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

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

We're a consensus coho. Our plenary meetings are scheduled for 2 hours and
we do usually stop at 9 PM, or very occasionally maybe 9:05 if everyone
present agrees to go a bit over.

The way we handle meetings that end inconclusively because the time ran out
is that those present are authorized to scheduled a follow-up plenary
meeting one week later. We've had this provision since the beginning. It
isn't invoked very often, but we did it once in 2024 as we worked through a
very complex issue.

I don't know about other communities, but in my 22 years of experience
here, we don't have as many difficult issues to work through at this point
and the decisions we have to make don't carry emotional baggage. Also, the
people who tended to get very emotional no longer live here. Even when a
proposal is exceptionally consequential, the tone of the discussion is
respectful, friendly, and rational. That was not always the case in our
more turbulent youth :)

Hope this helps,
      Muriel @ Shadowlake Village Cohousing