Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Large Group vs Small Group decision-making

[Cohousing-L Listmgr (fholson]

Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] crd.lotus.com or Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] NewView.org
is the author of the message below but due to a listproc problem it was
posted by the COHOUSING-L list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
********************  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS ***********************

In New View (Acton MA), we have only successfully given a lot of authority to 
small groups under situations where there is both time pressure and logistical 
complexity - typically, negotiating with 'outsiders' as part of the development 
process. Even in those cases, the large group gives the small group negotiating 
parameters in the form of 'don't have this cost more than 'x'.

We have given some of the standing committees some specific powers to spend 
smaller amounts of money & make particular decisions. For example, the 
membership committee approves people for the waiting list, and the finance 
committee decides the timing and amount of assessments.

On the other hand, the committees do all the heavy lifting when it comes to 
proposal writing. If the large group has more than two or three simple 
amendments to a committee proposal, the proposal goes back to the committee for 
more work.

The 'whole group' that is making decisions is often barely over a quorum these 
days: with the group half-moved in, people in general are at a maximum stress 
level with either packing or unpacking or making house decisions, or dealing 
with punch-list items. So, in that sense, we do have a smaller group making 
decisions for the whole group, but not in a way that is particularly 
satisfactory.

Jim_Snyder-Grant [at] newview.org
or
Jim_Snyder-Grant [at] crd.lotus.com


------ Forwarded message ends here ------