Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Reinventing the Wheel

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

How much you reinvent yourself is up to you. There are lots of resources 
available so if you do not want to reinvent the wheel, you do not have to. 
(The upcoming summer issue of Community Resources Newsletter has 5 pages of 
resources)  My perspective is to learn as much as I can from what other people 
do, then adapt and combine stuff to make it work with my communities. I have a 
pretty extensive shelf of resources and that often provides enough of a seed 
to get the creative process going from a starting place.

If you want to invent group process from scratch, well ...have fun. If you 
want to invent a social design process, well....Have fun. If you have endless 
time and people energy, these things really can be lots of fun. However if 
your time and people energy has limits, well you might find it becoming unfun 
as people burn out and leave. 

How much time and energy  you have for cohousing depends entirely on your life 
situation. If you are a couple of working parents with small children, you may 
have very little time or energy and will want to apply your limited time most 
effectively. So if you create a community process that makes  large demands on 
time and energy you may be filtering out working parents with small children. 
Or anybody else that has limits to their time and energy. 

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood
Cedar Village Permacultre Retreat Center