Cohousing-L Mailing List: qualifying a block as legitimate

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

This is a topic we are now discussing.  Do any communities require an 
announced consensus block to be judged to be valid or legitimate before 
allowing it to stand?  I'd be very interested to see anything in your 
bylaws or policies about this, or just a description of how you do this 
kind of assessing.

Specifically:
 - how do you go about making the decision that the block is/is not 
legitimate, ie, what steps are followed and what are your criteria?
 - how does this work out for you in practice, and are you fairly 
satisfied with how it works for your community?
 - do you have an over-ride process to deal with a block, or does a block 
truly block a proposal?

I'm assuming you have followed good consensus process, have talked at 
sufficient length and respectfully with the blocker, and the person won't 
withdraw the proposed block, so you have to deal with it.

Thanks!
  Muriel Kranowski
  Shadowlake Village Cohousing
  Blacksburg, VA