Re: Consensus failures
From: Cinnie Blair (cpie55earthlink.net)
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:43:28 -0700 (PDT)
Does anyone have experience using "Formal Consensus" as outlined in the book 
"on Conflict and Consensus" by C.T. Butler? I believe it was originally crafted 
by political activists to withstand infiltration by government agents.
Blocks or even "concerns" can be dissallowed if they are not reflecting the 
foundational agreements (constitution ) of the group.
Cinnie Blair
www.nevadacountyruralcohousing.org 

-----Original Message-----
>From: Rob Sandelin <floriferous [at] msn.com>
>Sent: Mar 17, 2007 4:07 PM
>To: 'Cohousing-L' <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Consensus failures
>
>
> I have been present at many failures at consent and consensus. It is not a
>given that either of these methods will work, and so having other methods at
>hand to use to make decisions is wise. An example, The Seattle office of
>Greenpeace used an open member, consensus process with great success (1981).
>At one point, a group (perhaps of government agents) who claimed to be
>socialist anarchists came into the group and blocked every single proposal.
>As you can imagine, this shut them down until such time as a majority vote
>changed the process temporarily.  I have also seen a single, misguided
>invidividual do the same thing in other groups including intentional
>communities and cohousing both. This is where you need a process to either
>remove an individual, or move the process to something temporarily that can
>not be hijacked.  There is a place where blocking on convictions is
>appropriate, there is also a place where blocking is used to hold a group
>hostage to a personal agenda. The Delta cohousing group that formed in
>Eastside Seattle fell apart due to a couple who continually blocked the
>groups progress in an effort to convert the group to a political cause.
>Fortunately that group was just beginning and had no capital investment at
>stake. 
>
>It takes a great deal of humility to be able to fully participate in a
>consent or consensus process, and sometimes in some groups, it just does not
>work.
>
>
>Rob Sandelin
>Naturalist, Writer
>The Environmental Science School
>http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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