Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consent question

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 8:23 PM, Chris Terbrueggen <christopher402 [at] 
gmail.com>
wrote:

> Greetings , how many committee meetings do you allow a proposal to be
> discussed at after it goes back to the author or subcommittee for revision
> after the first reading ? I was thinking two meeting would be sufficient
> before dropping a proposal , however I learned that sometimes not all
> members attend both committee meetings and sometimes it takes two meetings
> for members to voice specific concerns or objections to a proposal .

We don’t have any such limits. It depends on the proposal and how complex it is 
how often it needs to amended and discussed again. Some of our policies have 
been amended and discussed 10-12 times. Many policies have to be finished, not 
just dropped because someone or someones object. Parking, pets, work 
requirements, mission statement, resales, rentals, consensus definitions and 
process, etc. You can't just drop the issue.

Assume things will be sensible and fine. Don’t try to write policies to protect 
yourselves from weird behavior. Weirdness can’t be predicted anyway, so just 
write down the purpose of your policy and workable options for accomplishing 
it. Then you can get experience working under the policy and can revise it.

Policies should be revised when conditions change and/or you have new 
information. And reviewed at scheduled times. I think annually is too often but 
certainly every 2-3 years. 

Putting numbers on  things doesn’t usually address anyone’s purpose or needs.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines, Washington DC
Coauthor with John Buck of
"We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy” 2nd Edition
Print: ISBN: 978-0979282737
Digital: ISBN 978-0979282720
http://www.sociocracy.info