Cohousing-L Mailing List: Rules and regulations

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Aug 30, 2005, at 12:06 PM, Pete Holsberg wrote:
> At what size does a community meeting become unweildy?

In sociocracy, the recommended size for circles is 20-40. With more 
than 50 it becomes time consuming to hear from everyone.

But this does not address the size of the community. Circles are 
double-linked to form the whole community. I don't think a group can be 
"too large" to be a community, it will just take different forms. A 
cohousing community of 12 households will not be the same as one of 50 
households but I don't see why it can't still be cohousing. It will 
have different opportunities and limitations.

In a condo, this might mean that each floor or wing would form a circle 
and then there would be a general circle composed of at least two 
representatives from each circle.

The general circle would make certain decisions and each wing or floor 
would make others, depending on who the decision most clearly affected. 
The third floor or the south wing might make different decisions about 
noise and children playing in the corridors, for example. One floor 
might decide to have a jigsaw puzzle out on a table in a window nook 
while another might rotating pot luck dinners in their apartments.

In a large building, these decisions would be made by each floor where 
the geographic proximity would be similar to that in cohousing.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, Condos, Cohousing, and Other 
New Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org