Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Objection Versus Extortion

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 19 Oct 2011, at 7:05 PM, Mary Ann Clark wrote:

> Similarly, "I'm unhappy because my previous proposal wasn't 
> considered/accepted" isn't considered a legitimate block, i.e., doesn't pass 
> the shared values/best interest of the community threshold.

My community would follow the same reasoning that Mary Ann describes. If people 
are even suspected of being political — ie wanting tit for tat on unrelated 
issues — it would not be taken seriously except to point it out and separate 
the two issues.

It does happen that people are prejudiced against a proposal because they don't 
like the person making it, but that is much easier to deal with — let someone 
else make the proposal. Let a team do it, not a person.

And the considering of opposing proposals would never fly. There is one 
proposal that might include more than one option with the pros and cons of each 
option but they aren't separate proposals to be pitted against each other. If 
nothing else, all the proposals just pit people against each other. Our 
proposals come forward from teams, not individuals.

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