Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cardiff Place Cohousing

[Michael Barrett (mbarrett]

"Alan Carpenter" <alan [at] 4naturals.biz> said:
 "  . . . As a result of struggling to reach agreement  they <Cardiff Place 
Cohousing> ended up going to a majority rule system to make decisions . . . ."

A month ago I would have said:  "Aha, of course, that explains their demise" 
(as cohousing), having been thoroughly indoctrinated into understanding that a 
consensus process is (almost) the only way to go and believing consensus to be 
the universal norm. 

But during my recent visit to Shadowlake Village, VA, a visiting Danish 
cohouser was asked, in a dinner time presentation, about governance in his 
community. "Majority vote" he replied and amplified in a follow-up question 
that most communities in Denmark use majority vote!
I was surprised !

Michael Barrett
Liberty Village, Maryland