Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Emergency decisions???

[Stuart Joseph (stuart]

Sharon, Again you have made very good sense out of what could be a dicey 
situation-and costly.

Sharon Villines wrote:
> On Mar 24, 2008, at 9:12 AM, Kristen Simmons wrote:
>
>   
> > Has your group made any emergency decisions, during formation or after
> > move-in? What were they? What was your group's resolution process?  
> > Did it
> > work well?
> >     
>
> An emergency is generally one in which life and limb are in danger. In  
> cohousing, "life and limb" also means "budget" and "property."
>
> Most of our emergency decisions came in the first year after move in  
> and involved property or budget. Our building is sitting on a spring  
> so we have very active sump pumps. During a very heavy rain, 24 hours  
> of it, all the pumps failed. The people tending the pumps needed a  
> quick decision because they wanted to buy 10 or 12 pumps so they would  
> have back ups -- our pumps had been very unreliable but we hadn't had  
> time to research better ones.
>
> Shortly after move-in, the city inspector showed up and said we had to  
> have our elevator inspected or he would close it down immediately. And  
> the city showed up to say that our storm drain had to be cleaned or we  
> would get some enormous fine. As I remember the inspectors gave us the  
> names of three companies and we called to see who could come first.
>
> In construction phase, there were lots of quick decisions to be made  
> and some may feel like emergencies because one person(s) is faced with  
> making a decision, or reversing a decision, for another person. The  
> developer or the contractor will usually define these as emergencies  
> and will say, "I need a decision within a specified time period or  
> there will be additional costs because ...."
>
> "You have three hours to decide if you want these faucets or those --  
> both are an extra charge. The one you chose is not available and we  
> have the plumbers already scheduled to install them." It is often  
> impractical to call 30 or 40 households to find out what they want, or  
> might want, or think is a good idea. Someone has to take a chance for  
> everyone. Often we let the developer make these decisions because no  
> one else wanted to take this responsibility and live with the  
> complaints for 20 years. Or to authorize the cost overrun. With well  
> over 100 faucets to be installed this could add up.
>
> In this period, or in others when you know decisions will be required,  
> reminding people to watch their email may be helpful.
>
> Email makes many urgent decisions easier, particularly if you make  
> time limits clear. "If I don't hear otherwise in 24 hours [or 2 days  
> or whatever], I [or the team/board] will...."
>
> 1. State the problem
> 2. Present your solution
> 3. Set a deadline for responses
>
> If you ask for ideas and don't give a deadline, people put off  
> responding and then forget (and complain later). If you don't present  
> a clear solution, they may respond with ideas that don't address the  
> problem. This creates a back and forth that is often diverting. Odd  
> comments put a flag on the play unnecessarily, but once they are made  
> you can't ignore them.
>
> On drafts of team minutes, for example, I find that saying, "Unless I  
> hear from you in 24 hours I will distribute these to the membership."  
> This gets fast comments -- or when there are no comments, which there  
> are usually not, I don't have to keep track of who has responded and  
> who has not.
>
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
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