Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: A table clarifying "routine", "significant", and "major" decisions

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Oct 6, 2012, at 10:49 AM, peterpiper [at] riseup.net wrote:

> Our Decision Making Community Agreement catogrises decisions as routine, 
> significant, major, or emergency. NB. Largely inspired by 
> http://www.takomavillage.org/wordpress/documents/policies/decision-making-2007/

I'm so glad this has been helpful to people. It has worked very well for us for 
12 years. The examples for each kind of decision are partularly helpful to 
people here.

The biggest confusion comes with the difference between routine and significant 
decisions. The CH Interiors Pod is responsible for items to make the CH look 
nice. The budget includes money for curtains, wall art, pillows, end tables, 
etc. Because the items are in the budget, they could be routine purchase 
decisions that only need to be noted in the minutes.

However, because they change the use and appearance of the common house, they 
become significant decisions. An announcement and a picture have to be posted. 
If there are no objections, they can go ahead. If there are objections, they 
have to resolve them before they purchase.

The objections might be to the source -- a company with bad environmental 
practices. Once a detail person chose a fabric for replacement of the slings on 
the piazza furniture. It was a nice floral pattern in off-white mesh and the 4 
inch square sample looked very festive. 

But we have 12 big chairs and the effect would have been more like a lingerie 
display. When such decisions are posted, someone else can see the problems. 
Those of us with "big picture" vision can miss a lot of problematic operational 
details.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org