Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus and the Concept of Blocking

[Gary Kent (garykent]

From: Stacia Leech, Roberts Creek Cohousing, British Columbia, Canada.

It seems to me that in most of the recent posts about consensus and blocking
there has not been much of a distinction made between decision making
during the development/construction (d/c)  phase and the live in phase of
Cohousing.

I do recall that Rob Sandelin made reference to the two phases early on in
this thread.

I feel it is very important to repeat, often, that attempting to use
consensus without a voting backup during d/c could drive normally well
functioning people over the edge and send the project with them.  When a
property purchase and sale contract has a deadline of midnight the next day
and the group has $50,000 on the line if it misses the deadline and
decisions need to be made, I vote for voting.  Some may say that my attitude
defeats the object of community, however losing the land could defeat the
object of Cohousing.

The level of self awareness and, for want of a better expression,
physiological maturity required for consensus w/out a voting backup is, in
my experience, high. Even the B.C. Justice Institute faculty of Facilitation
and Mediation considers consensus a challenge ;0)

Regards,
Stacia. Roberts Creek, B.C.
Where we have now officially chosen the name Roberts Creek Cohousing
(aka: Creeky Commons).
And where five days before another deadline to increase the ($30,000 already
down, $20,000 more required) deposit on our twenty acres or lose it, we
still had no access and the neighbours lawyer faxed our consultants offering
us the five acres next door to our twenty for $100,000 above assessed value
"take it or leave it".  We're still here, we purchased the five acres for
access and are now in negotiation with Wal-Mart to sell the rest ;0)
Our current challenge is the Bald Eagle nest on our property, right in the
prime building area, and the Ministry of the Environment is deciding whether
we should leave a 20 or 100 metre buffer ;0(


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