community work
From: Cheryl Charis-Graves (ccharisjeffco.k12.co.us)
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 07:06:22 -0600 (MDT)
What a challenging topic.

I have been thinking about this for all of the four years we have been completed. I'm still not sure what to make of it all.

When we started, I thought we would all figure out what tasks were of highest priority (i.e., necessary for running the community, would cost the community if left undone), do those first collectively, and whatever energy we had for special projects would come second. I had a vague notion about us all splitting up the unpleasant work. That's how couples do housework, isn't it? Nobody LIKES doing it but it has to be done, so we split it up and it gets done.

I thought everyone would take a turn on the various teams, so that no one team was left in the position of begging for members or not being able to get work done due to too little people power. I thought that would make us all better community members because we would understand how all the teams work and be better prepared for decision-making on behalf of the community.

Sadly, I was misguided. People resented the idea that they were "expected" to take a turn on the finances team. They maintained that they hated money stuff, didn't understand it, weren't good at it, so why should they do it. I was so naive. It was a challenge for me to understand the money stuff, and I am not good at it in my personal life. But I thought that was all the more reason why I should make the effort to understand what was going on with our finances team. Especially since there was a common complaint that no one knew or understood what the finances team was doing. I saw it as a task of breaking down the information into smaller chunks that I could understand and organizing it in a logical fashion so it could be understood by anyone. (I thought that would be helpful to the community.)

The community collectively decided that people should do what they feel drawn to and/or what they are good at, out of the assumption that they will do a better job of those things with which they feel comfortable. We've been doing that for over a year now, almost 18 months. That's not working either, in my opinion. The people who have a passion for gardening and focus on that are happy. But the people who get stuck with roof repair are not. The glamorous jobs get done, the ducky ones do not. Or they get done, but very, very slowly. And the people doing them are doing them out of obligation, not joy or passion.

Some jobs are passionless, unless done together.

I personally have had to drop out of the teams. I deeply resented the idea that other people would shrug off a community task because they didn't "enjoy" it. My enjoyment has never been the primary criteria. My sense of commitment to the community has. When I am spending three whole days of the Memorial Day weekend addressing problems with the underground sprinkler system, does anyone actually think I am doing this because I enjoy it? But I did it willingly and I did it well. And truthfully, I enjoyed the feeling of doing something that was important to the community.

Now I choose my tasks differently and I participate less. I now ask myself, Will I enjoy this? If the answer is no, I don't go, don't volunteer, don't agree when attempts are made to recruit me. People have said, Oh you're so good at that. I say, Perhaps but I wouldn't enjoy it.

Still, I'm not completely comfortable with the status of things. I am comfortable with making the right decision for myself. But for awhile, I enjoyed doing tasks that were important to the community. I still don't understand why that isn't true for other people. There is a piece of this I just don't get.

Cheryl
Harmony Village Cohousing in Golden, Colorado
http://www.harmonyvillage.org
 
 
 

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