Rumors of our death are greatly exagerated
From: David G Adams (dadamsworld.std.com)
Date: Sat, 13 May 95 22:04 CDT
"BUT I'M NOT DEAD YET"
I did not mean to give the impression that we are nearly dead.  No. No. No. 
 We have been through a lot together, we have a lot of money spent, we have 
a ton of people relative to other groups with no land, we are very committed 
to cohousing, and we love one another dearly.  It's a stressful time in a 
big way, but some form of Cornerstone will survive.  Economics may intrude; 
Realty Reality may force a non-optimal solution.  Even if The Project as 
envisioned currently fails, I expect many of the members to find apartments 
and houses near each other and eventually to buy a common house, etc.

"ASK FOR IT IN WRITING"
Diane Simpson wrote...
> I too, am very sorry to hear about Cornerstone's problems, but, lacking 
> experience in the cohousing development process I cannot offer you any 
> specific advice. My feeling is that you should hang in there and try to 
> weather this latest crisis because you've been through so much as a group
> already. A lot of groups fall apart before they've even put any money 
> into the project, and your group has a significant amount of core members
> Do you have a mission statement? Why do you want to live together? The 
> reason I am asking you this is because, if there was something in your 
> mission statement that said what was your original purpose in forming 
> this cohousing community, perhaps you could use that to clarify your 
> current goals and figure out what you should do in order to stay on track
> towards your original mission.

In response to Diane's question, no, we don't have a mission statement.  
Just a day or two ago I figured out that a vision statement would come in 
mega-handy about now.  

A founding member wrote up a vision statement in one evening sometime around 
fall 1993.  We read it, liked it for the most part, and put it aside without 
official consensus, without modification.  In September 1994, we had a 
retreat where we focused on elements of our shared vision. An ad hoc 
committee put a many hours into molding the group's ideas into a vision 
statement.  The statement this group created was deemed "too generic" and 
given about 5 minutes of discussion at a general meeting.  At this meeting, 
the committee said "we tried, but some people weren't satisfied, and we 
don't have the energy to do something else."  So, we are basically stuck 
with no real vision statement, no easy way to determine what the 17 - 30 
active households are committed to valuing in common.  

THE EVIDENCE:
We do have old survey results, statements agreed upon from architectural 
programming workshops, various draft vision statements, years of shared 
experiences, and a bloody glove.  I don't know how we can turn these diverse 
ideas, documents, and DNA test results into a decision about building now or 
looking for greener [multiple meanings intended] pastures.

TOMORROW'S NEWS
We'll keep y'all informed of major events...  We (They?) will either come 
begging for more folks to join our (their?) community as we (they?) start 
building the place, or we (I) will come begging for hot leads on land 
available inside Route 128 in greater Boston.

Peace,

Dave

_____________________________________________________________________

  |\/\/\/|  David G. Adams           |  Cornerstone Cohouser
  |____  |  U4 Consulting            |  Homebrewer
 OO    ) |  Arlington, MA            |  
 (       |  dadams [at] world.std.com     |  1995 Boston -> New York
  |      |  CompuServe: 72630,1374   |   AIDS Ride cyclist
_____________________________________________________________________
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