Pat, “Self-organize” characterizes how an organization came into being, how it was created. Once created an organization cannot later claim to be self-organized — like a mother who delivers a child using C-section or caesarean delivery cannot later claim the birth was natural delivery.
Ashby Ponds Executive Director’s March 25, 2024 email stated, “Erickson does not support or deny any specific definition of “self-organized”. Every situation is different and a definition that makes logical sense in one scenario may not make sense in another. This allows the spirit and intent in a situation to be considered in the evaluation.” This “definition” is a non-starter.
However, one does not require a definition of “self-organize” to conclude that Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council (RAC) — created and operated according to the following three documents is unambiguously not self-organized:
Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council Constitution & Bylaws (7 pages)
Resident Advisory Council Handbook (13 pages)
Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council Policies and Procedures (12 pages)
RAC meetings and their “minutes” are not helpful. First, residents are not sent an agenda prior to meetings. Second, the “minutes” of RAC meetings are meeting notes — not minutes, minutes record decisions and who made them. Third, RAC’s response to issues I’ve presented over the years is, “talk to Baltimore.”
Indeed, neither RAC nor Ashby Ponds/Erickson Living have responded to the issues I presented with facts and argument — legal argument when necessary.
After years of no response I presented a DRAFT Management Audit to Ashby Ponds/Erickson Living for comment. None were received. When I pursued the matter it led to a letter from Erickson Living Counsel, Carla B Ulgen, threatening to terminate my contract.
The new Ashby Ponds Residents Association (APRA) meets the requirements of the Code of Virginia § 38.2-4910. I am acting as Facilitator and will help setup APRA consistent with Virginia Law. I will not accept any position in APRA.
Ashby Ponds/Erickson Living need to brush up on the meaning of self-organize.
Self-organize, often referred to as self-organization, is a phenomenon in which a system or a collection of individual components autonomously and spontaneously arranges or restructures itself into a more organized or coherent state without external guidance or central control. This concept is commonly observed in various fields, including physics, biology, sociology, and computer science. — ChatGPT
Systems lacking self-organization can have order imposed on them in many different ways, not only through instructions from a supervisory leader but also through various directives such as blueprints or recipes, or through pre-existing patterns in the environment (templates). Such systems would not be called self-organized. — Self-Organizing Systems: The Emergence of Order, Princeton University Press
The study of self-organization spans various scientific disciplines, and its roots can be traced back to different fields and time periods. Here are a few key points in the history of the study of self-organization:
1. **Physics (19th Century):** The idea of self-organization has roots in physics, particularly in the study of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Scientists like Ludwig Boltzmann and Josiah Willard Gibbs made contributions to understanding how order can emerge from disorder in physical systems.
2. **Biology (20th Century):** In the mid-20th century, biologists started to explore self-organization in living systems. Conrad Waddington, a developmental biologist, introduced the concept of "epigenetics" and "canalization," which referred to the self-regulation and robustness observed in biological development.
3. **Cybernetics (20th Century):** The field of cybernetics, which emerged in the mid-20th century, also played a role in the study of self-organization. Cybernetics focused on the communication and control in living organisms and machines, and it contributed to the understanding of self-regulating systems.
4. **Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos Theory (late 20th Century):** In the latter half of the 20th century, advances in the study of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory further deepened the understanding of self-organization. Scientists like Edward Lorenz and the development of the Lorenz attractor highlighted the sensitivity to initial conditions and the emergence of complex behavior in dynamic systems.
5. **Complex Systems and Network Theory (late 20th Century to present):** The study of complex systems, including self-organizing systems, gained momentum towards the end of the 20th century and continues to be a vibrant area of research today. Network theory, which explores the relationships and interactions between elements in a system, is often used to understand self-organization in various contexts.
The study of self-organization is interdisciplinary, drawing on insights from physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, and other fields. The exploration of self-organizing principles continues to evolve as our understanding of complex systems advances.