Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: qualifying a block as legitimate

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

Everyone's remarks on this subject have been interesting, but I was hoping 
to find out if any mature community (= completed and in residence for at 
least a couple of years) requires a block to be legitimated or validated 
and if so, how?  And how has that worked for you? And do you have a block 
override process?

For our part, we have a block override in our bylaws but to date have never 
had a sustained block so we don't know how it would work out. We also 
haven't defined exactly "consensus" means to us, and have no rules or even 
informal norms about blocks needing to be "valid".
   Muriel

> 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