Re: Movinmg forward with the best info you have in decisionmaking.
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:11:10 -0800 (PST)

On Mar 20, 2005, at 1:17 AM, <normangauss [at] charter.net> wrote:

The trouble with some decisions is that their impact may not be fully
realized until considerable time has passed.

One of the frustrations of living in cohousing is the need to educate everyone. If everyone has a say in decisions, they also need to be educated. This takes a long time. Sometimes the best you can do is hope that no permanent damage is done by short sighted decisions and ensure as much as possible that everyone has the information they need to make informed decisions.

One of the good things about landscaping is that while it takes a long time to get it where you want it, it is reversible. What is much harder to reverse are people's feelings. I know because I run head into them all the time. Patience is not my virtue and I do not suffer fools gladly. The result is that I just have to figure out how to get information to people as best I can, sit quietly when they ignore it (hard), and be sure to keep a list of all the other things I enjoy about living in community.

We are now going on 5 years of being moved in and I must say we are just reaching the point of _everyone_ being aware that there are consequences to ignoring the infrastructure and not planning ahead in maintenance of facilities. People are very used to living in situations where someone else takes care of everything and complaining about it. When they have to do it themselves or it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done or gets done badly for a long time.

I would love to hear from communities that have been moved in 10 and 20 years to see when this gets easier.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, Condos, Cohousing, and Other New Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org


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