Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE:committees and consensus proposals

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Rowenahc said she thought it was a bad idea for committees to come to the
larger group with a full blown proposal. I agree. Here is a common scenario
I have seen over and over again in larger consensus groups:

A team goes off and does a whole lot of work, finding out information, etc.
and comes back to the group what they think is a great proposal, and one
which they have invested a lot of time in. The large group comes up with
lots of issues about it. The team gets demoralized, people drop off the
team, but a few souls try to keep the proposal alive, make a bunch of
changes and come back. The large group comes up with more issues, the team
people get pissy and defensive, the proposal dies and so does the team. Why
be part of a team that can't do anything and whose work is not respected?


This situation is common where large group consensus decides everything. In
my experience, for cohousing groups, large group consensus should only be
reserved for a small subset of decisions. Teams and individuals should be
empowered to make all the rest. In my observations of many groups, those
that seemed to function really well used the large group resource to start
proposals. For example, they would use brainstorming, surveys and other
techniques to get the whole universe of the community, THEN go off and meld
this into a concrete proposal, checking back with community members
regularly on various points. In some communities, once the big group survey
is done, the team goes off and makes the decision, having heard all the
input, and the community trusts the teams.

If your teams are not functioning well, then hold a large group evaluation
about it and work on it. Often simple communication process fixes about what
teams are up to can make a big difference.

Rob Sandelin
www.sharingwood.org

-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Rowenahc
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 11:01 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_Consensus and Early Work



At Cambridge Cohousing we have found that except for simple proposals and
"emergency" measures it is almost never a good idea for a committee to come
to a meeting with a full blown proposal.  At the least we try to have a
session on the subject at the General Meeting where "Hopes and Concerns" are
expressed and recorded.  If the proposal is one which will have significant
impact we break out into small groups, otherwise we do it with the full
group.  The committee members then take into account the various desires of
the community and can contact those with strong feelings to incorporate
their concerns into the proposal.

Rowenahc

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