Process Committee
From: Becky Schaller (bschallertheriver.com)
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 14:04:02 -0600 (MDT)
Would some of you be willing to tell how your Process Committee is working.

In my opinion, our Process Committee has been having difficulty.  I have
been wondering if the charter needs to be more focused.   Somehow, it seems
to me that the Process Committee is having more trouble getting a handle on
it's tasks than other committees are. It doesn't seem to matter who is on
the committee.  Over the years, a lot of people have been on the committee.
I think the committee must have done well in the beginning before I came
since I think we have a good Process Manual.  But I've been in the group
since before we had land (1996) and I think the committee has been
struggling throughout the various stages of the community development.  We
are now almost all moved in and finishing up our construction stage.  I'm
wondering if this committee's charge has too many sub-issues or if the
difficulty is that the issues are less concrete than the issues of other
committees.

This is the charter of our Process Committee.

The Process Committee is charged with the task of monitoring the
process by which the community functions to carry out its mission.  The
committee will in an ongoing way review our current group process
methodology and procedural rules, and recommend changes to the Group
Process Manual or other group rules in  order to improve the quality of
our interaction and the efficiency of our work processes, both in
meetings and outside of meetings.  This can include topics such as
facilitation of meetings, recordkeeping and decision log, agenda
formulation, committee procedures, email issues, conflict resolution, and
other matters related to the harmony and efficiency of our group process.
 The committee will not make decisions for the group as a whole unless
specifically requested to do so by the group.


This is the mission statement of our community.
We believe that today's neighborhoods have in large part served to isolate
people fromo one another and encourage alienatin from ourselves and other
communities.  Together we seek to create a neighborhood which strikes a
balance between public and private- respecting individual privacy while
encouraging social interaction. In pursuit of this goal, we participate in
the ongoing design and construction of our community - and then take an
active part in its ongoing management.  This community of adults and
children is not built around an ideological principal; rather, we seek a
diversity of backgrounds, ages, and opinions, with our one shared value
being the commitment to working out our problems and finding  consensus
solutions which satisfy all members.

I'm interested in knowing how the charter of our Process Committeee differs
from the charter of other committees.   Also, what kinds of things do the
Process Committees in other communities do well and what kinds of things do
you seem to continually struggle with.  From my perspective, our Process
Committee has trouble focusing.  Any feedback that others have would be
appreciated.


Becky Schaller
Sonora Cohousing
Tucson, AZ

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.