Cohousing-L Mailing List: Building Consensus Sociocratically

[maggiedutton (mdutton]

  David Heimann wrote: 
>       As Jeanne Goodman mentioned, we did adopt a transfer fee at JP
> Cohousing.  When first proposed, the proponent called it a "flip tax".
> The idea promptly went dead in the water!  By the time it got back into
> serious consideration it had been renamed "transfer fee".  It still took
> many meetings and at least two blockages of consensus for it to get
> through.

I can't help but speculate about how this process could have been improved
using Sociocracy for decision making.  How were the two objections overcome?

In Sociocracy there would be no blocking, but rather, if some folks had
reasoned and paramount objections they would have to be able to articulate
them so the rest of the group understood why it was outside their limit of
tolerance.  A preference (not to have to pay a transfer fee) is not a
paramount reason.  The first decision is to be clear about the proposed Aim
and to get consent about that first.  I think that Sociocracy would have
speeded things up considerably.
Maggie Dutton,
Calgary, Alberta. Canada
Where we are creating a program to accommodate newcomers and visitors on a
budget.  A bed at the youth hostel in this boom town is $35.00/Night.  It
will be at www.guestroomscanada.ca when I get to it..