Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Getting Buy-In on Decisions

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Sep 10, 2005, at 6:06 AM, OCC611ng wrote:

> As time goes on, we are experiencing less and less interest in 
> Membership
> meetings.

In contemporary society with all our means of communication, we need to 
rethink the purpose of meetings. It is reasonable to expect people to 
sit for two hours in a room in order to ratify a decision that is 
either of no interest to them or that will be decided as they think it 
should be whether they are there or not.

Meetings were established when we had no other means of communication 
amongst groups of people. Having everyone in the room together was the 
only way to dependably and accurately share information. This is no 
longer true. There are many ways to share information and with our 
diverse household schedules and available options for how we want to 
spend out or time, meetings are one of the most difficult and least 
satisfying.

Announcements in meetings for example boggle the mind. They are much 
better made in email or on bulletin boards where everyone is likely to 
see them. By the time the meeting minutes get circulated, the 
announcement is usually void. But X number of people still have to sit 
through announcements.

Many decisions are obviously going to be made in a certain direction. 
But once they get on the agenda, everyone feels beholden to be a good 
meeting member and contribute to the conversation. Nice speeches and 
arguments but most often repetitive and unenlightening.

The one advantage of a meeting is being able to discuss an issue on 
which there is a diversity of interest and concern. If people are not 
interested in the meetings it is probably because they have no interest 
in the decisions being made there.

In sociocracy, it is assumed that if you are not in the meeting, you 
agree with whatever is decided.

Having the board ratify that the meeting was properly called and 
announced is standard practice, I think. The Board is responsible for 
ensuring the proper functioning of the corporation.

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