- 1 - (From ACT UP: Civil Disobedience Training Manual) What is consensus? Consensus is a process for group decision-making. It is a method by which an entire group of people can come to all agreement. The input and ideas of all participants are gathered and synthesized to arrive at a final decision acceptable to all. Through consensus, we are not only working to achieve better solutions, but also to promote the growth of community and trust. Consensus vs. voting Voting is a means by which we choose one alternative from several. Consensus, on the other hand, is a process of synthe- sizing many diverse elements together. Voting is a win or lose model, in which people are more often concerned with the numbers it takes to "win" than with the issue itself. Voting does not take into account individual feelings or needs. In essence, it is a quantitative, rather than qualitative, method of decision-making. With consensus people can and should work through dil- ferences and reach a mutually satisfactory position. It sible for one person's insights or strongly held beliefs to sway the whole pos: group. No ideas are lost, each member's input is val- ued as part of the solution. A group committed to consensus may utilize other forms of decision-making (individual, compromise, majority rule) when appropriate; however, a group that has adopted a consensus model will use that process for any item that brings up a lot of emotions, is something that concerns people's ethics, politics, morals or other areas where there is much investment.
