"You remind me of someone with such ambitions year ago," he answered. "I think you know why I created Med Force Enterprises. I created it to do just that, to provide medical care via medicine and research to anyone, regardless of affiliation. While it was a great premise, it is also a tough sell. Look no further than the continuing conflict between the Corsair Empire, the Outcasts and the two having conflict with the Bounty Hunters Guild. Each claimed I was aiding their enemies. Each threatened my operations and family on numerous occasions. As I said, it's a tough sell, especially where, as I see it, the Consensus would have to give some favor to the Corsair Empire in the area of operation you are at."
Dankien nods in agreement. "That is an important point you rise here. Our neutrality will be indeed harder to maintain than in the "usual" zoner situation. Yes, the Consensus will have to be useful enough to its neighbors if we want to live in peace. I was thinking to contact the Corsairs to evaluate how we can collaborate. But of course, at first I need to discuss about it with the rest of the Consensus."
"But," he continued with a sip of his drink, "we aren't here to discuss the Sairs, the Outcasts or the Hunters or anyone else for that reason. Already we have some common ground and you are giving me a reason to get back to work. "
"Indeed, but your experience and advices regarding that matter will be still appreciated when we will prepare our diplomatic relations with these communities."
"You mention not having a leader," he inquired, "how do you propose to make this group work? A conglomerate of independent groups in a council? While that idea is a noble one, remember the old Council of Zoners and how that idea didn't work......twice. Each group will have it's own problems and relations or in my case, I'll have a piece of all of those problems. I think I'm just curious as to what you have in mind."
Dankien changes of position on his chair. "That is the tricky part. The idea is that the decisions are made by mutual agreement of the Consensus members. So yes, there is no leader, and each member has the same power of decision than the others.
Usually, when there is a need to take a decision, someone will make a proposal. Then the members can ask questions, debate about pro and cons. After this discussion, the members emit their opinion which must be one of the three:
A: "I like that"
B: "I am not fan but I can live wit it". In this case, the member can propose a change to the proposal so he would like it (opinion A)
C: "I don't like that, but I will modify my opinion (to A or B) if you change the proposal". In this case, the member has to propose a change that would make him accept the proposal (opinion A or B).
It means you might have to modify the proposal several times before it is fully accepted (opinion A or B) by everybody. But the advantage is that all will endorse the decision. It is not like in a vote where you have winners and losers. The consensus has only winners.
So far we have not totally followed this approach. I think I need to reexplain the concept and the procedure to the members. The problem is that people tend to confuse the vote and the consensus. Moreover, some ...at least one (Dankien smiles) want to make swift decisions.
Also, you truly address another good point, since we have several sub-organisms in the consensus, we need to manage the cohesion of the whole thing. I think it is needed to remain united and coherent. This means to me our sub-organisms must have the same diplomacy, make the same decisions, overcome issues together, and so on... But I am not sure we have actually an agreement on this. This is still a point to clarify.
"What I can provide you with is immediate medical and research facilities and personnel. I have Med.Force.Three at Freeport 9 under the command of Alicia Cook." He snickers a bit, "If you can get past her heavy Bretonian accent, she's approachable....so long as you're not an Outcast."
"Med Force One will remain in Omega 49. I conduct a lot of top secret research there to include Nomad research. I can provide you with a list of services."
"So," he asked, "what do you think so far? I tend to get long winded."
"I think that would be wonderful!"
