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

[Racheli Gai (racheli]

Hi Muriel,
I live in Sonora Cohousing (in Tucson, Arizona).
We moved in in 2000.
We had quite a lot of problems using consensus.  IMO, the two major
reasons were: 1-  Different people understood differently what consensus
means, and under what circumstances blocking is legitimate, so we 
weren't
all playing by the same rules, so to speak.  2 - Consensus requires 
cooperative
attitudes, and acceptance of the idea that for people to have differing 
(and
even contradictory) opinions is not a bad thing.

Over two years ago we brought CT Butler to work with us on our consensus
process, in an effort to get us all on the same page.  This has helped 
considerably.
After his visit we also worked on tightening the requirements for what 
consists
a valid block.  Now, in order to block, one needs to show that a 
proposal is not
consistent with our community values, and people from 4 other 
households (I think
that's the number we agreed on) need to agree that the block is valid.  
(ie: They don't
have to agree with the act of blocking, just agree that there is a 
valid connection
between the block and community value(s)).

I don't think we had any blocks since then, and our process - while 
clunky - is
way better than it was earlier on.  We are talking about bring CT again 
to help
us move forward some more.

The issue of problematic people is still a huge issue.  In my view 
that's the largest
difficulty we face.

Racheli.


On Apr 7, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Muriel Kranowski wrote:

> 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
>
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