Sweat equity: Trust and Community
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com)
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 94 11:49 CDT
 As part of a posting on sweat equity William Johnson  wrote:

>Trust obviously _enhances_ social and business arrangements.  But that seems
>the less important point.  IMHO, it is unwise to structure a system that
>_only_ works when people deny themselves personal advantage for the 
common >good.


A friend of mine, John Affolter, who has lived in and actively promoted 
intentional community for longer than I have been alive told me once 
that the measure of "community" within any living situation is how much 
the people involved can trust each other, and the level of personal 
sacrifice they are willing to make for the common good.

One of the main thing I see people looking into  cohousing are seeking 
is  community.  Yet that word, community, has no real concrete 
definition or criteria.  I just read a rap against cohousing in a 
communities publication where a person was quoted as saying all they 
know about their cohousing neighbors is their meeting style.  This 
person was disillusioned by the  lack of "community".

It seems to me that trust is a key to community.  Willingness to give 
to the community of yourself and your things is another.  Open honest 
communication and a willingness to learn and change make up other key 
ingredients of the bread called community.

Applying all this to sweat equity, it would seem to me that if you are 
spending a lot of time creating and inventing "systems" for tracking 
and accountability of people, then perhaps your time might be better 
spent working on building community instead.  From my experience, many 
of the communes I have visited have a high degree of trust and 
willingness of the members to give of themselves for the good of the 
whole. Their arrangements for sweat equity, or even work relationships, 
are simple and direct and much happens which is never scheduled or 
directed in any way because people see what needs to get done, they do 
it, and they feel great about it because they are willing to give and 
by giving of themselves they are being in community.

Of course maybe cohousing really isn't community, its just a "more 
practical and convenient living arrangement".  And if that quote, which 
comes from some of the leadership of the cohousing movement, describes 
your goals as a cohousing group, I wish you the best of luck getting 
people to commit to anything. It would probably be better just to hire 
help and assess the costs to everyone.


Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Cohousing
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