Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Consensus & Majority Voting\Committee in Trouble

[Becky Schaller (bschaller]

Martie, thanks for remembering the original question here.  The question
actually precededs the subject line of this current thread.  Since the
original question was mine, I am quite interested in hearing other responses
and would like to fine tune your recollection a little.

My question really had to do with a committee in trouble.  They had been
assigned to design the wall.  However, they become deadlocked on the
subject.  They had worked very hard to come to accomplish this task.  They
asked someone else to come in and facilitate the meetings for them. That
didn't work.  There's a lot of very strained relationships resulting from
this committee.  Therefore, they came to the community to help them move
forward.  

My question is, How does a community help a committee which is stuck?

Becky

> From: cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 08:02:02 -0500 (CDT)
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Cohousing-L digest, Vol 1 #568 - 11 msgs
> 
> Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 18:54:31 -0400
> From: Martie Weatherly <martiew [at] earthlink.net>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Consensus & Majority Voting
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> 
> I cannot find the original email that started this thread, but as I
> remember it, it was a community with a design question about a wall that
> had been brought up three meetings in a row and everyone was getting
> tired of it. 
> 
> Yes, that makes people question consensus and think there should be
> another way. 
> 
> But I did not see anyone advise the original community that 1) many
> design questions should not be made by consensus but by a smaller team
> or maybe by a straightforward vote. and 2) The question that was
> stumping this community seemed to me to be how to make decisions, not
> anything to do with the wall. Until they can separate that out, send the
> wall decision to a team, and get at the underlying issues about how to
> make decisions, they will continue to flounder and question consensus.
> 
> I like the part of this thread that has emphasized training in consensus
> and facilitation. Go back to your mission and vision statements and
> re-presence what you are all there for. And then have conversations
> about how you are going to make decisions, which ones go to teams with
> the power to make the decision, and what is most important to you as a
> community. 
> 
> Martie Weatherly
> Liberty Village
> martiw [at] earhtlink.net

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