T-E-C System Elections 2024!

We’ve been debating and trying new ways to run our system.

For decades it was fairly simple – we had three subsystems, each subsystem elected a representative to the ruling council, and the council made the major decisions during the year. Over the years the subsystems kind of collapsed into one another, but we stuck with the idea of an elected council of three. It wasn’t perfect, but it broke ties, and it was small enough that stuff actually got done.

But, not everyone in the system was happy with the council of three idea. It was often the same handful of adult alters that ended up getting elected. Two years ago, we tweaked the rules, and our first “kiddo” was allowed on the council, with an adult advisor. One year ago, we tweaked the rules again, and tried a council of five instead of three. This year, well, we don’t know what we’re doing yet.

One possibility we looked at was ditching the council idea all together and going to a direct democracy, one alter, one vote, every topic.

That didn’t work.

While our communication with each other is much better than it was in the beginning, we still can’t simultaneously gather everyone together in one room to have a quick meeting. Basic communication can take awhile. Debate can take longer. Political wheeling and dealing? Oh my. It simply was taking too much time and too much energy to make decisions that way.

Another problem with “one alter, one vote, every topic” was that in a pure numbers game, the younger alters in our system win. Some of the little ones aren’t very active, but when given the same voting power as the main alters in the system, cartoons can become a lot more important then adult responsibilities. That doesn’t work long term. (We do recognize sometimes cartoons are a necessity however.)

So, what to do, what to do.

Our therapist, Therapy Guru, suggested a system with an inner council of 3, and an outer council of 7. We’ve tossed around the idea, but have rejected it as suffering from the “too many cooks” problem. The beauty of the council is that it makes day to day life simpler. Yes, it’s important to listen to all parts. That’s why we elect representatives every year. If council members don’t pay attention to their base, they don’t stay council members – it’s that simple.

But, we are going through some pretty major changes right now, and making a decision for a year seems like a long time. We are also a month behind on running the yearly t-e-c elections, which traditionally start with the new school year. (Yes, we’ve had a council for a VERY long time.) Therefore, the following idea is put forward to the system as a whole…

Let’s go back to a three member council, but only for six months.

• Everyone in the system gets to vote for their top two choices for council members.
• There will be no districts based on old subsystems – anyone can vote for anyone in the system, including themselves.
• Seats one and two will go to the two adults with the highest number of votes. Seat three will go to the system member with the highest number of votes after the first two seats are filled, no matter what that system member’s age is.
• Votes are due by the end of the month.

While we are trying to appear as a bit more of a unified front online, we accept that individuals will want to campaign as themselves. That’s perfectly fine. That campaigning doesn’t have to happen online if you’re shy. It’s cool to let people see how we organize, but not required. Please consider running even if you’ve never been on the council before. 🙂

t-e-c

The Electric Circus (t-e-c) is a dissociative system first diagnosed with DID in 1994. View their profile here.

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Dissociative Identity Disorder