The following gestures have been agreed on in order to express an opinion, to complete a decision on a proposal and to allow the entire community to co-facilitate our General Assembly:
1. Applause/Agreement: Place both hands in front of yourself, with palms facing out and open, then flutter fingers.
2. Disagreement: Hands in front of self, open hands and face tips of fingers to the ground, while shake hands from side to side.
3. “That has already been said”/”Get to the point”/”Time is up”: Place your arms in front of yourself, with your hands facing each other, and revolve your hands over each other in circular fashion.
4. Point of Process: Create a triangle with both hands using your thumbs and index fingers to indicate that we are following the process. This is reserved only for moments that the process has derailed, not an opportunity for someone to derail the process by using this gesture.
5. Irrelevant Elephant: Use one arm to imitate an elephant’s trunk and swing it in front of yourself (making sure you do not hurt anyone around you) to indicate that the speaker is completely irrelevant in their speech.
6. Direct Response/Factual Response: Straighten your index fingers while your hands remain in a fist. Move each hand back and forth in an opposite fashion towards and away from your face. A direct response/factual response signal is to indicate that you can provide a factual response to resolve the matter at hand, a correction based on a fact, and/or factual information that may allow the process to proceed forward.
7. Approve a Proposal: Use of this hand signal comes during the voting portion of the General Assembly to indicate your approval to a proposal by raising a fist in the air with your thumb to the sky.
8. Stand Aside from a Proposal: Use of this hand signal comes during the voting portion of the General Assembly to indicate your neutrality to a proposal by raising a fist in the air with you thumb to a side.
9. Disapprove a Proposal: Use of this hand signal comes during the voting portion of the General Assembly to indicate your approval to a proposal by raising a fist in the air with your thumb to the ground.
It is advisable to remind participants of these signs at the beginning of each General Assembly.
I observed these in action the other day, and I noted that it was very hard to see the some of the signs in a large crowd. This was particularly true of the “disagreement” sign because it involves pointing your hands downward. Holding your arms up while making symbols makes it easier to see in a crowd, but that’s difficult to do with that particular sign.
Thoughts or ideas?