Cohousing-L Mailing List: What are membership meetings for? [ was: a question about meeting minutes

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 9, 2015, at 12:11 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Overall, my experience is that a lot can and does happen in plenary.  It just 
> doesn’t happen linearly.

And I don’t think it should. We have contingent that believes all membership 
meetings should focus on well tested proposals already approved by a team. My 
view is that by the time a proposal gets to that state the decision could be 
“phoned in”. Resolved on email. 

The important purpose of full membership meetings is discussion and sharing of 
experiences and points of view. The early parts of the proposal are the ones 
where people are educated and have input. The education process is  important 
and completely lost when all they hear is the final "we want to do this.” 

Even if the proposal is very well thought out, researched, and presented, one 
hour of discussion isn’t enough to educate people. They will be listening to 
the logic but not experiencing the effects of the proposal. That’s why as one  
poster said very well, the discussion after the decision is sometimes longer 
than the one before making it.

That’s one reason I don’t like using the word “plenary session” to describe 
membership meetings. The connotation is too formal, like the annual meeting of 
condo owners. While the reasons behind various words and processes of 
parliamentary procedure are very good — like the secretary begin the 
administrative officer — I find that using words like “plenary” carry over the 
wrong image for cohousing. The aims of the two kinds of meetings are different 
— or should be.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Sociocracy: A Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info