Cohousing-L Mailing List: ground rules and coloured cards

[Paul Milne (PaulM]

Hi, up here in Edinburgh we're getting our facilitators group geared up
to push things forward a bit faster.

I've been doing a bit of checking on ground rules during meetings, and
have seen the comments on Rob Sandelin's resource guide and Kevin
Wolf's tome on meetings.

The suggested ground rules seem very simple and few, like "raise your
hands when you have a point, respect each others opinions, no talking
over other people", etc.

I wonder if anyone has more to add, or has a different concept of
"ground rules" altogether. 

Also, we were debating the use of the "Colors of Clarification" system
as outlined in Rob's guide. I would be very interested to hear of
groups' experience of this system, both positive and negative. 

Although we agree that it seems a useful system, at this point we are
inclined to leave it to one side as our group is still pretty small,
and it seems as though it might be more useful with a larger group.
True or false? My feeling was that it would be better to train up a
small group using the system, who would use it fluently as more members
come on board who can then see it it action, rather than trying to
train up a much larger group from scratch later on.

Any advice?

Paul Milne
Edinburgh Cohousing 2000
Where after a long summer, we are regrouping, organising ourselves, and
pressing ahead...

----
http://corrieneuchin.mhie.ac.uk/~Paul_Milne/
"I learn by going where I have to go"
--Roethke