Consensus (was quorum at meetings)
From: Kristen Simmons (simmonskristengmail.com)
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 10:07:25 -0700 (PDT)
 It seems to me that if a group member is figuring out in their heads where
everyone stands on an issue or proposal, that member cannot possibly be
listening to (and really hearing) the concerns of others. And for a member
of a group to threaten a vote so that someone will "lose" seems very
adversarial. I would find it upsetting no matter what I thought of the
issue. I don't want anyone in my community to "lose".

By listening to the concerns of members in my coho, as required in consensus
decision making, I learn new things. Especially when I don't want to. ;-) My
life has been enriched because of this. Would voting be quicker? Absolutely.
Better? Everyone can draw their own conclusions on that.

I'm relatively new to both cohousing and consensus, as a founding member of
a group that is forming a new coho in Boston (Stony Brook Cohousing, with 11
household members), so I definitely don't have as much experience as others
on the listserv. So far, our group has had some training in consensus, with
more to come. We have found it invaluable.

Regards,
Kristen

Message: 7
> Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:56:35 -0400
> From: Brian Bartholomew <bb [at] stat.ufl.edu>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Quorum at meetings
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <20071002085635.D051574618 [at] capelin.stat.ufl.edu>
>
> > The quorum issue is the one issue where we almost invoked our backup
> > vote process.  (So far we never have).
>
> What's the difference between someone in a meeting saying 'if you do
> X, I will call for a vote, and you know you'll lose' vs. actually
> going through the paperwork of the vote?
>
> What's the difference between meeting participants doing this math
> silently in their heads and then 'giving consent' vs. actually going
> through the paperwork of the vote?
>                                                        Brian
>
>
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