Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: meeting minutes

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 9, 2015, at 3:53 PM, Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> If an issue is up for a consensus decision and the outcome is "Unanimously
> agreed to", or "Sent back to the committee", or whatever, I don't see what
> could be confusing about saying that in a meeting summary.

Teams don’t go through that process. Someone says What if we do this and 
everyone says good or shrugs okay. 

In a facilities meeting we used to make 10-15 decisions in a meeting. They are 
still decisions even if they are to use this electrician, not that one. Or use 
volunteers to paint the fence. But they take only a few minutes so people don’t 
see them as “decisions” in capital letters.

I once pointed out to a notetaker that the decision to paint some railings 
ourselves was not only a decision but obligated the community to do the work. 
He thought only things that cost us money were important as decisions.

As one poster said, ask people after the decision what they think the decision 
means. The discussion will be longer than than the one before the decision.

Not everyone has the same perception when it comes to decisions. Like some 
people think “ice cream” means “chocolate ice cream.” And others don’t.

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