Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Development/Construction Committees

[David Hungerford (dghungerford]

Susan Pintus, Cornerstone wrote:

>A proposal on the table is that we have a development committee that
>would converse as often as necessary to make fast decisions, with the
>committee delegated to make those decisions by the group.  The assumption
>is that the committee would all have to reach consensus to make such
>decisions.

That's exactly what we did during construction of Muir Commons, although I
think it would be a stretch to say they used consensus internally during
the process--it was more like quick negotiation.  The more important thing
is for the group to trust the people on this committee ( a SMALL number of
people, say, 5 or less).  They not only need to trust them to make the
little decisions, but trust that they will know when to call an emergency
meeting (we had many with just a few hours notice) rather than decide
themselves.  Some suggestions for composition:
1) level-headed people who engender trust (at least two who can convince
more difficult committee members of reasonable trade-offs--see #3 and #4
below)
2) a clever negotiator or two and at least one person good with numbers (to
evaluate costs and satisfy yourselves that the contractor's estimates are
reasonable)
3) a natural skeptic (unless too abrasive to work well with the
contractors/consultants--do you have any economists or lawyers?)
4) highly opinionated people who would question the committee's decisions
after the fact anyway  ("be on the committee or shut up")  This person is
often a #3 as well.
5) avoid people who don't think visually.  you should have a good feel by
now for who in your group can or can't look at a set of plans and visualize
3D space, or who just don't know how to read plans.
6) and of course, as corollary to #5, include those who have specific
expertise in construction or architecture, UNLESS they are a #4.  This
person (people) should be able to do frequent tours of the construction
site to spot changes that need to be made, errors, work quality issues etc.
to bring to the meetings (e.g. "your plumbing sub put the pipes in the
wrong place, better move them before you pour the concrete tomorrow")  It
is ideal if the developer/contractor trusts this person's knowledge.

Obviously, these people are going to have to give a lot of time.  Ours had
at least one morning meeting a week with the developers, plus lots of time
discussing among themselves and talking to other group members--there
should be LOTS of communication at this poing

good luck, things are really going to speed up for you guys!

David Hungerford
Muir Commons, Davis  CA
dghungerford [at] ucdavis.edu

David G. Hungerford
dghungerford [at] ucdavis.edu