building for community
From: Casey Morrigan (cjmorrpacbell.net)
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:52:07 -0600 (MDT)
It seems tempting to talk about this stuff in the abstract.  I'd like to 
talk about how it has worked here.

We have had a wish list. It has some negative history to it, as some of it 
consists of items that some of us thought would be completed as part of 
construction.  We prioritized it, in a lengthy process that was imperfect 
but that applied the values in our mission statement in a methodical way.

We decided through another lengthy process (cuz we are in cohousing and 
that's what we do) that if someone wanted to buy the community something on 
the wish list, no matter the priority order, they could.  We never did 
reach consensus on the obvious related issue, if we had community money to 
spend, whether it would go to the wish list.  So: no decision.

An off-site member then contributed toward buying a dishwasher for the 
community.  That was great even though it wasn't top on the list. With some 
community money we decided to build an arbor; I can't remember where on the 
list it was or even if it was. Says something about how I don't track the 
wish list, although I could look it up in the decisions binder whenever I 
wanted.

Now we are in the process of deciding to spend money (along the model of 
Tierra Nueva on the central CA coast) on a solar photovoltaic system.  We 
have not yet decided to do it but it seems that a consensus is developing 
and I think it will get the green light at our next meeting. This was 
nowhere on the priority list when we put it together but it has become 
important recently. If we do it, the funding will likely come from the 
community as a whole and it will be the biggest single item that we have 
ever spent money on since construction. We haven't been very methodical in 
knocking off our wish list items.  I don't know if that's good or bad.

I've tried to develop this attitude about our purchases: if I can live with 
it, I go along with it.  It is very hard to reach agreement on things and 
so many of us have felt discouragement in the community in trying to get 
things up and running and getting negative feedback, getting stuff shot 
down. It is hard to have individual intiative here - there is always 
someone to bump up against with a different idea or opposition. This is one 
of the difficulties of living somewhere where you've agreed to consult with 
others on many aspects of your life and built environment.  I do my best to 
say "yes" (or at least a grudging "OK"!!)if it looks like it is going to 
bring joy to someone, even if it is not what I would have picked or even if 
it's not on the group's priority list.  That way we have people invested in 
the community-- joyful people.

Someone recently spoke at a meeting about how much the re-landscape of a 
particular garden section meant to her. I had no idea.  It looked fine 
before (to me) and looked fine afterward.  But I was glad that we supported 
it with community money if it meant so much to her.

I'd be interested in knowing how people in our community feel about money, 
time and other forms of "concentrated energy" as expressed through projects 
completed here.   We have a wide distribution of incomes, of time 
availability for the community, etc. Maybe that would be a good thing to 
talk about at a community meeting.

Casey Morrigan
Two Acre Wood
Sebastopol California

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Racheli Gai [mailto:racheli [at] sonoracohousing.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 9:38 AM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_Power, Money, and Values.
>
>
>
> I see it pretty much in the terms Robert put forth, ie: if
> someone puts
> lots of money into the community, there could very well be strings
> attached, mostly in terms of power unbalance. While there
> isn't a clear
> line between what amounts to a lot of money and what isn't, I
> think this
> distinction is important. I want to comment, though, on one
> point made by
> Robert,
> in reference to a prioritization list: I'm not sure that the
> fact that item A is higher than item B on the list means,
> necessarily, that the group wishes to have item A before
> item B *under all circumstances*.  It could mean that that's
> how the community feels regarding the use of *community
> money*, but that if some other money is found for something
> lower - then this might not present a problem.  I often feel
> that way: Some low-priority items are not something I'm
> dying to have, but if it was really important to someone in
> the community
> to the point that they're ready to shell money
> for it - I'd have no objection.  The group should have a
> discussion, of
> course, to make sure that it's not low on the list because some people
> truly don't want it, and haven't bothered to  comment because
> it seemed
> out of reach anyway.
>
> R.
>
>
> >From Robert's valuable post is this excerpt...
> >Now, it's true that these are things that the whole
> community wants--the
> >question was originally whether a policy should be made to
> "accept gifts
> >but only to fund the items in the VE priority order."
>
> >*********
>
> >Here's what I don't believe I've seen addressed here. Forgive me if I
> >missed it...
>
> >Let's imagine that I have some money, not a lot, but more
> than I need. (I
> >wish that were more than imaginary.) I know my community has
> not raised
> >enough money to get everything on their value engineering list. I
> >certainly don't have enough money to donate the cast-iron
> plumbing for
> >the community, but I would like to donate the patio, which I could
> >afford. I know the reason the community put that choice off
> was because
> >it felt like something they could raise money for in the
> future or try to
> >build themselves.
>
> >Is that a power thing if I get it for them even though it
> wasn't as high
> >a priority as the cast-iron pipes? Is it a power thing if it
> wasn't as
> >high a priority as screen doors? I see the patio as an
> important part of
> >the community and the screen doors as an important part of
> the individual
> >units.

> 


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