Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Borda Count

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

At Songaia (38 people in 13 units on 11 acres near Seattle), all of the
adult members are on our Board of Directors. Our Board Officers (whom we
call The Navigators - as we tend toward whimsy in our subgroup names)
consist of everyone who wants to participate on that committee. That working
group (that does meeting planning and other organizational work for  us) has
ranged from about 4 to 7 folks. Over the last 18 years, most of our members
have served on the Navigators, including adult renters. The special powers
that Navigators have is dealing with everything they choose to deal with -
and planning how its dealt with by the full board (all adult members).

The whole idea of Borda seems more tied to supporting groups where there is
some sense of competition about who's providing leadership - not co-creative
approaches where leadership is more explicitly shared or collaborative.

On Feb 13, 2008 9:32 AM, Robert Heinich <robert [at] enocommons.org> wrote:

>
> Does board membership give the member any special powers?
>
> While I please to see that more than one person is running for a board
> position in other communities, with a smallish community (22
> households) like ours using a consensual decision-making, my
> neighbor's input counts the same as mine as VP/Secretary.
>
> So while the Borda Count promotes candidates who are are more broadly
> accepted in a community, is it really necessary if the community uses
> collaborative decision-making?
>
> -Robert Heinich
>
>
> Quoting Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>:
> >
> > How many communities are using the Borda Count to elect members of the
> > board?
> >
> > Sharon
> > ----
> > Sharon Villines
> > Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
> > http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
-- 
Craig Ragland
Coho/US Exec. Dir.
www.cohousing.org