Cohousing-L Mailing List: knowing what committees do

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

Rob Sandelin wrote (JUN 24, 1994)
<<One of our problems continues to be that the agenda for committee 
meetings is typically not very well communicated so if a committee is 
dealing with something I care about and I don't hear about it, I'm 
potentially out of the decision loop.  From past history people have 
learned to consult certain individuals about actions and because I am 
one of those I personally am in touch with most of what is going on.  
Others are not and at times that has been a problem.  Our operating 
assumption is that individual members are responsible for asking about 
what is happening, not waiting and being told.  Although I agree with 
this, because that is my style, it does not work well for others.  
Minutes do get posted in the commonhouse but reading through such is 
pretty tedious and the quality of minutes is largely dependant on the 
note taker and some people do less thorough job of recording than others.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Oh, that sounds pretty familiar.  I suspect you also have the phenomenon that
we have, which is that the people who have already moved in are more aware of
what goes on than those who haven't, with some exceptions.  

What I have learned from this is how much I have to let go of having input into
everything, how hard that is.  Minutes help, but are certainly not the same as
being part of the discussion.  ANd yet, at some point, we have to have a life
beyond meetings.  i don't see any way around making the individual responsible
for seeking out information that they want - it would cripple us to send more
minutes out.  And we have to learn to trust.  and sometimes that is very hard. 
20:20 hindsight is so good, too.!

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu