Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Teeth in Rules [Was dogs in community]

[Karen Carlson (kcarlson2]

I'm not subjected to any direct consequence if I vote or not yet there 
is an agreement elections will take place (at least so far--not that our 
governor won't try to do away with it altogether).  And it's a 
cornerstone of our democracy.  I think there are a some social contracts 
that don't have direct consequences, i.e., teeth. This isn't an 
argument, BTW, that agreements shouldn't have teeth but like my 
community, I bet many of us are loathe to build in consequences at the 
time of an agreement is adopted unless things start to fall apart.

Karen Carlson
Arboretum Cohousing Community
Madison, WI

On 6/25/11 1:53 PM, Sharon Villines wrote:
> On 25 Jun 2011, at 10:53 AM, Karen Carlson wrote:
>
> > For example, we don't
> > tract whether the obligatory 4 hours of community work per adult is
> > accomplished nor do we track participation in work weekends.
> A good question was raised in the Dynamic Governance workshop at Coho University at the 
> Coho Conference. Is a proposal clearly defined if it doesn't include "teeth". 
> Is it a proposal at all? Or is it meaningless?
>
> If your community agreement is that each member is expected to do 4 hours of 
> community work, how do you know when that is not being done? If you don't know 
> when it isn't being done, how do you know when it is? And if you don't know 
> either of those things, why believe that you have an agreement?
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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