Working in a cooperative structure requires a constant balancing act, McKeen acknowledges. It's always a tricky tightrope to walk about how boldly one exerts leadership and sets direction. There's some resistance to that. You might see it as a thankless job because there aren't a lot of monetary or physical rewards for taking on a leadership role. It is kind of a tribal sense.
People come forward who have ability, skill and the trust of the community.
They last as long as that trust lasts. Leadership rotates, but not on a mandatory basis. What we saw was corruption, greed, dishonesty. Everything that smelled of leadership was suspected. Swinging toward the opposite extreme, the community originally decided to govern itself by 100-percent consensus.