Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Process Committees

[Elizabeth Rosenau (ejrosenau]

Hi Melanie,

Thanks so very much for describing your experience with a process committee.  
It’s unfortunate that new people didn’t step up and the same people ended up 
doing the work.  I think rotating facilitators in the way you are now doing is 
a really creative response and I’m glad to hear that it’s going well so far.

What you have to say about forming communities having many decisions to make is 
so very true.  We have a relatively small group of highly dedicated volunteers 
who have been carrying a big load for a long time and I would love to find ways 
of giving them some relief and at the same time democratizing the work.  That’s 
the basis of my inquiry into process committees.

All the best to you and your community,

Elizabeth Rosenau, Compass Cohousing 

> On Dec 15, 2022, at 5:16 PM, Melanie Mindlin <sassetta [at] mind.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Elizabeth
> 
> Our community started out with something called a Facilitation Committee 
> which handled the formation of the plenary (whole group) meeting agendas and 
> the facilitation of the meetings, along with some smaller tasks such as 
> planning a yearly whole group training and ongoing discussion of facilitation 
> techniques.  There was a perception by a segment of the community that this 
> group held and exerted unequal power within the community.  Though ostensibly 
> open to all, some felt that it was cliquish and uncomfortable for others to 
> join.
> 
> Upon the advice of facilitation trainer Laird Shaub, we attempted to separate 
> these two main functions. and formed a new committee called the Process Team 
> whose job was to collect and evaluate agenda items as to their readiness to 
> come to the plenary meeting, and form the agenda.  The facilitation team was 
> meant to be a separate group from which we would recruit facilitators for the 
> meetings, and who would follow up with preparation with the presenters, as 
> well as evaluating and improving facilitation skills.  The intention was to 
> break up the power dynamic by having a different group of people with the 
> power to set the agenda from those who had the power as facilitators to set 
> the approach to discussion and decisions within the meetings.
> 
> Sadly, the new Process Team ended up being mostly the same people who had 
> been resented on the earlier Facilitation team.  It was difficult to find 
> other people to facilitate, partly because our meetings had become 
> contentious, so this same small group would step up at the last minute to 
> facilitate as well..  Improvement of facilitation skills was pretty much 
> dropped. 
> 
> The evaluation process  for “plenary readiness,” as well as needing consensus 
> approval from the members of the Process Team for items to be on the agenda, 
> while well intentioned and useful in some situations, ended up exacerbating 
> the power dynamics in the group. Combined with some intransigent 
> interpersonal conflict, we ended up in a tangle with about half the community 
> wanting to dissolve the whole concept of self-management because it was so 
> stressful.
> 
> At that point, we decided to try something completely different. We are now 
> rotating facilitation through the entire community in alphabetical order, 
> giving each meeting’s facilitator the power to set the agenda. Facilitators 
> are encouraged to bring any topic or mini-training that they think is 
> important or useful for the community to discuss. 20 minutes of each meeting 
> is allocated to “business items” that require plenary approval. As a 
> well-established community, we actually have very little business that is not 
> handled within our committees who are all operating quite effectively. 
> 
> We’re almost a year into this, and about half way through our rotation, and 
> things are going quite smoothly. The proposal was to revert to the previous 
> structure when everyone has had a chance to facilitate, though I personally 
> think this may not be such a good idea.
> 
> I understand that this may not work well for new communities with lots of 
> business requiring their attention.  I’m sure others will write with copious 
> suggestions, so I will just add that in my opinion, the more you can delegate 
> to small groups, the easier your decision making process will be. 
> 
> Good luck with everything,
> Melanie
> Ashland Cohousing
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2022 13:01:42 -0800
> From: Elizabeth Rosenau <ejrosenau [at] gmail.com <mailto:ejrosenau [at] 
> gmail.com>>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org <mailto:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Cc: Caryn Robinson <c.robinson.am [at] gmail.com <mailto:c.robinson.am [at] 
> gmail.com>>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Process Committees
> Message-ID: <5B9B2B03-865E-4C15-AD44-C67FBD556661 [at] gmail.com 
> <mailto:5B9B2B03-865E-4C15-AD44-C67FBD556661 [at] gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am part of a developing community in British Columbia.  We have 
> twenty-seven equity members and we?ll have forty when we?re complete.  We 
> hope to start building soon, but need a few more members to please the banks?
> 
> All of our growth has added a lot of complexity to the work of our committees 
> and some of us are starting to think that the addition of a few more 
> committees may help keep our group organized and running smoothly.
> 
> I understand that many communities have something called a ?Process 
> Committee? and that there is a wide variety of mandates and tasks assigned to 
> these committees.
> 
> I would be grateful if this community could share your experiences with 
> Process Committees. If you have one, what kind of work do they undertake in 
> your community?  Do these committees answer an important need for you and 
> your community?
> 
> I appreciate any thoughts you may have to offer.
> 
> With Warmth,
> 
> Elizabeth Rosenau, on behalf of Compass Cohousing. (Langley, British Columbia)
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