RE: keeping track - time as well as $ | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com) | |
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 07:53:27 PST |
> Would be interested in how other groups handle this. At Sharingwood, where 10 households have now lived together for a couple of years we discovered that we don't need any time keeping system. The work needed is listed on a sheet and people volunteer for what they want to do with no expecatations. So far everything that is important has gotten people signed up. Of course, this is not a system where everyone has to put in exactly the same amount of work, but we found that's ok. Some people have more energy to give than others and this varies from time to time depending on life circumstances. For example one of my neighbors has been having some difficulities with her son and school. She has spent her energies focusing on him for the last couple of months and participating little in community work activities. This is ok, she knows she can participate later, and no one is on her case about it, and most importantly, she feels no "group guilt" about meeting her family needs first. >From my experience groups that demand "equal participation" tend to lose members who can't or won't put cohousing above their personal, family or job needs. This is an especially acute delemma with families with young children. It is almost impossible for someone who works full time, with two small children to attend hours and hours of meetings. It's also a pretty unreasonable expectation on parents, especially if high quality childcare is not happening. Through my work with the Puget Sound Cohousing Network I have heard four groups express regret at losing parents with small kids because the expectations and demands made of the members were more than the parents would endure. One of the common situations is that the person or people who startup cohousing tend to be driven, work a holic, highly self motavated people. This is the way it has to be, as you need at least one, prefferably three such people to see a project through. The mistake, in my opinion, is to expect EVERYONE to be that way. You lose good people that way. It is important to have enough support so the highly energetic core doesn;t get burnt out, frustrated etc. One good way to get a handle on this is to do a priorities ranking of your membership. Give everyone an index card and have them draw a line across it. On the left side, put a 1 on the right end of the line put a ten. Then have people turn the card over and write down the top 5 priorities in their life. When that list is done, have them rank those things on the 1-10 scale on the other side. Then share those cards with each other. It is really valuable to understand what peoples priorities are, as it helps you set realistic expectations. It is very unrealistic to expect someone to put in an enormous amount of time or effort into something that is low on their priorities. Sorry I tend to be long-winded about stuff, comes from being a writer. If you think this is of value you can post it to the list.
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RE: keeping track - time as well as $ IAN_HIG, January 23 1994
- RE: keeping track - time as well as $ Rob Sandelin, January 24 1994
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