Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Private use of common land

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

At Sharingwood we use a decision board to make small group decisons. For 
example, we used the decision board last week to decide to change the 
community dinner operation from 3 people to 4.

The decision board is a place on a central bulletin board, special bright red 
papers are posted that say, To be decided, and there is space to write about 
the decision to be made, a date and a contact. People can write comments on 
the paper if they can't attend the meeting. Has to be posted 5 days prior to 
the decision, then whom ever shows up at the decision meeting makes the 
decision. What was decided is listed on the back of the paper and posted to 
inform people.

This system has worked really well for us, empowering people to do little 
things, yet giving anybody whom is interested a chance to have a say so. This 
has decentralized us so that large group meetings are mostly used for things 
that get the best use of a large group, and small group items get punted to 
the decision board.

Of course, there is a list of things that can't be decided by small groups, 
like spending unbudgetted money over a certain amount, or changing the use of 
a common area. But, for over two years now, the "what should we plant in the 
garden" type of decisions are off the main group meeting agenda and being made 
by the people who care about them.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Where I just came in from the traditional Saturday night campfire in the woods