Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Making policy during COVID and COVID transitions

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 3, 2020, at 5:11 PM, Fern Selzer/US/CA/95003/NBC via Cohousing-L 
> <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> I am imagining that we will  need to keep gradually transitioning and 
> changing our usage rules.  I am wondering how  we can have a more fluid 
> approach to policy change that actually works and does not burden people with 
> too many emails and conversations, etc.
> We have been making decisions by the whole community, which has made any 
> transitions really slow. 

The advantage to a more hierarchical decision-making structure for something 
like this is that it is an expert decision. It should be based on what is known 
about the virus and how it spreads. And that has changed from month to month.

It takes a huge amount of time to educate everyone on something that needs fast 
action and isn’t, or shouldn’t be, based on personal preference. If the 
decision is delegated to a team, they can make decisions much more quickly 
based on solid information.

Consensus only works when 1. everyone has the same aim, 2. everyone is willing 
and able to take the time required to sit together until a decision is made, 
and 3. people agree about who they want to make decisions with.

Sharon
——— 
Sharon Villines
http://sustainablecohousing.org
sustainablecohousing [at] groups.io
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