Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Majority Rule

[Dale Grover (dgrover]

We are set up as a condominium, as this was more financially 
realistic for us vs. a cooperative.  As a condominium, we are subject 
to both corporate and condominium laws for Michigan.  These require 
voting as a decision-making process for certain decisions.  Our 
bylaws describe our decison-making process as using consensus unless 
we 1) get in a bind, or 2) are required by law.  We spent a bit of 
time making sure our legal documents were in reasonable agreement 
with a sustainable governance policy.

During some aspects of development, outside facilitators did use 
voting for some design decisions, as I recall.  (While it meant we 
got done more or less on time, it was not always without ruffling 
feathers.)  I don't believe we've had to fall back on a vote so far. 
I believe the perception is that this would be a high price to pay 
for resolution.

2-1/2 yrs development, 1 year on site.

--Dale Grover, Great Oak Cohousing, Ann Arbor MI


At 6:23 PM -0400 9/11/04, Jim Snyder-Grant wrote:
> Our condo docs (and our old development docs) have a fallback to 
> voting if the group agrees that consensus has not worked yet & there 
> is time pressure. We've used voting a couple of times: on one key 
> development decision that had the group tied up, and on deciding our 
> road name (we agreed ahead of time to use a voting process for that 
> one).
>
> We were in development for 5 years or so, and have been living here 
> for 8 or 9 years. We haven't used the voting fallback since we moved 
> in - no time-pressured decisions - on tricky decisions without a 
> clear group agreement, we often end up agreeing on 'trying out' a 
> specific course of action for a specified period of time. And we've 
> also pushed a lot of our decisions to committees.
>
> -Jim, from New View cohousing, Acton MA.
>
> mikearnott [at] juno.com wrote:
>
> > Do any cohousing communities use "majority rule" for at least some
> > decision making?  I am particularly interested in the experience of such
> > cohousing communities that have been up and running for at least a year
> > or two.
> >
> > Michael Arnott
> > Cornerstone Cohousing
> > Cambridge, MA
> --
>
> Jim Snyder-Grant
> 18 Half Moon Hill
> Acton MA 01720
> 978 266-9409
> http://www.snyder-grant.org/jim/who
>
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