Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Handling emergency decisions

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

Judy Adler  an associate member of the Cornerstone cohousing group in 
the Boston area asked  what procedures other groups have come up with 
for making emergency decisions, even down to the level of what 
constitutes an emergency decision.

At Sharingwood we use a paper form which is routed around the houses in 
which the issue is stated, the reason why it can't wait until the next 
meeting is listed, and then there is a place with each persons name and 
several choices which run from
Enthusiastically support!,   I can live with it, I don't like it but 
I'll live with it, I need to talk about this first, I don't support this.
Any checks in the last two columns halt progress until a meeting is 
convened.  We use this form for any decision which comes up which needs 
to made before the next meeting convenes.  We have also discussed using 
this for decisions where committees feel they don't need to use general 
meeting time for, but we haven't done that yet, still testing those waters.

I know that some groups have successfully used voice mail for this of 
thing, where members call each other in a phone tree to alert of a 
decision and then they call the voice mail box, listen to the decision 
and then record an answer.

I have also seen groups empower a small group (construction committee) 
to make decisions during construction and trust that they will forward 
anything appropriate or just make their best judgment if need be.  This 
is often good if the construction committee has some building 
expertise.  What too often happens is that construction decisions 
require a lot of explaining, and even then people make choices without 
really understanding what is going on.  Might be better to have 4-5 
savvy people making those decisions where appropriate.  This of course 
requires that you trust those people to act in the best interests of everyone.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood