Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Decision processes

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Mar 11, 2005, at 3:57 PM, Rob Sandelin wrote:

>  Sharon Villines wrote:  But cohousing groups do use consensus 
> none-the-less
> and do get through it. But what happens in our community and other
> communities (I believe) is that decisions are avoided and more and 
> more made
> by small groups or individuals with no discussion by the large group.
> Everyone learns to look the other way and some people just withdraw 
> from the
> process.
> Decisions are less often announced so no one knows about it until it is
> carried out. Things just happen.

The rest of my message also made it clear that big things are decided 
by consensus. If you just read this paragraph you miss that caveat. 
Most groups who want to make decisions by consensus, also want a sense 
that the whole community is working in accord in all ways. That won't 
happen.

> So for instance, what to
> plant in the garden is a small group decision, changing time for 
> community
> dinner is a large group thing.

It takes a very long time for a group to establish norms about what is 
a small thing and what is a large thing. Five years after move-in we 
still run up against widely differing opinions about this and on who 
should resolve the "small" things.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org