Cohousing-L Mailing List: conflict resolution

[Sterling Newberry (sterling.newberry]

Dear Friends,
I am in the process of exploring membership in a local cohousing group.  I
have experience as a mediator and facilitator, and partly for that resaon,
and partly due to an excess of exuberance, I have offered to help do a
little research on conflict resolution among existing cohousing groups.
I would like to tap into your experience with conflict resolution under
specific circumstances.  Assuming that your group already has made use of a
full range of internal conflict resolution methods in a particualr case,
including direct communication, in house third party and whatever else you
might use, I'm wondering whether and how you use external resources.  My
questions would be the following:
1) What would trigger your group to use external resources?
2) What, if any, proceedures do you have in place to address such a
situation, for example, how do you decide whether to engage and external
resource?
3) What sorts of resources would you use?
4) I know that using professionals would be one resource for some groups at
least.  If this is true for you, I would ask what, if any guidelines you use
in contracting with those external professionals?
Thank you,
Sterling Newberry