Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: categorizing decisions

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

On 06/03/03 Becky Schaller wrote:
> Lynn, I appreciate you describing this.  I'm wondering if other communities
> have divided their decisions into different types and if so, would you be
> willing to share those categories with us.

At Heartwood we've defined the responsibilities and authorities of each
team.  For each responsibility, a team either has 'Proposal Authority' or
'Full Authority'.  'Proposal Authority' means they CANNOT make the decision
on their own, but instead need to make a proposal to the community and the
community decides.  'Full Authority' means they CAN make the decision on
their own.  

In general we try to delegate as much as possible to teams.  One of the
checks and balances of our governance allows anyone to participate on any
team on any issue.  So if the common house team is making a decision about
the TV and that's a hot issue for you, you can participate in that issue
with the CH team, but we don't have to drag the whole community into the
decision.

Our 'TEAMS' agreement spells out the details:
(http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/AGREEMENTS/TEAMS.html)

We also attempt to clearly spell out spending authority when we pass our
annual budget.

Some decisions are made in business meetings, but others are made through a
formal posted decision process on email.  That saves a lot of time on issues
that aren't particularly contentious or emotional.  In a nutshell, the
posted decision process works like this:
 - Someone posts a proposal, including background info, rationale, response
deadline, etc.
 - Members have 10 days to respond.  Members indicate whether their
responses are concerns to be resolved, concerns simply to be heard,
clarifying questions, or simply comments using the same color card codes
that we use in meetings.  No response means agreement.
 - After 10 days, if there are no unresolved concerns, the proposal passes.
If there are unresolved concerns, the proposal may get moved to a business
meeting or perhaps a new proposal will get posted which works for the
original presenter and the person with the concern to be resolved.

- Mac

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com

"The most beautiful thing one can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science.  He to whom this reaction is a stranger
-- who no longer can pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe -- is as good as
dead, his eyes are closed."
           -- Albert Einstein
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