Re: consequences in community - redux
From: Alan O'Hashi (adoecosyahoo.com)
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2018 07:42:40 -0800 (PST)
While I’ve heard that communities struggle with consequences for HOA rules 
infractions, maybe they are unnecessary if the cultural boundaries are 
established early on. Back in 2005, Rob Sandelin wrote the following note which 
I thought was on the money. Do you think communities are afraid to or 
uncomfortable with facing personality differences and let those conflicts 
fester? On a remedial basis, have you had to come up with consequences?



>> RE: consequences in community
>> From: Rob Sandelin (floriferous [at] msn.com)
>> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 10:16:45 -0800 (PST)
>> In my opinion, based on 14 years of experience living in community and 
>> visiting many others is there is a tragic mistake made in too many cohousing 
>> groups in terms of group work endeavors. The mistake is this, equality vs. 
>> happiness. I think the ultimate goal of any group context should be to 
>> maximize the happiness of its members. This where rules about work time tend 
>> to crash.
>>  
> 
> 
>> I have a partner whose greatest happiness would be to spend 8 hours in the 
>> community garden, weeding, tending plants, etc. She loves gardening and 
>> would do it for hours and hours. If we were going to be equal about it, we 
>> would need to have everybody do the same amount of hours, or cut back on her 
>> hours. Neither course induces happiness.   
>>  
> 
> 
>> I have another neighbor who finds great joy in the presence and mentoring of 
>> toddlers. She dotes on the them, and it is frankly wonderful for her and the 
>> kids. She does not enjoy gardening at all. 
>>  
> 
> 
>> Why is it OK to force her to garden in the name of equality? This makes no 
>> sense to me. She often volunteers to be with toddlers while their parents do 
>> various communty tasks, such as making community dinner. She loves this way 
>> to contribute. Why does it matter how many hours she contributes? She does 
>> what she loves, when she can. She is very happy living here.   
>>  
> 
> 
>> My first advice is to encourage people to find what makes them happy, and 
>> then give them what they need to do that thing. If that means that one 
>> person is doing 8 hours in the garden while another is doing 2 hours fixing 
>> bikes, its OK. Find your happiness, and follow it. Then, clean the toilet 
>> now and again not to fulfill some obligation, but because you want to give 
>> service to your community, and if you do it, someone else can spend their 
>> time following their bliss. 
>>  
> 
> 
>> If there are important things that don't get done, bring that up to the 
>> groups attention and see if they get done. If a regular and needful chore 
>> does not get done, then hire it out. Forcing people to do things out of some 
>> obligation, in my experience, builds resentment. In my community we have 
>> random work parties, that average about once a quarter. During those days we 
>> have lots of fun and we end the event with a party. At our last work party I 
>> laughed more than I have in quite a bit, and a couple of folks, who love to 
>> cook,  made the whole group a fabulous turkey dinner.   
>>  
> 
> 
>> My second advice is to measure yourself, not anybody else. If you are doing 
>> more than you want to, cut back. If you are doing less than you want to, 
>> find ways to do more. If your dad died, your sister has cancer and your dog 
>> has rabies, don't guilt trip yourself. Life in community is a continuum, 
>> measured over several years. If the world is setup at this time against your 
>> participating as much as you like, it will eventually change and you can do 
>> more later.  
>>  
> 
> 
>> You also can not possibly know what are all the life factors that determine 
>> your neighbors presence or absence within the context of community work. To 
>> judge them, invites others judging you should your life requirements change 
>> your time needs. Accept people for where they are, not where you think they 
>> should be and your relationships will be better.   My third and final bit of 
>> advice, find a way to say I love you to your neighbors on a regular basis. 
>> This is easily done as a small act of service and caring, such as a ride to 
>> the airport, chicken soup for someone with a bad cold, making a welcome home 
>> banner when they return from vacation. It can also be present in a warm and 
>> genuine thank you. Before he died we had a neighbor who once a week brought 
>> us wonderful homemade bread, simply his way to say he loved us.  The more of 
>> this that happens, the happier and stronger your community will be.   My 
>> personal choice is to live in a place where people are happy and care about 
>> each other, and if the leaves don't get raked up right away, well....I can 
>> live with that... Oh wait, Bruce is raking them up right now....
> 
> 
> 
> I received an off-list note asking what an example of asset-based 
> consequences might be. After thinking about it, how the 40 Development Assets 
> as applied by the Search Institute could be something like this. If a 
> neighbor has junk on the porch in violation of the HOA rules, rather than 
> sending a letter that says, "clean up your porch or else ..." An asset-based 
> approach would be as a part of community clean up day, one of the tasks is to 
> spruce up porches and rather than singling the offender out, they are 
> included. Maybe there is a reason why the porch is a mess, maybe no money, or 
> nobody to help, in which case, other neighbors would pitch in and help. 
> Rather than catching people doing something wrong, the idea is to catch 
> people doing something good.
> 
> 
> Thx,
> 
> Alan O.
> 
> 
>  
> *******************************************
> Alan O'Hashi - ECOS
> EnviroCultural Organization Systems
> http://www.alanohashi.com/ecos
> Colorado 303-910-5782
> Wyoming 307-274-1910
> Nebraska 402-327-1652
> *******************************************
> 
> 
> From: Alan O'Hashi <adoecos [at] yahoo.com>
> To: "cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> 
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2018 7:54 AM
> Subject: consequences in community - redux
> 
> Greetings CoHousers - I did a quick search about consequences in community 
> and there was quite a lively discussion back in 2005 - lots of war stories, 
> most were interested in substance. At that time, there didn't seem to be much.
> 
> 
> 
> After 11 years, we're going through our community declarations and agreements 
> and are looking for some rules enforcement consequences. I think we figured 
> out about how to deal with junk on porches, yelling and screaming, but not as 
> firm about victimless nuisance violations, like unauthorized alterations to 
> common property, or dogs off leash, or not participating.
> 
> 
> 
> The draft includes consequences that aren't realistic such as kicking 
> offenders out of the common house for a month, monetary fines, banishment 
> from community meetings - although it could be argued that isn't really a 
> punishment.
> 
> 
> 
> Over time, we have members who blatantly violate the agreements, like 
> bringing their dog into the common house, skipping their KP duty, knowing 
> that nothing will be done.
> 
> 
> 
> Since 2005, has your community come up with workable consequences such as 
> those that are more asset-based than actually punitive?
> 
> 
> 
> Thx,
> 
> 
> Alan O.
> 
> 
>  
> *******************************************
> Alan O'Hashi - ECOS
> EnviroCultural Organization Systems
> http://www.alanohashi.com/ecos
> Colorado 303-910-5782
> Wyoming 307-274-1910
> Nebraska 402-327-1652
> *******************************************
> 
> 

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