Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Getting things done

[Cheryl Charis-Graves (ccharis]

On 8/15/03 12:31 PM, "Sharon Villines" <sharon [at] sharonvillines.us> wrote:
  
> Does the process of getting things done, like capital improvements or even
> repairs, ever get easier? Faster? Less laborious?

This is a delayed response to your question. And really, this is such a big
and ongoing topic. I think it could be a regular feature in the cohousing
journal.

I'll answer with an example. We've been completed since '97. A section of
our carport lighting recently went "dead." First, it took a few days for
people to really notice. Then, a question went out to the group as a whole.
"Anybody know anything about the carport lighting?" Then, we had some
troubleshooting, first from the guy who knows a lot about fixing and
building "stuff." But he's not an electrician. He spent a couple of hours
checking boxes and breakers and sensors and such. He thought there was a box
somewhere, maybe in someone's house or carport, that went to the carport
lights. One resident checked her crawlspace. Another checked her carport.
Then another. Voila! The third place we looked. A couple or three weeks have
passed. Then we had the box, but still no answers. We had more
troubleshooting, first from our designer, who is also a homeowner. Then from
another homeowner, who has acquired informal electrical knowledge from
working with his brother. No luck. Another couple of weeks pass. I am the
council member responsible for oversight of "grounds" issues, so I decide we
need an electrician. I authorize and delegate: please find an electrician,
you're okay to spend up to $250. A few phone calls to find the electrician
and also to arrange someone to meet him on-site. Two weeks later, a very
nice man shows up with the right tool. He finds and replaces the bad
breaker. We have lights in the carport.

Time from identification of problem to repair: 6 weeks
Number of comm'ty people involved in repair: 7
Number of communication "exchanges" to accomplish repair: estimate 20-30,
including phone, email, in person
Comm'ty person hours consumed: about 8, spread out among several people
Electrician's hours: (bill not received yet) < 2 hours @ $65/hr

In a traditional townhome situation, I would have called "the super" and
been upset if it weren't done within the next week. If I were a traditional
homeowner, I would have done my own troubleshooting for whatever amount of
time I could tolerate, then called an electrician ? or possibly ignored the
problem altogether, depending on my priorities.

> I think we blame having to reach consensus when the real time blocks and
> energy drainers are:
> 
> 1. getting full and accurate information from contractors,
> 2. communicating it clearly to team and community members, and
> 3. expecting everyone to understand how to do this.

In this case (though examples are always situation-specific), consensus was
almost irrelevant. I have purview over the relevant budget line item because
of a previous consensus decision. I was the only person who had to
understand the need and authorize the remedy. And I kept track of "the
process." Our path to the remedy was somewhat circuitous. And I think it
always will be in cohousing, unless we hire an on-site maintenance person
who just handles stuff like this. By handling it ourselves, we spent comm'ty
volunteer time (currently estimated at $10/hr for a total of $80) instead of
payment to a part-time maintenance person to handle it as part of his/her
job description. We cooperated, we eventually solved the problem, and we
were able to be patient while we waited for our process to occur.

We are currently working on developing awareness of these mundane,
undesirable tasks for which no one has a real "affinity." As a comm'ty, we
value maintenance tasks and capital improvement projects and working
together very differently. I think it is really a general problem in our
current cultural climate of trying to do too much "stuff" without attending
thoughtfully to what brings us alive. Everything comes with a "price" of
some kind. 

Sorry for length. A simple answer was not sufficient, apparently!!


-- 
Cheryl Charis-Graves
Harmony Village Cohousing
Golden, Colorado
http://www.harmonyvillage.org



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