Cohousing-L Mailing List: mission statements

[Kevin Wolf (kjwolf]

At 08:33 PM 12/17/2001 -0400, you wrote:

> Hi,
> A personal note on the semantics of a "Mission Statement"
> I understand the goodness in setting out what a community is about, in
> words, but i balk at the term 'Missions Statement'. It calls to mind the
> spirit of discovering and conquering 'new worlds', of the ickier side of
> star trek, of military operations.
> Might you consider 'Mandate' or simply "We are...". "We want..."
> Thanks,
> Miriam in Peterborough

Basically groups should have simple statements that answer the
Who, What, Why, Where, and How questions. They can join these together and 
craft a traditional mission statement, or keep them separate. It probably 
doesn't matter. Agreeing on simply written fundamentals is powerful.   For 
example a group could come up with the following answers.

Who - we are people who want to live with others who share common values, 
goals and beliefs about family, relationships, politics and the world.

What - we create wonderful relationships and community with people who can 
become like dearest family and while doing this we have more energy to make 
our neighborhood, town, state, world a better place.

How - by living together under the principles and processes of good 
cohousing communities.

Why - to grow spiritually and fully as an individuals, to help those we 
love to grow in these ways as well, to have many people to love, and to be 
constantly expanding our capability to collectively and individually make 
our world a better place for all life to live.

Where - in our homes, our cohousing community, our neighborhood and our town.

These answers could be left as they are or could be joined together to form 
a purpose or mission statement.  (I was taught  the difference is the 
purpose statement answers the same questions except for "how".)

Kevin

****************
Kevin Wolf
N Street Cohousing Community member
724 N St, Davis, CA  95616
530-758-4211
kjwolf [at] dcn.davis.ca.us

To download my facilitation manual or other material on
consensus decision making, visit www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/kjwolf

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