Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meeting Times

[Raymond D. Gasser (raygasser]

At EcoVillage at Ithaca we've been doing 1:00-5:00 two Sundays a month,
since near the beginning. During especially heavy times we have had to add
one or two special meetings/month, but we tried to keep this to rare
occasions. All meetings include child care and a 15 minute break. And
usually a 5 minute "Fun" item. Once/month there is a 20 minute "Personal
Sharing" segment for people to talk about any issue or that is important int
their lives (good things/bad things/things of concern...not discussion, and
no "answering" someone else's concerns, just speaking what's going on in
your own life)

My personal feeling is that many issues can be delegated to committees, and
the committees empowered to make the decisions (with anyone who wants to be
on the committee allowed in on the discussion & decision). This, however,
requires everyone to let go of some control and trust the committees to make
good decisions. Sometimes tricky to get that level of trust.

One problem we've had with this (especially when the committee hasn't been
fully empowered to make decistions) is that the committee will publicize
meetings, work long and hard on a topic, think that they have everything
nailed down, bring it back to the group, and someone will say "No way, I'm
gonna block that because.... I had no idea that you might decide on THAT
course of action... 

Committe people get hurt feelings, the person blocking gets dirty looks and
hard feelings, but still feels the need to be heard, etc. We haven't yet
found the perfect solution. 

Ray Gasser, EcoVillage at Ithaca
raygasser [at] delphi.com

At 11:46 AM 6/6/97 -0500, MLYNCHIN [at] aol.com wrote:
>I'm wondering how long coho groups allow for their planning meetings. ...  7:15
>to 9:30 after work, twice a month,....
>hurting the consensus process ...everyone feels the pressure of time...
>issues are not being discussed thoroughly,...agenda items keep getting
>deferred ...and.. lost.
>Marilyn Chin
>Old Oakland CoHousing at Swan's Market in Oakland, CA. With 20 units and 4
>spaces remaining
>