Cohousing-L Mailing List: Question about selection/election processes

[juva (juva]

We here at CoHo Ecovillage in Corvallis Oregon have been living in our physical 
community a little over two years, and some of us have been building this 
community for 10 years. The first 7-8 years we used a regular election process 
for officers. The last several years we have used sociocratic selection process 
for elections. The first process would take us months to get an election done. 
The sociocratic has been much more efficient but neither necessarily got us the 
people for the positions that has the skills needed. We on the facilitation 
team are seeking to improve our process of selections. One idea is to emphasize 
the skills more. We had consented on the skilled needed previously but not 
re-consented each time. That might help but we are finding that some members of 
the community still are not enjoying the sociocratic process. In particular the 
paramount objection part. The concern is having to say why we would have an 
objection about a person’s skill in front of the whole community. The concern I 
have heard around this is that the individual may feel shamed or defensive. 
Some are concerned it would make living with them difficult. We are a community 
that uses NVC, each member takes a 13 week class. So, NVC is familiar and we 
help each other get to the feels/needs if an individual has difficulty 
expressing this way. In spite of this, the whole idea of paramount objection 
still is difficult for some. We have discussed the idea of good enough (doesn’t 
have to be the BEST person, just good enough). This also hasn’t helped some. So 
now we are again looking and this process, will have a community meeting 
focused on the selection/election process. I am hoping to gather idea’s, do 
some reading ect before hand. Any suggestions. Thanks! 

Juva – CoHo Ecovillage/Corvallis Oregon