I think it would be easier to reach consensus if we were talking face to face over 3-5 days in an organized fashion with very specific goals in mind. Jbeing in a room together and people seeing each other as actual human beings would make everyone feel more cohesive and respectful towards one another.
A lot can be achieved on message boards, but if people are really serious about accomplishing something and formulating something the majority of people can get behind, I think it needs to be done in person at a roundtable type of event. You know, the kind of thing you (Seska) are fantastic at organizing

. I know you are in Canada so a lot of the issues impact you in different ways (or not at all), but yeah.
I don't mean to say that it's pointless to talk about it on boards, just that it's obviously easy for people to become distracted, for a few people who post a lot to appear to represent more people than they actually do, etc.
It would be nice to have people with experience and knowledge of teambuilding, educating, and actually leading people to help structure and organize these kinds of discussions.