Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Choosing a name

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Aha, Stuart gives an excellent example. I would add, set a time limit on the 
name of two years. Then in two years, if you really can't stand the name, you 
have a built in opening to change it. This way, people who don't like the name 
see that they have a chance to change it later. The odds are long, they will 
not, because once you live there, the name is irrelevant, but they don't know 
that yet, and putting a time limit opportunity on it gives them the time to 
learn it.  Putting a sunset clause on decisions is one way to easily resolving 
conflicts on issues. If your attitude is lets try this out for x months and 
see what we learn, then use that learning to make a better decision later, you 
wil seldom find too much resistance. 

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Northwest Intentional Communities Association


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From:   cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of Stuart Staniford-Chen
Sent:   Saturday, March 29, 1997 8:07 PM
Subject:        Choosing a name

Tom Nelson Scott wrote:

[Two Acre Wood took numerous meetings to agree on a wonderful name].

>
> Secondly, does the condo model lend itself to more efficient cohousing
> decision procedures? Evidently not in all cases: Denise's condo-type
> community is evidence that a seemingly simple and straightforward task
> of selecting a name can drag on and on and on ... What hope have we
> for ever resolving more sensitive issues in more tightly knit
> organizations?

Actually, my feeling is that community name is one of the hardest  
issues.  Empirically, many groups have had a really hard time with it,  
and indeed there are several groups who have existed for years without  
being able to come to consensus on a name (I understand the communities  
commonly known as Pioneer Valley Cohousing and Berkeley Cohousing are  
both in this embarrasing predicament).

It's hard because
        * it's purely a matter of taste
        * compromises between two options tend to be far worse than either 
          option.
        * the name will be used daily for years to come and will have a
          major effect on how the community is perceived by strangers on 
          a first impression.  So it matters.
        * the connotations of a particular name will be quite different to 
          different people based on different personal and cultural
          background.

So, don't be surprised if your group has great difficulty.

If I were involved in a community which needed to choose a name, I think  
this is one of the *very* few cases where I would advocate "consensing  
to vote".  Do it in *one* meeting.

        * Have everyone brainstorm all the options they can think of in
          advance of the meeting and in the first twenty minutes.
        * Use a straw vote to pick a few favorites.
        * Talk about them for an hour and maybe generate a few more
          options.
        * Vote, choose the most popular (or maybe the least unpopular),
          and get on with your project.

Stuart.

Stuart Staniford-Chen
http://www.cohousing.org/
Cohousing Network Webweaver
"Consulting Member" of Marsh Commons and N St Cohousing.