Cohousing-L Mailing List: Meeting Length in Sociocratic Communities.

[Barbara Smith (brownsmith82]

We are a new, over-55 cohousing community in Massachusetts, using Sociocracy as 
our governance. We limit meetings to two hours, and some circles allow 90 
minutes. That makes sense because, given our age, we've had our fill of long 
meetings. But sometimes a topic is controversial and members become emotional. 
Facilitation falls apart. What could have been a short easy "consent" topic, 
can take (as in a recent meeting) 25 minutes, with members, including the 
facilitator, frustrated, even angry. But the issue isn't resolved because the 
meeting has to end at 2 pm!!  Yes, I know that emotions need to be dealt with 
(I've watched Laird Schaub's video on the topic several times, as well as his 
critique of Sociocracy. All makes sense.)
But now, I just want to know: how long do other Sociocratic communities allow 
for meetings? Is the duration open-ended when emotions arise? In such a case 
(above) do we end on time and explore the topic off-line? (We still Zoom our 
meetings.) Finally: for all communities using other governance (such as 
Consensus), how long are your meetings? Do young people tolerate long meetings 
better than Oldsters? Thanks in advanceBarbara Smith, Hager Homestead, 
Littleton, MAbrownsmith82 [at] yahoo.com