Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus decision making

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

I wonder how much it really helps communities to avoid idiosyncratic 
blocking to say "Blocks must be justifiable in terms of the community's 
//needs//vision//principles//".  If there's one thing that most people are 
good at, it's being able to justify nearly anything in the name of a higher 
principle, either sincerely or with a hidden agenda.  I'll bet that even 
the personal-preference blockers whom Racheli has written about could 
justify themselves in that way if they knew that was the requirement.

    Muriel
    at Shadowlake Village Cohousing in Blacksburg, VA

At 04:07 PM 8/6/2008, John Faust wrote to agree with Racheli (who made this 
same point again today:
> I think Racheli's point is very important. Blocking should not be 
> groundlessly exercised just because it is a consensus process. This is 
> probably where vision/mission and principles come in. Blocking should be
> grounded in these base documents just as much as the proposals they would 
> block. A block should only be valid if it clarifies that a proposal in 
> some way "violates" the letter or intent of the vision/mission or 
> principles. This still leaves a great deal of latitude but provides a 
> basis for further discussion. Groundless blocking should not be an option.