Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Fred H Olson (fholsoncohousing.org) | |
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:14:39 -0700 (PDT) |
Philip Reitz <reitzphilip [at] gmail.com> is the author of the message below. It was posted by Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> due to being html only. Also I removed excessive quoting. Please quote only passages needed to provide context. -------------------- FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS -------------------- This topic is incredibly interesting, so I've given it some systematic thought. I have reviewed my own 32-unit community -- or more precisely, 31, since one unit has remained empty in the clutches of a dysfunctional estate for two years -- and find as follows: HIGH PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENT: 15 units, 48%. Defined as regular appearance at the monthly General Meeting (GM); additional pro-active committee work of one kind or another; and reliability for chores and special projects. Includes a pretty good mix of founders and newcomers. MEDIUM: 10 units, 32%. Sporadic appearance at GM, or selective engagement in committee work and projects; pretty reliable for chores. LOW OR FAILED: 7 units, 22%. Semi-reliable on chores, little visibility or initiative elsewhere. I decided to include the unsold, unoccupied unit among the failed. So actually, this was a somewhat more favorable report than I was expecting: I would say that our continuing participation rate, after 10 years with the usual turnover, is not so bad. Statistically, we seem OK, but going beyond the stats, there are still some problems, at least as perceived by me ... UNRESOLVED INTERPERSONALS: Some households refuse to engage with others because of unresolved interpersonal tension. Yes, there's pretty good participation, but on specific issues or for specific Committees, there continues to be quite a divide in that participation. Backchannel manipulations often substitute for candor in open meetings. Well, so what else is new? I guess I want to believe cohousing is better than your father's condo ... COMMITMENT TO THE STATUS QUO: Despite credibly (?) high participation rates, the outcome of participation is often the status quo: Do nothing, change nothing is the final conclusion of much of our dialogue. Clearly, the founders think things are pretty much fine the way they are, and new ideas or critiques are regarded as disruptive. The creative energy that necessarily characterizes the invention of a cohousing community readily degrades into a defensive posture adopted by successful creators. This ties back to ... CLIQUES: Don't mean to be grouchy, but I must say that my cohousing community has turned out to be the worst example of in-group / out-group syndrome that I've encountered since high school. In other words: Participation quantity is more or less OK; participation quality needs some work. R Philip Dowds Cornerstone Cohousing Cambridge, MA
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing, (continued)
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Sharon Villines, August 13 2011
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Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing R Philip Dowds, August 13 2011
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Wayne Tyson, August 15 2011
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Sharon Villines, August 15 2011
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Fred H Olson, August 15 2011
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Fred H Olson, August 16 2011
- Developmental stages of cohousing Charles Durrett, August 24 2011
- Re: Developmental Stages of Cohousing Dane Laverty, September 17 2011
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