The Community “Base Teams” (Way of working)

When a group of people meet periodically around The Community’s materials with the aim of organizing training activities and the practice of nonviolence, creating a void to violence, denouncing and not collaborating with it, when it sets in motion non-violent exemplary actions, and when also the participants of that group are concerned with overcoming their own internal violence, then we are in the presence of a primary base organization that we call a “TC promotion group”.  The personal relations and behavior of the group are based on the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated”.

There are also TC groups that develop their activities in a virtual way by making use of new technologies through the web and internet.

From their formation, base teams or groups of TC advance in setting up three basic mechanisms or functions for their development:
growth: orientating their action towards other people, towards other networks and organizations with the aim of making their proposals and tools known and implementing them in practice.
communication: maintaining fluid communication and interchange with other base teams and with other organizations with objectives in affinity with TC.
formation: attending to the progressive formation of their members, offering tools for overcoming internal and external violence.  These studies and practices are developed in the primary materials.

When these “TC promotion groups” reach a minimum development (approximately 10 full members), achieve permanence in their meetings and choose one of their members, through a direct vote, to fulfill the functions of team coordination and contact person with the “National or World Coordination Team”, a “TC Base Team” is constituted.  (E.g. TC Base Team “Flowers neighborhood”, TCBT “Active Nonviolence – Mumbai”, etc).

These teams of TC may generate links with other groups and organizations in their environment (interchange, joint actions and collaboration), but on no account will they establish an organizational relationship with any of them.

Joint functions

TC Base Teams, like National and World Coordination Teams may, when they consider it necessary, define functions that facilitate joint action, such as:
Spokesperson: responsible for presenting The Community in institutional activities, in the press and in all activities or situations where it is necessary to present The Community’s point of view.

Relations with other organizations
Participation of minorities
Legal and juridical
Press and dissemination
Other ad-hoc functions

These functions are elected through a direct vote by members of the respective teams (base, national and international coordination) and they have a 1 year term of office in the case of base teams and two years in the cases of national and world coordination.  These functions are exclusively for relating to the environment and are at the service of the whole.  They are not for orientation and respond to a mandate with precise guidelines and may be re-elected.