RE: Shared values cohousing: An example and a process | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (floriferous![]() |
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Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 17:35:06 -0700 (MST) |
There is a Mennonite based Cohousing group in Seattle. They are organized out of the local church, which is a couple blocks away. I assume any openings are simply announced in the church meeting, or church newsletter and thus only those in the Church fill openings. As I understand it, many people in the church are interested and so filling any openings is not a problem for them. This religious based group got some pretty negative feedback from some folks in the cohousing movement and so these folks pretty much just keep to themselves. In some places that I have been, certain values have been the cause of considerable community conflict because people who formed the group started with what they thought was a clear values statement and later joining members either had a different notion of what the value meant, or ignored it when joining, figuring it really did not matter. Sometimes, late in the process, in order to "sell" the final units, values get soft pedaled, or jettisoned. Later, the divergence on key values can cause considerable unhappiness and process time. One of my teachers once expressed the opinion that groups with the fewest common values had to spend the most amount of time in meetings. Values Clarification is a good process to work on at any time. One way to do this is to take one of the groups values, for example, live lightly on the land, and brainstorm up all the ACTIONS which define that value. Actions can be seen or measured. They are things you actually do, not what you believe. Then post all of the ideas up on sheets of paper and have people make a mark on any which they are NOT willing to do. A mark is anonymous, or you can have people put their name on it. Whatever is left which is unmarked are pretty clear definitions of what the value means, and it is reasonable to expect people to actually do. Those with lots of marks are a pretty clear *NOT* expectations, and those with a couple of marks are worth exploring further, getting into the why and whatsit. Some groups define accepted expectations are any which are not rejected by at least 1/3rd (or other fraction) of the members. This way, one anarchist member, who demands there be no expectations, and who marks everything does not kill the process for the rest of the group. This process can be run in less than an hour, and gives you a pretty good understanding of what is reasonable to expect from people you live with. You can also do the marking part outside the meeting by creating sheets and giving them to everyone to mark. Then of course somebody has to do the tally work, but with this method, that is not too hard, since what will be left will be the non-excluded expectations. Rob Sandelin Community Works! _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
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Shared values cohousing Fred H Olson, November 27 2001
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Re: Shared values cohousing George and Rosannah Stone, November 27 2001
- RE: Shared values cohousing: An example and a process Rob Sandelin, November 29 2001
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Re: Shared values cohousing George and Rosannah Stone, November 27 2001
- Re: Shared values cohousing Sharon Villines, November 27 2001
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