House Meeting
Each group is unique and continuing to evolve. I wish you the best in finding what works for your group.
The Business house meeting often involves seeking to balance different opinions around what to do and making decisions So, civility is critical for the house meeting to work.
In addition to the Business meeting, I suggest having Discover meetings. Discovery meetings are a way to prepare for and help Business meetings go more smoothly and effectively.
Suggestion for degree of organization:
1 – 5 people don’t need much structure
5 – 15 people definitely need a consistent structure
over 15 people is reaching point of having sub committees and more structure
***** House meeting parts
- Scribe
- Facilitator
- Opening
- Officer reports
- Discussion of proposals and collection decision
- Check out
- Quorum
- Decisions
- Personalities
Descriptions:
----- Scribe ----
The purpose is to provide a written record of decisions and attendance. The Scribe records number of Yes, NO and Stand aside votes. This way the group is clear about which proposals passed and didn’t and which house members were present for that decision.
Scribe states the proposal and ask its creators if that is correct. This can reveal any misunderstandings or confusion about what is being proposed.
The Scribe does not write down individual opinions or how individual votes.
Because
-- individuals speak for themselves
-- people’s opinions change over time
-- the Scribe is a human being, therefore can not understand and record everyone’s opinions perfectly.
-- If there is legal action, the minutes could become a legal document. Do you want the Scribe speaking for you in court ? Do you want to speak for yourself ?
-- A person reads the minutes months after they are written. Do you want to defend the Scribe’s interpretation of what you said ? Do you want to speak for yourself ?
----- Facilitator ----
Purpose is to help meeting go as smoothly, efficiently, effectively as possible.
Tools for an orderly discussion:
Stack – facilitator calls on people in order of raised hands. People don’t have to scream or talk over each other to be heard. Facilitator goes in order of raised hands, not their personal preference.
Talking object – only person holding the object can talk, the object is passed around for different people to talk
Keeping group on track – When person speaks off topic, create a new topic to be discussed later in the meeting or at another meeting. The personal who strayed off topic is given a chance to talk “it” thru having another topic to discuss.
---- Opening ----
Its purpose is to create a foundation for beginning the group, creating a container. Some possible ways to do a check in is giving people a moment to say how he/she/they is doing or to say is there is anything blocking them from being present or etc.
----- officers -----
Its purpose is to create space for key roles to update the group. Some examples are finance, membership, maintenance, etc.
Officers reports immediately after check in and before discussion / decision is to insure there is meeting time available for any issues these key roles bring up.
----- Discussion of proposals and group decision ----
Consider using an agenda, maybe the agenda for discussions. This provides focus and purpose for group time.
Consider requiring one person present the motion, then 1 or two people to second that for discussion and making a decision. Because this a group decision, not individual decision on how to use group time. And this prevents one person from controlling the group thru talking the loudest and or fastest.
For discussion items, I suggest including a time limit, which can be changed by group decision
For decisions,
- when X number of people motion to decide on proposal, Proposal is read aloud by meeting Scribe
- Scribe asks person(s) who proposed proposal is that correct
- If yes, house votes/decides on proposal
- when x number of member vote yes, motion passes.
The group could wait until the end of the meeting to ask does anyone motion to vote on a proposal.
The group could leave the timing open to whenever a person motions and gets one or two people second that
----- closing ----
Its purpose is bring the meeting to a close.
One way to close a meeting is to ask, “how did the meeting go ?”. This is about improving the effectiveness of meeting thru hearing what is and isn’t working for the meeting.
And or have a moment of silence
----- Quorum:
Requiring a minimum number of house residents to be present for an official meeting to occur and or for making a decision on a proposal
Without a Quorum, it is easy to ignore those who do not show up for meetings.
Quorum pushes the group to find out why people are not showing up for meetings and to make adjustment
----- Decisions -----
I have discovered that the key is not the particular decision method. The key is how people treat each other before, during and after making a decision. People can act with compassion or un-kindly when using any decision making method.
When I was in a house that used majority vote to decide. I noticed, when we were getting along, a caring and compassion approach naturally arose. We looked for solutions that worked for all or as many as possible or how to support the one(s) having trouble with the decision. When we were not getting along, decisions were a power struggle.
I saw another house use consensus. It worked for a while, until everyone couldn’t agree. Since everyone could not agree, no decisions could be made, including accepting new members as people moved out. Fortunately, there was a house sharing group nearby, who took ownership of the house and recruited new members and taught them how to run the house.
----- Personalities -----
I could be completely wrong about this.
Loud, aggressive personalities may thrive in free flowing, non-organized spaces
Quiet, passive personalities may thrive in ordered, structured processes.
Which personalities thrive in your group’s way of doing things ?
Which personalities sink in your group’s way of doing things ?