Cohousing-L Mailing List: Use of email

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

One of the advantages of email is that if everyone  is connected to it, it
is a way to communicate directly with everyone. This is also one of it's
disadvantages. We have a  lan and use email a lot at Sharingwood. At times,
"flame mail" gets a bunch of energy riled up. Sometimes this is a good
thing, sometimes it is bad.

We pretty much at this point have been calling face to face meetings when
the email issues seem to reach a certain energy level. We do not have a
formal agreement about when this is. I think it would be useful for groups
to define and come up with a clear path from email to face to face.

One of the things I think is scary but important is the element of
illumination of issues. Email makes it easy to expose the hidden grumblings
and bring them up for community work. Not every  community wants to do this
and you would be wise to talk about if and how you want to air things.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood

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