterly, or yearly check-in to see if any group needs help, has any issues, members that would like to change, etc


...thats what I have so far,as to the list of sites, web Development is a weak point for me so I can't say I'd be much good for a project like that though an open exel doc in google docs that anyone could edit might work until someone deletes or messes with it

This is a fasinating propersition of coalision. Gentlemen I know I am but I novice and thus I do not hold your stature of postion within the community but as in the past few months my life has change drasticly through the path of the Jedi which I am now following, I would be honoured if I could help in any way.

If there were just a non partisan Jediism directory with mini biographies for Jediism and Jedi Realist sites that's a major benefit and that has to be in place before even considering councils and such.

It's Charter will explicitly state its limited non profit benevolent educational purpose and the real urgent issues are:

What qualifies an organization to be listed?
How are the qualifications verified?
Who approves the listings and what they say?

Other features may very well follow but this is the only way to begin.

We can donate the URL and have room for it on this Server so it would not really cost anything except the time of the admins. I would help with this as far as setting up a site but everyone could and should comment on the answers to these questions.

It can't be so easy to be listed as to make it irreverent but not so exclusive that the burden is too heavy on new organizations.

Accurate

Relevant

Unbiased

At some point we'll be forced to say that's just not within the realm of Jediism or The Jedi Way or else anybody can make up a name and throw up a site and get listed thus destroying much of the value.

I offer my services to this venture. I have a competence of web design and the will do see this thru. My apprentices soon return to their colleges and I will need something to keep myself occupied for the coming 6 months. I agree with Br. John on the principles of this venture.

There is an easy way, in my opinion to grade applicants to the site, submit a sample of work and have one of their masters talk or chat with a couple of ours. Its not hard to walk the Jedi path. It just takes discipline and will. If these are present then probationary membership is given. After a determined time period if their site continues with the tenents of Jediism and the practices therein then they are full members.

The grand council shouldn't have a head you are correct. It should have an odd number of people made up equally of all the full membership. Probationary members can sit in on the meetings of the council, but shouldn't be allowed to vote until the probation is complete.

What do you all think?

Isn't this one of the main things to strive for when it comes to a way of life shared by many in the first place? If it's a democratic-minded order that we seek, and the goal is to unify in a more broadened horizon, perhaps we should start from within. Perhaps an open forum within TOTJO for the specific purpose of deciding first what things we would want to contribute to such a larger body. There, the purposals that we discuss in the general discussion boards have a place for uliminating excessive chatter and implying a matter of parlimentry proceedure. In starting out, it may be a good idea to first put to vote, the vary basics of Jediism for local agreement on the definitions on the vary terms and guidlines we decide as a whole to use with everyone having a vote on the matters. Once these matters are concluded, we could elect TOTJO officers to oversee and represent us from within on specific departments. Officers whose position is determined by the aptitudes of the individuals completely disregaurding the time spent here at the site, or rank, or place in their journey down the jedi path. for example: A general post comes up about how to spread the word of this unifying endevor. It becomes talked about to the point that we have enough a agreed grasp on it as to put the words \"I move we elect an TOTJO officer of Ambasedors/Clergimen/Historian/Treasury/ETC. and that the terms of office be....\" Then let the nature of the parliment take it's course. The big problem I see with this, as self sustaining as it is, is the first step. This can be as simple as putting to vote by all members of the definition of a Jedi. or the force for that matter.

http://www.csufresno.edu/comm/cagle-p3.htm

It is my firm belief that though this is one of many way to impliment parliment, that it applies the basic funtions neccessary for a body to decide effectively whether or not we need to ammend it or even to decide on a more appropriate method of implimentation for our purposes, and ulitmately make it our own. The downhill snowball of democracy is a powerful and efficient one...I believe in and have faith that our senior members and masters of this site should have no problem deciding for their people, which is the best flake by which to start said snowball.

May the Force be with us all.

Please forgive, I have mistated myself. I don't mean that experience on the jedi realist path, rank, or presence at TOTJO should be ignored by any means. Those are very important things to consider when deciding on our leaders. I simply mean that it shouldn't be the soul basis for making a decision, ie. One who is extremely adept at social networking, micro-mediation, conflict resolution, and good communication skills be the sort of qualities that are important when deciding who be an appropriate person to have represent us as ambasedors to reach out to other orders rather than who out ranks who and the like.