M. Chase wrote:
Personally, I don't care who does the research. A more important point
in my mind is that Bahais need to figure out for themselves what works
and doesn't work in the administrative order and how to make
improvements. We need to be able to learn how the administration order
is working by some consistently planned follow-up or feedback that we
can learn from successes or mistakes and make adjustments in strategies
and procedures accordingly so our communities and institutions can grow,
progress, and function at a higher level more in line with their true
potential as envisioned by the writings.
I think this is an important point. Assemblies have a lot on their
plate. They have a mandate broader and more important than any other
institution I have ever heard of. They have ethical, moral and spiritual
requirements for proper functioning that far exceed the reach of any other
work I know of. I don't know of any more challenging process than
Assembly consultation.
Part of that process is self-examination and self-correction by the
Assemblies, and welcoming examination of Assembly decisions by the friends
in the community. The Master reveals that the divine approach is support
for the majority decision even if it is wrong, as it is in unity the
truth will be revealed and the wrong made right. Only the House of
Justice is freed from all error -- the Assemblies have to monitor,
evaluate the results, learn, and make corrections. I think that approach
to arriving at truth is also a divine process.
One method of bringing the wrong to light is that a believer, after having
supported the Assembly decision, can ask the Assembly why they made a
certain decision and politely request them to reconsider. (From a letter
on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, in the Compilation on Consultation)
It seems to me that the Assemblies could do more looking into the mirror.
One such mirror is the goals they create. Too often they are carefully
crafted, then stored away for safe-keeping, never to emerge again. I
think they are supposed to be living documents. Often, the entire
structure of a goal is later found out to be measuring the wrong thing,
and it is by sensible, loving and respectful consultation that a more
fundamental root is found, and the nature of the goals may be entirely
changed.
If there is not a process in place for the Assembly members and the
community members to review how the community is doing, how an initiative
is working, a seeking out of where improvements can be made, then the
Assembly persists in its errors, and that's not the Baha'i way. For
example, in Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities, (p. 13.13) a
resource prepared by the US NSA for the LSAs, there is this extract from a
letter in the chapter on Social and Economic Development projects:
It is also worth remembering that projects may need amendment to or
alteration of their objectives as operational experience may show. The
need for such changes can only be realized if constant monitoring is
carried out and is accepted as a component part of the project. (Letter
from the Office of Social and Economic Development at the World Center,
approved by the Universal House of Justice, dated December 13, 1983, to a
National Spiritual Assembly.)
This was also a point made in a marvelous video tape produced at the World
Centre, Creating a Culture of Growth. The friends in a teaching project
in Atlanta shown on that tape evaluated their progress weekly, and made
modifications as appropriate.
It seems to me that if an Assembly builds such monitoring into all of its
activities, if it sets a time frame for regular evaluation of how well
each of its initiatives is meeting a certain need, then the Assemblies are
going to far more quickly carry out the instructions of the House of
Justice and fashion effective methods for the healing of the world.
If the Assembly does not build in such monitoring; if it does not seek the
views of the friends, at Feast or elsewhere, and regularly at the meetings
of the Assembly itself, then when a believer feels that, going back to the
quote from the Master at the top, the truth has been revealed, and the
fruits of the error are now manifest -- there is no place for the Assembly
member or community member to make his or her remarks without being viewed
as inappropriate, or even disloyal. In order for the truth to be
revealed, we have to make it OK for the friends to express such views.
Other than the friends drawing such things to the attention of the
Assembly, how will the truth come to light and the corrections be made?
Granted, there are spiritual processes that make such changes in
mysterious ways. But loving consultation and re-evaluation is a spiritual
process, too, and one called for by Baha'u'llah: Consultation ...
transmuteth conjecture into certitude. (Consultation compilation).
So not only in SED projects, but in all its activities, rather than a
