Re: Consensus in cohousing
From: Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganeshrmi.net)
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 13:28:52 -0600 (MDT)
Becky,

I think to conclude that older communities that haven't responded to your
question have abandoned consensus will lead you to a false conclusion.
Maybe you were just trying to provoke more responses.   :-)

Heartwood (3 years old and feeling more mellow and mature everyday -- with a
long way yet to go) has used consensus from the beginning.  We've done a
fair amount of work to learn and improve our skills and to overcome hurdles
as they've presented themselves.  Overall, I think consensus has served us
very well.

Community is all about relationships and I don't know of any other decision
making model that attends to the relationships as well as consensus.  If the
concerns of the minority are not addressed, how can the relationships
flourish?

Yes, consensus requires a commitment to better understand others' points of
views, backgrounds, values, etc. and to better understand yourself and your
role in the community.  With the right to single handedly block a community
decision comes the tremendous responsibility of knowing when it's
appropriate to exercise that right.  If folks aren't willing to make that
commitment, I wonder why they're in community.

BTW, there was a recent post that asked something like, "Do communities use
consensus to make their decisions or are they made by committees, governing
boards, etc?"  I interpret this to imply that unless the whole community is
making the decision, it's not a consensus decision.  I think this is a
misunderstanding of consensus decision making.  An area of responsibility
can be delegated to a team and then the team makes consensus decisions to
carry out their responsibility.  The key to consensus is that no one within
the decision making body (whether it's the whole community, a team, or
whatever) has an objection to the decision.  A very small percentage of our
decisions are made by the whole community, but they're almost all made by
consensus.

- Mac

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and
remove all doubt."
      - Abraham Lincoln
**********************************************************
On 08/07/03 Becky Schaller wrote:
> I wrote this message on Monday and today is Wednesday and I haven't heard
> anyone give a direct answer to my question.   So I'm interpreting that to
> mean that no one who is a  member of an older community  (people living in
> the community for five or more years) still use consensus for major
> decisions.  
> 
> I asked that question because I'm wondering if consensus is an appropriate
> means of making decisions for cohousing communities.   I agree it has some
> sound and caring reasons behind it when placed in the right hands.
> 
> But it seems to me for consensus to work, people need to be commmitted to
> the process and to learning about it.  In cohousing communities, people are
> allowed to move in and out the process as they please. Others may encourage
> them to enter the process for a particular decision at the beginning and
> discourage them from entering in the middle or at the end.
> 
> I realized when I sent the message below that perhaps I was asking people to
> answer a question which might be risky.   If someone says their community
> doesn't use consensus any more, does that mean they are no longer a
> cohousing community.  Does that mean they are telling everyone on this list
> that their community found consensus too difficult or too cumbersome and
> failed at consensus decision making?   Does this say something about their
> community which they do not risk to disclose on a public listserv?
> 
> I also know there are many other reasons people may  not have responded.
> 
> I'm wanting to find a way to get this information without asking people to
> tell about the difficulties of their community.   But I would like to find a
> way to get the information somehow.  If, over the years, many communities
> have chosen not to continue with consensus decision making (however you want
> to define that term), I think that is a very important piece of information
> for the cohousing community to have.
> 
> If anyone knows of a way to get this information or has already gathered it
> in another way, would you please let me know.
> 
> Thanks,
> Becky Schaller

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