Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: consensus (when to skip it)

[Jim Snyder-Grant (danasg]

Hi Stephanie:

One example of when consensus may not be the best way to proceed is when
the decision is entirely esthetic, and has little or no financial
implications. Two examples from New View (Acton MA):

1) Naming our road
2) The color of the common house

We handled (1) by some discussions followed by a semi-elaborate voting
process. We started by consensing that we would vote.

We handled (2) by showing a relatively small palette of choices, asking
people to write down their most favorite & least favorite colors, and why;
and then having the common house committee make the decision guided by the
votes. This process was created by the common house committee who were
probably authorized to make the decision themselves, but wanted more group
input. (Also, within the committee, there was not consensus about which
color scheme to use)

I won't see either process was perfect, but it was clear that consensus
would either not have worked, or would have taken way too much time to be
worth it.

We also wrote both our development and condo docs to allow a fallback to
voting if the group (3/4 of it, anyway) wants to vote, and agrees to
certify that consensus has been tried for at three meetings in good faith
with no final decision. We have used this process twice in 10 years.