Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: use of email for communication

[Berrins (Berrins]

Kay, you brought up some good points.

(clip)
 <it wasn't fair for people who chose not to participate to prevent others who
wished to> (re:, folks objecting to discussions by email).

We discuss things all the time outside of meetings.  Email is just another 
forum for talking about things.  

(clip) <It seemed to me the discussions over email were a lot more 
substantive than
discussions held during casual encounters.  Email discussion sometimes
brought out objections in time for a proposal to be tweaked, instead of
ambushing it at the community meeting.

I frequently need to babble on about something for a while to figure out
what I think. >

Meetings, by necessity, often need to focus on getting decisions made.  With 
over 20 folks at most meetings, individuals don't get to ramble or babble at 
length.   Rambling is often good, because creativity can come from odd 
juxtapositions of ideas that may not seem immediately related or even 
compatible.  Meetings may actually become more productive if we can get a lot 
of the rambling done ahead of time.  Plus, the reader of an email has plenty 
of time to formulate a thoughtful response, look up information or ask 
someone else in their household for their opinion before they reply.

(clip) <The people who think fast and are verbal dominate meeting 
discussions.  I
rarely say much in meetings, >

That is so often true, although "dominate" may be too strong a word 
sometimes.  It depends on the individual;  some folks push their own agenda 
or ideas, some like to clarify issues, some are good at creative solutions, 
some are good at keeping the discussion focused and some are great mediators. 
 They are all fast thinkers and verbally skillful.  The problem, as I think 
Kay is saying, is that during big meetings these folks do tend to do most of 
the talking, so the quieter and more deliberative ones don't get heard.  
Email gives more people a voice in discussions.


The problem with email will always be with those folks who don't have email 
(or rarely read it) for one reason or another.  Therefore, consensus 
decisions cannot be made by email because not everyone in the community can 
get checked for consensus.   We use a combination email and phone tree for 
urgent communications (not decisions), and it seems to be working so far.

Email discussions also tend to be disjointed.  Face to face conversations 
have a much better flow and don't take nearly as long, plus you lose all the 
body language and voice inflections that communicate more than words alone.

Email, then, seems to be a good means for getting more folks involved in more 
deliberative discussions, as one of several means of communication for 
general information and for urgent communications.  It's not good as the sole 
mean for communicating important information or (IMHO) for making decisions.

Enough babbling.  Have a good night y'all!

    -Roger