Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Concerning Consensus and established CoHo communities

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi all -
 
Interesting thread.  I live at Eastern Village in Silver Spring,  Maryland, 
which has 56 residential units.  We came to consensus on a  process for using 
consensus during development and we generally follow the  process.  Like 
sociocracy, our base process also assumes that silence means  consent -- but 
leaves 
open the possibility that two or more members or one  facilitator can shift to 
a more traditional consensus process that probes  silences to more completely 
flesh out individual contributions to the group  decision.
 
Unlike the previous cohousing community I lived in, Eno Commons, most of  the 
group discussions in Eastern Village's consensus process are expected to  
happen outside general (business) meetings: in team meetings, facilitated  
discussions, or salons.  Skilled coordination and facilitation matters, and  
fortunately our community is pretty rich in human resources in these  areas.  
 
Owing to our community's size, we delegate a lot to teams, who also use  
consensus for most decisions.  Because of Rob Sandelin's advice, we use  
variations on voting and autocracy for the limited decisions it is suitable for 
 (I 
refer to most of these as "paint color" decisions - for example, two of us  
picked the dinner plates).   We are also beginning to experiment with  
sociocracy - 
we used a sociocratic method to select our condo board.  Some  members liked 
the process, and some didn't.  Where it seems to really help  is that the 
process results in a team that knows it is fully supported by the  rest of the 
community -- a sort of certainty that doesn't arise in an  all-volunteer 
situation.
 
In my experience, consensus process falling apart in a group in which the  
individuals say they are committed to it can be a result of sloppy process (so  
people consistently don't feel heard and give up), inadvertent or overt 
stifling  of emotional content, and lack of fun!fun!fun! in group interactions. 
 Get 
 everyone in the group training from someone good -- early and often  -- 
right from the beginning.  It is more expensive not to.
 
Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, Maryland
"Where we are sold out, but there are a few resale units listed.   And, 
despite having no stove yet in the commonhouse, we are starting  our second 
weekly 
commonmeal by adding a weekend  brunch."