Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Use of science/facts in decision making

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hello,

	My reaction on reading your account at Wasatch Cohousing?  If the 
facilitator said that at our meeting I would reply back, "Sure the 
decision will be based only on people's feelings.  Like my feelings -- I 
will block any proposal that ignores fact and relies only on feelings!"

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing


P.S. -- Our decisions are made according to a six-step process we learned 
from Laird Schaub and have been using successfully for years now.  The 
early steps include finding out *both* facts and community feelings, even 
before an actual proposal gets developed.  A proposal is not considered 
plenary worthy until this has been done.




Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2016 06:09:44 +0000
From: Mary English <mary.english [at] hsc.utah.edu>
To: "cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: [C-L]_ Use of science/facts in decision making
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At Wasatch Cohousing we had a proposal being discussed and the facilitator 
said " no we are not going to pay any attention to the scientific data. 
This will be decided only by peoples feelings"

And I have found that people do not necessarily want to made decisions based on 
research or data here,, which has been frustrating to me.  Mary



I saved this message oh so long ago (okay it was November) because I am 
interested in a question?

Does your community use science and facts in your decision making?

That is, would someone present an article like the one Joanie offers in order 
to argue a position about video games in the common house?
Would a discussion of using community wide wifi include scientific studies to 
argue that it is safe?
In a discussion about locking or not locking the common house include data on 
crime or the likelihood of danger to children?

Also, if some *do* use this information, do other people find their minds 
changed by the data/research?

-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431