Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Refining concerns / needs

[Becky Weaver (becky_weaver]

Sharon wrote: 
 
> I think the key is setting goals for a proposal before it is written and
> then discussing it terms of whether it accomplishes those goals. Does it
> meet the criteria? Are there any objections? And you move on.

I have found that a proposal yields better decisions in a shorter time if
*in the proposal* a committee documents the following:

1) Describe the problem the proposal was developed to solve.
2) Describe the goals & criteria used to develop the proposal.
3) Describe the proposal in terms of how it solves the problem and meets the
criteria.

Then, when we present the proposal, we also:

4) Mention the "obvious" solutions and why we didn't go with them (if
applicable). 
5) Explain the results of the proposal in terms of how we expect it to
affect an individual and the group.

Generally our proposals have a lot of work done on them in committee before
presentation at general meeting. Those who weren't at the committee meeting
naturally feel more confidence in the proposal if they see evidence of the
committee's thought process.

Step 2 is especially vital. Committees are often not representative of the
group as a whole. Especially in the case of a committee like Finance;
people who find money management interesting are on the committee, and
people who find money management stressful are not. (How about that?) So
when Finance brought a proposal, it seemed to be met with an unfortunate
combination of suspicion (just what are those money-grubbers trying to
pull?), boredom (oh, numbers ... I wonder what's for potluck?), and a focus
on re-solving the initial problem (did you think of this? What about that?).

Then we started presenting our proposals as above. And lo and behold,
suddenly we were getting head-nodding, productive discussion, and relatively
quick passage of a proposal with real consensus. The discussion would focus
on constructive ideas & feelings (the principles Sharon noted in her post),
and result in a better decision than the initial proposal.

A final benefit is that when new folks review our decisions, all that
information is documented, so they have an easier time catching up on the
group's history. I am hoping it will make people less likely to want to go
back and re-hash old decisions.

Becky Weaver
Central Austin Cohousing

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