Re: TV in the common house - scheduling
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:53:31 -0700 (PDT)
> On Oct 27, 2015, at 5:11 PM, Chris ScottHanson <cscotthanson [at] mac.com> 
> wrote:

> We are thinking about putting a TV in our common house (cable TV came with 
> our central business high speed internet connection) for special events, etc. 
>   We’re talking about only allowing it to be used per a previously approved 
> schedule, which would be reviewed and approved periodically by the "TV 
> committee".  The idea is to avoid temptation to just go in there and channel 
> surf, etc.

We have three TVs— living room, exercise room, and game room where teens have 
priority (the Wii). The living room and game room can be reserved on the 
community  calendar. The living room is usually reserved for PBS series like 
Downton Abby and HBO programs. We don’t have anyone who just hangs out there. 

Children have not been a problem at all with the exception of 8-9 year old 
twins who would sneak in at any opportunity. Their single parent asked that we  
lock the room when they were home from school. There were objections based on 
not wanting any doors locked unless it was really important. Brain damage is 
unlikely to be the result of sneaking in to watch cartoons. We agreed to lock 
the room on an occasional basis. His concern was that he didn’t want the boys 
to believe that they didn’t have to make plans of their own because they could 
just watch TV.

We do have parental controls on the sets. Adults can find the settings on the 
members website and turn them off.

We move the living room TV to the dining room for major events like the 
Superbowl, political debates, inaugurations, Movie Madness (one to two movies a 
day from Christmas to New Years Eve), showing vacation slides, fireworks, etc. 
But now we are also planning to get a projector and screen for the Dining Room.

Meetings move if people want to watch an episode in a series on TV in the 
living room, but we also have a DVR so programs can be recorded easily. People 
record documentaries, for example, and schedule a time to watch it later. 
Documentaries seem to be shown at inconvenient times.

Sometimes when we have a boring event in the dining room, a movie is scheduled 
for kids in the living room.

HOWEVER, we had a long evolution:

1. Year one, Condition of move-in. NO TV IN THE CH NO MATTER WHAT. THE NUMBER 
ONE CAUSE OF THE DECLINE AND TOTAL CORRUPTION OF THE AMERICAN MIND. _THE_ CAUSE 
OF OBESITY.

2. 2-3 years later — Donated TV for “special events” and DVD movies.

3. 1 year later— the interested members paid for cable TV themselves. (Not 
everyone had TV at home and some had TV but no cable.)

4. 2-3 years later — Cable TV included in the operating budget.

5. 3-4 years later — Large flat screen TV purchase out of capital improvement 
funds for the living room and a smaller flat screen for the Game Room plus a 
Wii and other things kids use on TVs. (The game room was also locked until 
recently so teens had to ask for the key.)

6. 2 years later — medium size flat screen in exercise room.

Now we have flat screens, cable, DVD and VHS players everywhere. A DVR in the 
living room. We have also installed an antenna so all the units have better TV 
reception. We live next to train tracks. (I missed the ending of A Good Wife 
for over a year when I decided I didn’t need cable.)

So it took a long evolution to get to the current state and was helped very 
much by new people moving in and thinking we were very odd. New people can get 
lots of things done because they have not a clue what arguments have been had 
against what they see as perfectly normal.

There has been no decline in intelligence, no one hanging out watching TV all 
day (except on snow days), no change in fitness or weight control (not that 
everyone is a slim jim but they never were), and our children’s growth has not 
been stunted. We are still a cohousing community, self-managed, and hold 
increasingly more community meals. We even drink coffee.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org





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