Cohousing-L Mailing List: Prevention and Resolution of Conflicts within Co-Housing Communities

[lder (lder]

My name is David Roberts and I am a member of Delaware Street Commons 
Co-Housing, a group developing in Lawrence, Kansas.  As part of a project at 
school, I am writing a paper on how co-housing communities prevent and resolve 
disputes.  I intend to discuss consensus decision making and how co-housing 
groups have traditionally approached disputes within the community.  You can 
help me by:
1) pointing out resources that I may have overlooked (right now I just have a 
copy of the Consensus Handbook).
2) sharing anecdotes of your experiences with conflict (especially in mature 
well-established co-housing communities).  How was the conflict resolved?  Did 
everyone feel good about the result?  What was the long-term impact of the 
specific dispute?  Did the solution stick?  Have you had experiences where 
'the process' just broke down?  If the conflict was with a few members of the 
community, how did the rest of the community participate/react to the 
conflict?
3) sharing your decision making process.  Do you use a modified consensus 
approach?  If so, why?  Have you been able to use pure consensus?  What other 
processes do you use?
4) providing any other information that you think might be helpful.

Thank You,
David

David Roberts