Topic: Toiora High St hears from Rowena of Sunward Cohousing Time: *Mon Sep 7, 2020 07:00 AM* Dunedin (3pm Sunday for Rowena) https://zoom.us/j/97706411094?pwd=TUZXMzZlaWMwcCs5andlYStFV29rUT09 Meeting ID: 977 0641 1094 Passcode: *7179 232 405* Warning: because I created this link with my work zoom account, you will initially be put into a "waiting room"and see a bit of NWnW branding. Don't think you've come to the wrong zoom :-)
Hi folks The above link (along with the passcode) will get you into a zoom meeting with Rowena from Sunward CoHousing http://www.sunward.org/. We've asked Rowena to give us some of her time so we can find out more about the systems and processes that her community has developed to deal with conflict.
I was lucky enough to be invited to Rowena and Paul's for dinner. My memory of part of the discussion (which was actually super wide-ranging and over 2 years ago now so I may have it all wrong) was that Sunward have guilds, within which people in their community can specialise in their craft. It is the mediation and the facilitation guilds that we are particularly eager to find out more about.
I've explained to Rowena that the reason I am reaching out to her is that before we shift in we would like to develop systems to deal with conflict; ideally before we need them. Our Toiora cohousing group is committed to consensus decision making, but I feel we could all do with some help/training when it comes to how it all actually works in our community life and meetings.
Sunward uses Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making, a Model for Facilitating Groups to Widespread Agreement https://www.consensusdecisionmaking.org/ which seems to be pretty close to what we are aiming for. Governance may be a separate issue, but they seem to be very closely intertwined, so I hope Rowena gets time to talk to us a bit about that too.
Rowena can start by correcting all the bits above that I've got wrong!
For any Toiora High St-ers who want to find out more about Sunward before hearing from Rowena, or get a feel for an alternative induction option, go to https://www.touchstonecohousing.org/ann-arbor-cohousing-virtual-tour/ to check out the series of short videos they made to replace their usual weekly tours during covid. I particularly enjoyed the Contrasting Communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhCNlR-kw3c&feature=youtu.be segment.
Gay, Alex, Sue T and I will definitely be on this Zoom call, but the invitation is open to any other Toiora High St-ers who can handle a 7am Monday morning Zoom. There's a possibility that we may be joined by Robin from Touchstone Cohousing.
Thanks so much to all those giving up their sleep or Sunday afternoon. Jan