Re: Community size
From: R Philip Dowds (rpdowdscomcast.net)
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 03:35:31 -0700 (PDT)
Well, hold on:  Land and buildings together may value at $15mln, but that 
doesn't make you a $15mln enterprise.  Your annual budget is surely in the low 
six figures, and with very few employees, little tax complexity, and mostly 
recurring costs like the annual insurance policy, it can't be a big brain 
buster to manage.  Or shouldn't be.

At Cornerstone, I find that most of our management complexity comes from 
reality denial about "saving money" by "doing it ourselves".   Of course, it 
builds community spirit and saves money when we do our own yardwork and 
gardening.  But somehow, volunteer labor is not keeping up; the yard has turned 
into a nightmare, and we are now interviewing landscape services for seasonal 
help.  Once we have cost estimates and price offers in hand ... then we will 
have many community meetings about how we might or should make a better show 
with volunteer labor.  Maybe it's time to re-invent the yardwork chore system, 
rather than boost the assessment.  Or, maybe not ...  This sort of conundrum 
applies to other things like the gutters or cleaning the refrigerator or snow 
shoveling.  Sometimes we think we can save money by being our own carpenters or 
roofers.

I guess I agree that self-management is very hard when you don't want to spend 
money, don't have enough time, and find it difficult to make decisions.  Even 
for tiny $200K enterprises.

Philip Dowds

> On Sep 14, 2014, at 10:32 AM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi all!
> 
> In re:  The Diligencia
> 
> A little bit the same only different thought from moi — sometimes I sit with 
> my elbow on my knee, my chin crunched on the upturned palm of my hand and 
> ponder:  
> 
> Are we CRAZY?  Whoever gave us the idea we can run a $15 million dollar 
> complex on the very part time work of 65 adults most of whom have full time 
> jobs, some of whom have children at home, are caregivers of elderly parents, 
> new moms n’ dads (very new!), newly weds in their first home … who said we 
> could do this?  How naive were we?
> 
> And then I remember:  Katie and Chuck.  That’s who.  And then I told a bunch 
> of other people what they said. We all believed them.  And now look.  We’re 
> doing it.  We don’t do it perfectly — we have some bumps and grinds.  But, 
> truly, we do a pretty good job maintaining the physical fabric of the 
> community altho’ it often seems a stretch.
> 
> I’m ever grateful for the retirees who devote an inordinate amount of time to 
> the community.  But sometimes I wonder if the Diligencia are also part of the 
> problem?  Maybe if we REALLY retired others would step into the space?  I 
> dunno.  It's a possibility.  On the other hand — because I alway have more 
> than one contradictory opinion at any time — when people don’t participate I 
> just say some folks never really get the taste of the stone.  And that’s 
> their loss.  They never really get the depth and boldness of what it means to 
> live in community with all its warts and bad hair days.
> 
> My two cents on a lovely Saturday evening here in Washington, DC where the 
> air temperature has finally dropped into the 60’s tonight.  (The temperature 
> on Capitol Hill — that’s another story …)
> 
> After I watch this subtitled Danish murder mystery on the International 
> Channel, I’m going to bed and dream about my new iPhone 6+ which I ordered at 
> 2:45 a.m. Friday morning after a frustrating 43 minutes of being bog down on 
> the AT&T website.  I can’t wait to find that app that does the dishes and 
> takes out the trash … 
> 
> Best—
> 
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village
> Washington, DC
> Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church, VA
> 703.688.2646
> 
> 
>> On Sep 13, 2014, at 9:34 PM, Jerry McIntire <jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Indeed it does say it all. Maraiah, that was the funniest thing I've heard
>> in a long time. Made my day.
>> 
>> Jerry
>> 
>> On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 5:48 PM, Kay Wilson Fisk <kwilsonfisk [at] 
>> comcast.net>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Ah, yes, the Diligencia. That says it all.
>>> 
>>>>>> With a larger group, I think some people just figure
>>> "somebody" -- Magic Elves??-- will replace the light bulb,
>>> buy the toilet paper, weed the patio, deal with finances and
>>> legalities, etc. And so far, "somebody" here does attend to
>>> things, though we "somebodies" (a friend calls us the
>>> Diligencia) wish we had more help!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Jerry McIntire
>> Stone's Throw Ecovillage, in the heart of Wisconsin's beautiful Driftless
>> region
>> http://stonesthrowcommunity.wordpress.com/
>> 1-608-637-8018
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 
> 
> 
> Best --
> 
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church VA
> 703-688-2646
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 
> 

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