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

[Kathy Tymoczko (kathy.tymoczko]

We have several actual agenda slots (usually 5 minutes each) in our
community meeting agendas for this sort of thing, which seems to work
pretty well, and keeps the time under control.

"Personal announcements" for things like "I have a new grandchild" or "I'm
going to be on vacation from mm/dd to mm/dd" or "my sister will be staying
in the guest room next week" or "the concert my teenager is singing in is
next Friday".

"Daybreak announcements" for announcements about life at Daybreak, could be
upcoming events, or things like "reminder about how to use the kitchen dish
sanitizer", anything that isn't specific to one of the Teams (which would
happen during "Team Updates").

"Kudos" for "thanks to whoever cleaned up the spillage in the elevator",
etc.

"Any other business" for anything else that someone might want to bring
up.  If it's just a question, it may get dealt with on the spot.  If it's
something bigger, the Steering Team will discuss it and figure out if it
warrants an "ad hoc" team ("we should put solar panels on the roof"), if it
belongs to an existing team ("we should plant more garlic" would go to the
Garden Team), or if it's something that should be discussed by the entire
community at a future community meeting.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 9:30 AM, Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] 
olympus.net>
wrote:

>
> 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
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-- 
Kathy Tymoczko
Daybreak Cohousing <http://www.daybreakcohousing.org>
Portland, Oregon
765-307-1083