Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Revisiting consensus decisions

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi -

We tried setting rules for re-opening decisions. Interesting discussions, but 
the implementation didn't really take hold.  I think no one wanted the rules  
in this area enforced on him/herself and so, would not enforce the rule on 
others.

 I think it definitely helps to have group discussion to find out how each 
person thinks and feels about re-opening decisions, and about the meetings and 
facilitation that lead to your decisions. Getting a sense of the group on how 
to approach making and re-opening tricky decisions also is useful. I think if 
you are comfortable with the quality of your facilitation and work in meetings, 
and you have a stated group bias against re-opening any consensus decision, it 
will come down to agreeing to trust the judgement of any member who still asks 
to have a decision re-opened.  

In my experience, I have been passionately frustrated at several points when 
members have exercised their rights to revisit an issue I thought was closed, 
but, every time, I discovered my neighbor to be correct - we hadn't finished 
the job, either because the facilitation hadn't made everyone feel safe enough 
to fully explore, or we hadn't done our homework on the topic, or we hadn't 
taken enough time, or whatever.  

Jessie Handforth Kome
Eno Commons
Durham, NC
"We are on the brink of finishing our pedway/sidewalk/plaza project and 
thrilled to know the kids can trick or treat without getting red clay all over 
their costumes and our porches.  Enoween approacheth. . ."
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