Cohousing-L Mailing List: bio and question

[Beccareid (Beccareid]

Dear Coho friends

After being a lurker for a month or two, I guess it's only right to make an
appearance--here's my bio.

 Name:  Rebecca Reid

 Birthdate:  10/10/43
 
 Marital status: single

 Family  My daughter Sarah lives with her little boy Zane and her cat Cricket
in a small apartment in my walk-out basement 

 Education:   BA Marlboro College, 1969, Comparative Religion and Psychology;
 MA Antioch New England 1972 Elementary Education;  Ed.D. Univ. of Mass,
Counseling Psychology.

 E-Mail: Beccareid [at] aol.com

 Home Address:  120 Pulpit Hill Rd, Amherst, MA 01002-4006

 Community (if any):  Pioneer Valley Cohousing alias Cherry Hill
      Cohousing/alias ?
 Location:  Amherst, MA
 
 Stage of Development:  occupied a year ago and running fine.

 What I do for money:  Couples therapy, individual therapy, therapy
groups-Psychosynthesis moving in the direction of eco=psychology.  What I'd
like to do--work ing a bookstore in the winter and a garden center or organic
farm in the summer and do some kind of environmental work that would really
make a difference.

> What I do for fun:  biking, hiking in the mountains, talking to people and
getting new ideas, learning new things, especially ways I can make what I use
and live more sustainably, reading,  playing with my grandson.

 Favorite thing about community:  Two things--1. as a fairly shy person I
like how it provides opportunities for interaction that don't take lots of
effort and feel fairly natural.  2. It makes me stretch, question all my
habits and assumptions and has given me a fine tuned appreciation of the
amazing creativity of collelctive minds and the real beauty of concensus
process.

 Worst thing about community: Everything takes so long!

 If I was in charge: I would: teach everybody basic comunication and conflict
resolution skills so we can stop misunderstanding eachother, mis reading each
other's motives, and saying things that get a result that's the opposite of
what we want.      
 
And now as a bonafide member of this list, I have a question to ask of the
communities that are built:  Do you have a bulletin board?  how is it
managed?  what is on it? does it work as a central communication spot?  We
have one that is often the subject of controversy--some people love it, some
never look at it because it's too hard to wade through, even though it is
fairly well organized and cleared--any bulletin board might take too much
time.  Some people like it for environmantal reasons (less paper used), some
always want the posted items in their community mail box anyway (more paper
used).   Some people feel that a bulletin board is a measure of the
liveliness of a community, some people think it's taking up space that could
be used for artistic display. Has anyone else run into this kind of question?

thanks
Rebecca