Cohousing-L Mailing List: No Vetos [was Limiting whole-house renting in CoHousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> Our decision making process is by consensus. When we have one person
> blocking a decision, we attempt to develop a proposal that they can live
> with.  It doesn't always work, but we do try, and we agreed as a group that
> getting insights from other communities might be helpful in this regard.

I haven’t posted this in a long time so I’m stepping in again — not to 
criticize this but in hopes of cleaning up the language. Words have many  
meanings and all of them can come into play when a word is used. Blocks are 
concrete and heavy. No nuance or reasoning.

It is counter productive to confuse an objection with a veto. And  objection 
represents a decision-maker’s belief that a proposed solution is in some way 
not good for the group and/or not good for themselves as a member of the group. 
There are many approaches to analyzing an objection in order to resolve it — 
that’s why it is an objection and not a veto. Vetos typically do not have to be 
reasoned. A person with veto power doesn’t even have to give a reason. Just 
stamp the proposal vetoed. 

More on this here:

https://www.sociocracy.info/blocks-to-consensus-decision-making/

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Washington DC
"Behavior is determined by the prevailing form of decision making." Gerard 
Endenburg