Re: Tragedy of the commons
From: Robert Heinich (robertenocommons.org)
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:55:27 -0700 (PDT)
John,

Would you post a copy of this agreement?

-Robert Heinich
 Eno Commons Cohousing Neighborhood
 www.enocommons.org
 Durham, NC
where tonight we are having a wedding invitation party for one of former neighbors


----- Original Message ----- From: "John Beutler" <jabeutler [at] comcast.net> To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>; "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Tragedy of the commons


At Liberty Village we have something called a "Mandate" that a team gets
from the larger community which is designed to empower them to get the job
done.  It's typically a fairly structured one-page document that tries to
set limits and define a purpose. I can't say it's a cure-all, but it helps.

Cheers

JAB

No, but simply exercising leadership in a cohousing situation isn't
enough: That role needs some level of authority to make decisions stick,
or you'll end up with teams that make decisions that are repeatedly
vetoed by the community. That's the difference between exercising
leadership and actually being an easy-to-overthrow dictator in my mind:
Having authority while in the position, and using it well knowing that
you can be removed if you don't use your authority wisely.

If every little decision needs to be vetted by a complete community
consensus, it's beyond just inefficient:  it's maddeningly frustrating,
and it burns people out. If you don't like the word dictator, then call
it something else--but delegate real authority to that person or team,
and make sure that a single community member can't join a team and
sabotage it and/or harm its efficiency. I've seen that happen in a
community, and I think we've all heard stories on the list of similar
community issues. Burn-out is an oft-mentioned problem in cohousing
participation, and I think lack of real authority of teams is a root cause.

Tim

--
Tim Mensch

Currently at Wild Sage (Boulder, CO): http://www.wildsagecohousing.org

Founding member of Tumblerock, a Boulder, CO area community in its forming
stages: http://tumblerock.org

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John Beutler
Liberty Village, MD
jabeutler [at] comcast.net
http://www.libertyvillage.com/

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