Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Open Forum/ soapbox?

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

A request was made to describe how communities use "open forum" in a community 
meeting. 
We use something we call "soap box", which may be similar. 
Towards the end of the meeting, just before Evaluation, our monthly meeting 
agenda typically has about a 15 minute time slot for soap box. The actual time 
available may be more (occasionally less) depending on how the rest of our 
timing has gone. 

At soap-box time, we allot a few minutes each to people who wish to speak on 
any topic at all. Might be "clean up better in the kitchen", "thanks to Joe for 
fixing the whatsis", "anyone interested in researching generators, see me", or 
anything else. No discussion at that point. But it offers a place to praise or 
vent, to raise issues not on the agenda. We've been doing this for a number of 
years, and it seems to work well for us. 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
long-built in Port Townsend WA