Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus, Majority Vote, "Blocks" [was Report on Survey of Cohousing Communities 2011. Just released. A must read!

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 2 Oct 2011, at 12:04 PM, Racheli Gai wrote:

> Before we instituted this, we had a number of blocks that were truly  
> frivolous, 

I would like to hear more about "frivolous" objections. 

I can't say that we have had any that were frivolous although we have had some 
that were mishandled. These have been instances when a proposal was never 
brought forward to the full membership because someone on a team or in 
conversation with a team said they wouldn't accept the proposal. I think it is 
a mistake to require a team to have consensus or a proposal can't come forward 
for even discussion.

In dynamic governance, if a team can't reach consensus, the issue goes to the 
General Circle which includes two people from each team. In this arena there 
are viewpoints that represent all parts of the community and they are concerned 
with issues more abstractly than teams. Teams are more concerned with what to 
do, operational questions, but the General Circle will be concerned with longer 
range issues and guiding principles. New information and fresh perspectives can 
often surface a solution that was not previously considered.

We had a request from parents of 10-14 year olds to set up the ping pong table 
in the dining room at times when it wasn't being used. They sent the request to 
a team on which there is one person with multiple sensitivities. She became 
very upset at the idea of even walking through the CH if balls were flying 
around and particularly coming upon them suddenly. The team went around and 
around and never brought the proposal forward. Very few of us knew this had 
happened. And several people had suggestions that we think would have resolved 
her objections but the team and the  parents by then thought there was too much 
bad feeling to continue. They wouldn't enjoy playing anymore.

I think we have talked this though enough that a similar thing is not likely to 
happen again — the proposal would be brought forward and the split in the team 
explained — but I think that individuals are hesitant to propose something for 
discussion when they think some people would be against it. My own feeling is 
that you have to start the conversation, you never know until you try, and 
individuals shouldn't be able to make decisions for the community. And that's 
what individuals are being allowed to do when a team doesn't bring a proposal 
forward.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
Coauthor with John Buck of
"We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy"
ISBN: 9780979282706