Re: Re: sliding scale - sharing meals | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Cathy Angell (CathyAngellxtra.co.nz) | |
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 17:23:01 -0700 (MST) |
>One of the concerns that has >been raised is how we would handle someone who consistently "abuses" the >policy. >You have to really let go of this. This is a first - for me to contribute to the List. I have been an avid reader for quite some time - thank you to all! For many years now , we at Earthsong (West Auckland, New Zealand) have recognised the wisdom of building community before we have the bricks and mortar to support it. One of the really important ways we have done this is to share a simple meal before or after our full group meetings, currently held usually every two weeks. Our total membership is approximately 30 people, plus their children of course. (We also provide from group funds for someone to care for the children - enabling parents to more easily participate.) Our meetings have been held in a number of places - supportive tertiary institutes, church halls, the existing garages on our property, under the grapefruit trees at Earthsong ....... Initially we relied on 2-3 volunteer cooks for each meal, with a donation plate for people to contribute $NZ 1-2 to cover costs. This sort of worked, but often the same people would be cooking time and time again, and sometimes the donations would not cover costs, so the cooks were out of pocket. More recently we have grouped into 4 cook teams, of 6-8 people per team, with each team taking responsibility for a meal in turn. It is acknowledged that within the whole group there are those who are already giving heaps of time and effort for the project, and those who have more time available to contribute to our shared meal. There are also, of course, different levels of income. These things are recognised within each cooking team. I, for example, am the Legal Co-Ordinator for the project, and also am trying to keep my own business ticking over. So I have very little time or energy to cook for a meal, but more than happy to contribute either ingredients, or cash to the team to buy them, and I usually help with serving and cleaning up afterwards No money now changes hands, as it evens itself out over time. From my perspective it seems to be working pretty well. Even though we have had the usual difficulties during the pre-development phase, we have always considered the benefits of sharing a meal together to be so important we have persisted, even when it has been challenging. It has also been a great way for us to introduce the project to interested possible new members - invite them to come as observers to our working meeting, and share a meal with us. The result is that we are now approaching the end of the construction phase of stage one (17 of 32 homes, 1-4 bedrooms). The first five households finally moved in during this last month! The remaining 12 units in this our first stage, should be occupied by the end of April. What a celebration that will be! after nearly 7 years in the making! And the homes are absolutely beauuuuuutiful - passive solar designed, rammed earth walls downstairs, with untreated board and batten upstairs. If you would like to know more about us, our website has recently been updated. There is a wonderful collection of photographs. Have a look at www.cohousing.pl.net. With warmest good wishes Cathy Angell _______________________________________________ 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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