Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Decision log

[Rowenahc (rowenahc]

Yes, you absolutely must have a decision log.   The main thing is to have
someone who is absolutely reliable in charge!  If they can't be at a general
meeting they have to find someone else to take over.   Ours is very simple
minded - a three ring notebook.  Whenever a formal decision is made it is
written down, read back to ensure that everyone knows what they consensed
on, and then dated and put in the book. If the decision refers to another
document (e.g. a rule about pets, or a budget), that document as presented
to the meeting should be filed at the same time. Ideally there would be an
index, or perhaps they could be divided into categories.  We've managed
without such niceities.

After three years, we very rarely seem to make formal decisions except for
budgets and picking the managing board members and a lot of the concern
about what we decided some years ago seems to have evaporated as we have
gained more trust in each other.   However, the things that do get decided
may have legal implications as well as historical interest and you should
keep them in order.

RowenCambridgeCohousing

-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org
[mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 3:19 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Decision log


julia newhouse Chesapeake Cohousing, julia.newhouse [at] verizon.net
is the author of the message below but due to a problem
it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org

To get off Cohousing-L, send email with UNSUBSCRIBE COHOUSING-L in the
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Our cohousing group is working towards more structured meetings, and firming
up our administrative housekeeping.
It has been suggested that we begin implementing a decision log.

We would like suggestions and samples from those of you who are using it
with success. We're particularly interested in how it is formatted, what it
might look like, and how is it maintained. Please include any other comments
also. Thank you.
julia newhouse
Chesapeake Cohousing, Annapolis, MD