Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Question about a technique for allocating funds

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jul 28, 2010, at 10:54 AM, heimann [at] theworld.com wrote:

>         Suppose, for example, that there are eleven alternatives,  
> ten which cost
> $100 and one which costs $1000, and there is $1000 available to  
> allocate.
> If the $1000 alternative comes in second, it falls completely out of  
> the
> running, even though it may have considerable support,

We've used the dots exercise and I find it unsatisfying. It is a yes  
and no method of voting that may give you more yeses but but is still  
yes and no, and allows some people to bullet vote-- put all their dots  
on their first choice.

Preferential voting or instant run off is much more nuanced and avoids  
the influence of the majority. There is a very good article on this in  
Wikipedia in which a study has shown that preferential voting produces  
the most satisfying results (consensus was not included in the study).  
The five star system is a form of preferential voting that allows you  
to say I prefer these three equally, this one most, this one not at  
all. When the voting is done, you can see which items had wildly  
differing views some 1's and the rest 5's, and which ones received 5's  
across the board.

Instant run off, every one ranks the items from first to last choice  
The ballots are counted and the first option with the least votes is  
eliminated. The ballots for that eliminated option are then counted  
for their second choice, etc. This goes on with ballots being  
redistributed for their third and fourth choice continues until on  
option remains.

We did preferential voting without prices on things. it was obvious  
that some would cost more but it prevented people from using that as  
their criteria. We intended to do it again when we had prices but  
people chose the items that had to be done anyway.

> and the community
> would wind up funding the ten $100 projects even though five or six or
> more of them had little enthusiasm behind them.

You can avoid this with preferential voting because if the $1,000 job  
comes up 2nd or even 3rd on everyone's list, it will be the most  
preferred by the greatest number of people. Using preferential voting,  
everyone should get their first or second choice.

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