RE: Community policies: general advice
From: Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (RobsanExchange.MICROSOFT.com)
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 15:09:25 -0600
Some general advice about setting community policies

Start with conceptual and then move to specifics. For example if you
find need for a policy about pets, first find agreement about what you
want a pet policy to accomplish, then work on the specifics of how to
accomplish it. Or in other words, define why have a policy first, then
work on the details. A very valid question to ask at any time is "why
are we doing this?"

Put a sunset clause on agreements.  Most of your members will have no
idea of the reality of living in community until they do so, and stuff
you agree to early may want to change. Unfortunately policies in
consensus organizations can be very hard to redo because of the "we've
always done it this way syndrome". Setting a term limit on policies
gives you a chance to try some things out, learn from the experience,
then redo the policy based on your experience. A sunset clause forces
the group to make a new agreement, and this can be a very good thing
sometimes. Not always, but somethings are worth revisiting. This seems
dumb until you find yourself strangled by an entrenched agreement that
you can't get consensus to change.

Be very conscious that policies will filter who joins and this may cause
unintentional results. For example if you create a policy that
participation is individual not by household, you may filter out two
parent working families who are not willing to  sacrifice their time
with their kids. If you create a policy that every meeting has childcare
and the cost is paid for by everyone in the group, you may filter in
families with kids. As you ponder a potential policy (hows that for
alliteration?) think about what impacts it will have on people who will
want to join your community later. Sharingwoods pet policy for example,
which restricts cats indoors and keeps dogs out of the woods has been a
major filter. 

Be carefull about things which can effect resale. Banks are fussy about
such things. There is a growing number of home owners associations which
govern developments. Things like pet policies are normal, as are
controls on exteriors, yards, quiet hours, etc. However, membership
policies get a lot of scrutiney from banks, especially things like
"reading the cohousing book" or "signing the principals and
commitments". A friendly banker could review your proposed policies and
give you some good advice about things that would endanger loans.

Keep a separate document of your agreements and add them to the document
as you make new ones. What happens is sometimes groups make agreements
in a meeting, it goes into the minutes (without review so whatever the
scribe wrote defines the policy) and two years later, you need to review
it and can't find the notes, or the notes don't jibe with what people
thought they agreed to.  Hand this agreements document to every
potential new member. Be sure to keep this document current. Sharingwood
agreements document includes the intention of each agreement.

It is not uncommon for a group to have a pretty wide diversity of
opinions about needing agreements in the first place. Some folks want
clearly defined rules about lots of things, other folks want freedom to
do what they want without too many controls.  This is a classic group
power struggle and as much as it makes great sense to be proactive about
potential problems, sometimes you have to have a disaster before the
group will agree to something. Be ready to live with that balance, its a
big part of being a community.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
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