Loomio
Tue 26 May 2015 11:48PM

Are you running a co-housing group on Loomio?

MB Matthew Bartlett Public Seen by 52

I've noticed quite a few groups are using or hope to use Loomio to organise their cohousing group. I thought it'd be really interesting to hear from some groups like that who've figured out really good processes.

One key question facing new people trying to get their cohousing group to use Loomio is: how do you convince your people to switch from their face-to-face process to an online one? What's worked for your group?

E

Eliza Tue 9 Jun 2015 2:24AM

Hi,

I'm Eliza. We are using Loomio for our cohousing group (a small one - five families) based in central Wellington, NZ. We have found Loomio to be really excellent for the work we're doing:

  • it's given us clarity in our discussions and decision-making
  • it's a place where we can post and later find all our research and ideas
  • it's reduced the number of meetings, and made the meetings we have had more productive.

I think a key factor for the success in our group has been that Loomio is pretty much where we have everything - minutes & agendas for meetings; what we've learned from our research; and where we decide things (if not in person). For really detailed documents we usually have a link to a document in Google Drive, but Loomio is the usual access point.

In particular, having meeting agendas on Loomio, rather than by email was good because it is one thing people always check before meetings.

I must say though, that our group are all reasonably IT-savvy, so we haven't had to cross that particular hurdle, which I have encountered with other groups.

It also helped to have one person (me) take on a coordination role (agreed to by the group in a face-to-face meeting). Among other things I have chased up agreed actions, tidied up discussions (when they meander into new territory), set dates for meeting etc.

I'd be keen to hear what others are doing.