Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Practical decision making/ circles

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind, once most of us were living on site or in town, discussion 
circles greatly shortened the process of whole-group discussion and 
decision making. Well-attended, and well-done, such circles can offer the 
best of both small and large group work.

Our discussion circles do not make decisions, but are a forum for members 
to get more information, share concerns and alternatives, and otherwise 
give the responsible committee or task force useful material to 
incorporate prior to bringing an item to a whole-group meeting. We still 
allow and encourage discussion at the full-group meeting, but there is a 
lot less of it when concerns have already been raised and addressed, 
often fine tuning the proposal, ahead of time. Email discussions 
contribute also, including email comments to circle organizers from those 
who are unable to attend the circle. 

Delegation can be tricky. One thing we've found is that certain 
committees attract certain "types" and often committee membership is not 
representative of the diversity of the whole group. The people who 
gravitate to the Finance Committee or the CC&R-revision Task Force are 
different from those who gravitate to the Art Task Force or Grounds 
Committee. So "trust your committees" isn't always the perfect solution. 
All our committees and task forces, other than our 5-member Steering 
Committee, are volunteer, not elected or selected. 

Tips for successful discussion circles:
*Good pre-circle materials distribution, via email, handouts, etc. Not 
too far in advance, nor too close to meeting time, to optimize how many 
people have it fresh in their minds. Bring extra copies to the circle for 
those who need them.

*Reminder of upcoming circle date and time. 
*Structured facilitation, so you have the facts summarized, then some 
sort of go-round or brainstorm or whatever, with a focus on certain 
questions, or breakdown of the issues. Check at the outset if the planned 
structure works for people, and be flexible if need be. ("Hey- this is 
all predicated on X, and I'm think we should first make sure we are in 
agreement on X....").

*Better several short go-rounds, on various aspects, than a long 
"download" from each of many people, which can be tedious to sit through 
and wait your turn. We've sometimes passed a 3-minute egg timer on 
contentious subjects: if you finish early (rare), the balance of the sand 
timer is spent in silence, so the next person has a full timer. 

* The presenters need to be open to a whole new approach if it emerges. 
Don't get too attached to "your" work!

*Note taking and distribution isn't essential, but can help bring up to 
speed those who didn't attend. 


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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