Re: Quorum
From: Muriel Kranowski (murielkvt.edu)
Date: Sun, 12 May 2013 20:04:43 -0700 (PDT)
I wonder if we have a different idea about what belongs at the committee level. I assume your committees have defined domains as ours do. Committee members make the first-cut determination whether something they're proposing can be handled at the committee level or should be developed and shepherded by the committee as a plenary consensus issue. Maybe just knowing that 3 or more household could ask to move a decision from a committee up to the plenary (which is possible but hasn't happened) keeps the committees honest, as it were.

Individual members or informal small groups can bring a proposal to the plenary as well, but after years of finding rough going for such proposals (which often are not well prepared and not aired out in advance for community feedback), this doesn't happen as often as it once did.

Frankly, also, now that many of us are going on 12 years in residence, many members have burned out on governance and only perk up when something big comes along. It's governance by "I trust those of you who care enough to work on committees and attend plenary meetings to do the right thing" more than it is self-governance, I think.

Why is it that your members feel so queasy about your committees?

   Muriel


At 04:56 PM 5/12/2013, you wrote:

We have (or try to have) a similar approach. In theory, "lesser" issues are first developed and debated at the Committee level. If agreement is unfindable, then off to plenary we go. In practice, however, because our various Committees are not always widely trusted, they are rarely empowered or expected to do anything definitive. At Cornerstone, any three households can invent a proposal (in open meeting) and go straight to plenary -- and this is usually our primary modus operandi.

RPD


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