Jack's email below is the ideal. We have used that process in our neighborhood association meetings for years and never has there been a "fight" or no coming together. The most truth he stated is about time but all walk away feeling good about it
Ken Hargesheimer. On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 4:35 PM, Jack Hale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We get these kinds of challenges when groups haven't decided how they > are going to make decisions before they have to get into actually making > them - the "no process" model. Bill's "one person-one vote, majority > rules" model is one way to go. It does mean that you can make a > decision in challenging circumstances, but it also means that you get > winners and losers and the likelihood that the same issue will keep > coming around. I tend to prefer some kind of consensus model. It > drives some people crazy because it can be very time consuming, but it > can allow an apparently fractious group to move forward positively > without kicking some folks to the curb. > For example, the "lock/no lock" discussion, if there are strong > proponents on each side, appears difficult to resolve. Alternate > solutions might look like "try a lock for a month and revisit at our > next meeting," or "lock at night and leave open during the day," or "try > some other security methods for a month and revisit at our next > meeting," or something else. It involves people spending the time and > exercising the creativity to arrive at a mutually acceptable course of > action. It is not unanimity. People still hang onto their core > beliefs, but they can arrive at a course of action while agreeing to > disagree. > Neither process is necessarily perfect in all situations. Both can > require some skill and practice to use well, so that voting doesn't > become a blunt instrument and consensus doesn't turn into a confusing > mess. I believe it's worth the effort either way. > Sometimes a good battle is also a good impetus for a group to talk about > its values and ways to realize them in their decision making. > Good luck to us all. > JH > > > Jack N. Hale > Executive Director > Knox Parks Foundation > 75 Laurel Street > Hartford, CT 06106 > 860/951-7694 > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20080724/8a14007a/attachment.html _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
