Re: developmental stages of cohousing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:04:46 -0700 (PDT) |
On 11 Aug 2011, at 5:31 PM, Rebecca Reid wrote: >> From the side of the "workers" the "livers" look apathetic. From the side > of the "livers", the "workers" look like nags and workaholics. > I wonder if this isn't a developmental stage for cohousing communities I think it might be more accurate to characterize the beginning as a developmental stage — perhaps the first five years is a phase of idealism and Yankee-Do that wears off or gets diluted as members turn over. People also move on to new things — like having children. We had a mushroom cloud of adoptions and births in one year. And aging. The stages of adulthood are very interesting and I would like to see a study in cohousing. I felt a distinct shift when the cluster of people who were 35-40 became 45-50. Less idealism and less involvement in governance but more effort toward projects they personally wanted. Sometimes these were community and sometimes family. At almost 70 I'm feeling very bored with another generation of teenagers acting out and parents being self-righteous because they are defending their children's rights, which of course supersede _everything_. And another generation having new babies who think that nothing else is possible in their lives and they want to take two years off from workshare. I think there are developmental things going on that may be slightly unique in that they are in a cohousing situation but are happening to others at the same ages. (I wrote a textbook that included readings on adult development so I'm familiar with some of this stuff.) When we all moved into cohousing we had different ideas of what it would be. I think the majority wins out on this one because the minority can't do all the work required to carry the less actively involved. And it isn't any fun. I'm beginning to have much more respect for the intentional communities that require a year of living in before they can invest. And for the communities that made rules from the get go about everyone attending community meetings and meals. Those were tangible expectations that gave clearer clues than "we will work this out together." > Maybe meetings aren't necessary; maybe > consensus process is too time consuming; maybe houses can go onto the open > market and whoever comes will be great. The community will still be fine-it > will just be different. It would be different but not live up the expectations that many of us had when we moved in. I have lived in condos, however, where a very cohousing like community develops. No commonhouse but people share their sofas when guests arrive and have potlucks in the yard or each other's homes. One thing I'm finding is that it is impossible to know the new people as well as I knew the old when we moved in. The intensive every week meetings were important. Perhaps we need to repeat that for 6 weeks or so every year. But we do have a period where we have meetings every two weeks in the spring so we have continuity to pass policies. It's a grind. But consensus isn't the problem. It's the requirement for people to pay attention to things they don't want to pay attention to. One reason I like sociocracy/dynamic governance is that the structure makes consensus more meaningful in that not everyone has to participate in every policy decision. And decisions are clearly delineated between policy and operational. Operational decisions are made by the leaders of teams in consultation with the team, not the whole world. Some policy decisions are made by teams as well. The structure allows those who are more interested in the abstract issues of governance to focus on those without dragging everyone else along. Representatives of each team make these by participating in the General Circle. Some decisions can be reserved for the full group. The people who are ma king the decisions are clearly delegated to do it, and there is a mechanism for testing and reevaluating decisions, there is a better mechanism for governance. The maintenance, however, still has to be done. But it is hard to get people to even focus on governance. Takoma Village is not sociocratic. I just talk about it a lot, and we inch closer. People now want delegation but their idea is that you let anyone who wants a job to do whatever they please as long as they don't spend any money, or only spend what has been budgeted. That isn't good enough for me to feel that we will be well managed. Sharon ---- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org
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developmental stages of cohousing Rebecca Reid, August 11 2011
- Re: developmental stages of cohousing Craig Ragland, August 11 2011
- Re: developmental stages of cohousing Sharon Villines, August 12 2011
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developmental stages of cohousing Rod Lambert, August 12 2011
- Re: Developmental stages of cohousing Michael Barrett, August 12 2011
- Re: developmental stages of cohousing R.N. Johnson, August 12 2011
- Developmental Stages of Cohousing Thomas Lofft, August 12 2011
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