Womens Collective

The Women’s Centre operates under a coordinating collective. The members work together and with staff making decisions for the Centre based on this feminist model of organization. A collective emphasizes sharing information, power and responsibility in a group.

In a collective, there are no designated leaders and there is no formal, top-down structure. The structure of the collective is often more flexible, varies over time and may evenly or unevenly distribute power, tasks and responsibility among group members.

In a collective, decisions are made by consensus (by everyone agreeing) rather than by voting (with the majority winning). Each person’s right to be heard is important and the group discusses issues until agreement is reached.

Collectives try to provide services to the community that are geared to people, not profits.

Collectives work as a whole unit toward specific goals, rather than as subservient parts, as is shown by the models below: