Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Consensus and Bylaws

[Martie Weatherly (mhweatherly]

Our Bylaws mention consensus only once with a back up vote, which we put in 
because the attorneys needed it, and have never used. Our consensus process is 
one of our agreements that we made after we formed. We wanted the Bylaws to be 
general and legal and the agreements to be specific and changeable. 

I hear from a lot of communities that they have slipped away from the creative 
part of consensus as the competitive instincts creep in. In one way or another, 
they decide by vote and still have a dis-satisfied minority or a long standing 
issue that is blocked by one or two people. Refreshing ourselves that consensus 
means creativity so 1 + 1 = 3 and learning simple ways to move into that 
collaborative way of thinking is critical to having productive high-five 
meetings with complete buy-in. 

Consensus needs reviewing and refreshing all the time, reminding ourselves to 
address these thorny issues with a  commitment to listen and honor all points 
of view and use creativity to discover a solution no one has thought up yet. 

Martie Weatherly
Consensus and Process Coach
LIberty Village, Frederick MD


-----Original Message-----
From: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Mar 1, 2023 8:20 PM
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Consensus and Bylaws

I am so grateful for all the info I've been getting about consensus
definitions, procedures, agreements and bylaws. There is much wisdom and
evolution represented here. I'm also finding lots of good info on the
CohoUS website, though little of it deals with bylaws specifically.

I've also been getting info about sociocracy and bylaws. While I am an
advocate of sociocracy in cohousing communities, mine is strongly in favor
of consensus and will continue down that path. So those of you who want to
share info about sociocracy or consent and bylaws, would you please start
another thread?

Thanks,
Leslie





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