Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Does your community get all adults in a consensus decision?

[Robyn Williams (pov]

In our group, I've seen decision making withheld because a key person (has
info or strong personal interest) was absent and I've experienced the
opposite, a less informed decision go ahead despite the absence of a
integral person.  It's inconsistant and I struggle with the arbitrary nature
of how we carry on our business.

This came up this week:
An ever incresing list of agenda items carried over from one monthly meeting
to another.
A call to use the internal e-list to discuss items in a systematic way (it's
been happening informally for ages)
A cry of resistence championing the rights of the disenfranchised non-email
users (we have a computer in the commonhouse that is avalable to all and
technical support for new users) and supporting the meeting process as the
only way to ensure total inclusivity.
The reality:
Only 8 people attend monthly meetings regularly, that is more than half the
time.  Most people rarely or never turn up for a variety of reasons although
some of the regular absentees are strident about their right to have a say.
Some people make an effort to outreach and others are more flippant.
22 people have email addresses, including members too far away to
participate in person (one member lives in England).
Only 2 peole don't tend to use email although they each have an address -
one has a partner who is very involved, the other is our direct neighbour
and can be directly supported by my partner.

So we're going to suck it and see.  Synchronistically (?sp) yesterday, Gerry
and Ken from Windsong sent me their communi-link community discussion tool
to try out.

Regards
Robyn Williams
Pinakarri Community
Fremantle, Western Australia
www.pinakarri.org.au





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