Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: removing members

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

charlotte.allen [at] ebay.sun.com
is the author of the message below but due to a problem it was posted
by the Fred the list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------


Stephanie,

I've had a lot of experience working in small, consensus-based groups,
and I've seen many of those groups destroyed by one dysfunctional 
member. I agree with John: there's got to be a way to deal with
a severely dysfunctional member without destroying the group.

Perhaps some process for removing the member from the consensus
process for a period of time?

Charlotte Allen

> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 09:29:01 -0600
> X-Real-To: charlotte.allen [at] corp.sun.com
> Originator: cohousing-l
> From: Stephanie Fassnacht                         <fassnach [at] ssc.wisc.edu>
> Subject: re: removing members
> X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0 -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
> X-Comment: Developing cohousing - collaborative housing communities
> 
> Wow, not much response on this issue.  I am assuming that it is
> because this subject is as unpleasant to everyone else as it
> has been for us.  The only reason this subject came up at all is
> that several years ago, while I was still a member of Porchlight
> Cohousing, a Quaker by the name of John Gastell, who wrote a book
> called "Democracy in Small Groups," came to talk to us on the subject
> of consensus.  John gave some pretty convincing examples of why it was
> necessary to consider ahead of time what a group would do in case a
> member was so dysfunctional as to disrupt the functioning or health of
> the rest of the group.  Of course, I've now forgotten what those
> examples were; I only remember that at the time I was pretty
> convinced.
>   From the responses I did get, it seems that we would be better
> served in putting our efforts into improving group cohesion and
> robustness, and depend on mediation and/or by-laws to deal with a
> worst case scenario in the unlikely event it should arise.
> 
> Stephanie Fassnacht
> Village Cohousing
> Madison, Wisconsin