Cohousing-L Mailing List: committee mandates

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

Committee mandates: 
At RoseWind Cohousing (Port Townsend WA) we spell out the mandates of each 
committee. They can access the line-item funds in the annual budget which are 
listed under their committee: Grounds can pay to have the mower repaired, 
Common House Operations can buy toilet paper and soap, Finance can re-invest a 
CD, etc. They also can make specified sorts of decisions. However, we have 
noticed that committees are often not representative of the diversity of 
opinion in the whole group, probably because various types of people volunteer 
for the work: the Finance folks are a different crowd from the Facilitators, 
Grounds are different from Common House Operations. And occasionally committee 
membership is only 2 or 3 people. So decisions significantly affecting the 
whole group are not typically in the mandate of committees.

Proposals for the community can come from a committee or an individual. If 
Steering receives a proposal from an individual, it is routed to a committee if 
there is one that's appropriate. In any case, ideas are first processed, or 
"seasoned", by community discussion, often via email and sometimes with a 
discussion circle (non-decision-making), or in a initial discussion at a 
business meeting. To get on a business meeting agenda as a proposal for 
decision, Steering has to decide it's been adequately seasoned to have a chance 
of passing, and then Facilitation has to decide it fits into a time-managed and 
balanced agenda for the next business meeting. 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org