Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Meeting Times

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

You need better facilitators. Part of the facilitators job is to manage the 
agenda, helping the group prioritize and use their time to maximum 
effectiveness. There is a whole course of study in becoming an excellent 
facilitator, and when you have excellent facilitators your meetings tend to 
run excellently. 

Stuff falling off the agenda is either because the facilitator is not doing 
that job well, or because the group does not want to deal with that issue now.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Faciliation Resources Workshops (my new gig)

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From:   cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of MLYNCHIN [at] aol.com
Sent:   Friday, June 06, 1997 4:46 PM
Subject:        Meeting Times

I'm wondering how long coho groups allow for their planning meetings. I would
think it is based on the number of members and the number of issues and/or
complexity. The group started out with 3-4 households, eventually grew to 7
households, then dramatically jumped to the mid-teens in the last couple of
months. We moved to a larger meeting location, but the meeting length of 7:15
to 9:30 after work, twice a month, has remained the same, and I think it is
hurting the consensus process in that everyone feels the pressure of time so
issues are not being discussed thoroughly, and agenda items keep getting
deferred to "the next meeting," but then they are not on the agenda and
therefore lost. Obviously we are not paying attention to our growing pains.
Advice? Comments? Stories?

Marilyn Chin
Old Oakland CoHousing at Swan's Market in Oakland, CA. With 20 units and 4
spaces remaining