Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: handling donations

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jan 21, 2015, at 1:09 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Do you mean literally, one person?  That is, a single individual acting 
> alone, without reference to any community-recognized group officially charged 
> with indoor pruning?  Is this really a problem of failing to check with the 
> donor of origin (an identity often lost to institutional memory) — rather 
> than a unilateral behavior out of sync with communal policy?

It has happened with no notice to the community. There might have been someone 
present who said, that is fine. We have people who think the person in charge 
of a room should be able to do whatever they want. In an effort to get people 
to take charge, some people want them to have absolute authority.

One of the things that discourages action is having to go through what I 
believe is becoming a bureaucracy. People want everyone who wants to do 
anything to come to their meeting and it usually takes two meetings for them to 
make a decision. At two meetings a month that means at least a month to get 
permission from a team. Then the action may require approval of the membership. 
Wait for a membership meeting.

We used to do much more decision-making on email. Part of the problem is 
fatigue. I hope it is temporary, but administering a community of 87 people is 
hard. Particularly when everyone wants to either be involved in all decisions 
or can't be bothered--until it affects them.

We were much easier to govern when we were smaller.

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