Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: non-participants in the consensus process

Hello,

	With JP Cohousing, a member at a General Meeting cannot "not 

participate" in the consensus process.  Since in addition to having no 

blocking vote, a proposal must have a majority of members voting 

"thumbs-up", not voting actually casts a non-blocking vote to deny this 

majority.

	We have three signals aside from "thumbs-up" (agreement) and 

"thumbs-down" (block):

	o  No vote -- Does not block but contributes to a possible denial 

of a majority thumbs-up to a proposal.

	o Thumbs-sideways -- Also does not block and contributes to a 

possible denial of a majority.  The difference between a "no vote" and a 

"thumbs-sideways" is that a thumbs-sideways is more visible and indicates 

an incomplete agreement or a desire to modify the proposal.

	o  Fist -- A fist indicates a serious reservation about the 

proposal, not enough to block consensus but enough to demonstrate 

significant discomfort.  A "fist" voter should be considered a dissenter 

in that the group must aim to satisfy the concerns of all dissenting 

members (i.e., "fist" and "thumbs-down" voters).

	In short, non-participation in the consensus vote actually works 

towards denying the necessary majority to the proposal.  Not to decide is 

to decide.

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing

Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 07:45:31 -0500
From: "byron patterson" <byronpatterson [at] gmail.com>
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID:
        <df0930cb0612080445j2b151353h1f5267f275c344e4 [at] mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 12/08/06, Byron Patterson^ byronpatterson [at] gmail.com

I am a member of CohoDC, newly formed group of the District
of Columbia. My experience with consensus has been that it
can allow a group more leverage and time to make an more
appropriate decision. Consensus can be used to block action
or accept the terms of a particular project within a group.
Consensus can be structured within a group to poll group
members on there acceptance of a particular decision or action. If
there is not enough participation in consensus or the agreed
voting percentile are not met the decision or action can be postponed.

Re: non-participants in the consensus process	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: David Heimann (heimannworld.std.com)
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 09:10:21 -0800 (PST)