Cohousing-L Mailing List: Revisiting consensus decisions

[Ted Chesky (tchesky]

Hi,
I'm with Great Oak Cohousing in Ann Arbor MIch. We're a new group, due to
start construction in the spring, and we're still refining some of our
meeting and decision-making processes. I've agreed to poke around on the
Cohousing-L list and try to find out how different communities handle the
issue of revisiting previous decisions. Fortunately, we've only had one big
issue come back to the group, and we stuck with the original decision, but
we know it's going to happen again eventually.

There are a number of questions surrounding this issue, including:

--How many households (what percentage, proportion, whatever) need to agree
to revisit a decision before it can be brought before the entire group
again? I found little in the archives about the specific numbers/proportion
of households. One post mentioned 2 out of 12; one mentioned half. That's a
pretty big range. Anybody have any other numbers to offer? Why did you pick
the number you did? [Great Oak will have 37 households.]

--Should there be a standard procedure or sequence of steps one should go
through to get a decision back in front of the group? Suggested steps?

--Are there any criteria one should use to judge whether a decision is a
candidate for change? So far I've got: people or problem that drove
original decision no longer around; unforeseen negative consequences; new
people or circumstances enter community; usual decision process not
followed. Any other goodies?

--What can be done in the original decision process to prevent things from
coming back unnecessarily (beyond the obvious stuff like thorough
discussion and documentation of the original decision)?

This list looks like a great resource for everyone in cohousing. I'm
looking forward to hearing what you all think & we'll try to pass on
anything interesting we come up with here. Thanks in advance for the help!

Ted Chesky

Ted Chesky
tchesky [at] earthlink.net
734.677.3094

A more frequently checked address:
ted [at] design-hub.com


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