Cohousing-L Mailing List: Meeting Tools

[Mac Thomson (ganesh]

Rob Sandelin mentioned in his post about the color card system some 
various tools available that are easier to learn:

> There are other consensus tools that are easier
> to learn and use, such as the fingers, breaking into subgroups, two-cents,
> etc.
> 
> Rob Sandelin

I would love to hear of any techniques that other groups have run across 
that work well for them.  I'll start this off with a tool that I was 
just introduced to recently called Post-It-Note Brainstorming.

In Post-It-Note Brainstorming, we broke into small groups (~6 per group) 
and each person was given a pad of large Post-It-Notes and a large 
marker.  We stood by a wall and as any of us had an idea for the 
brainstorm, we wrote it down and then stuck it to the wall as we said 
it.  This served those who are more verbal, visual, or tactile in their 
learning process.  It also allowed all of us to be scribbling 
simultaneously and kept the ideas brief since they had to be written.

After about 3 minutes of brainstorming, we had about 15 ideas.  We were 
then asked to choose the 3 most important ones.  This served as a good 
way to focus the discussion and was easily facilitated by the mobilility 
of the Post-Its.

We'll definitely use this technique again.

BTW Rob, what's two-cents?

-- 
           Mac Thomson                   San Juan Cohousing
           ganesh [at] rmi.net                Durango, Colorado

"Have the gumption to live differently AND the sense to let everyone 
else live differently."