Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Hiring Out

[Eris Weaver (eris]

> Our current example of this is a decision about how to paint almost
> 200 feet of metal fence that is three years behind on maintenance 

This story of Sharon's reminds me of a not-too-long ago occurance here. 

We had a large area of weeds, mud, a poorly designed swale, etc. that needed
to be re-done. It was pretty much agreed that we should fix it up and not
just leave it in its current state. The landscaping team came to the
community with a proposal to spend a LOT of money on a professional to do
it. (We had the money, so that was not an issue.)

When someone said, can't we just do it ourselves, they replied, 
"Since we are less fit and less skilled than the landscaper's workers, we
estimate it would take EVERY adult in the community working AT LEAST forty
hours to get this done. Because of time constraints (when the grass needs to
be seeded before the rains, etc.) this all has to be done within the next
two or three weeks if we are going to do it this year.  Can we see a show of
hands for how many folks are willing/able to make that time commitment
within this time frame? Also, we estimate it would take X amount of hours
planning, organizing, supervising...and WE are NOT willing to do it. Who
is?"  Not a lot of takers. Then another question about getting another bid.
Again, "We have spent a LOT of time researching, and working with this
company. WE are NOT willing to spend more time. Does anybody else want to do
it? And by the way, if we DON'T sign a contract with him soon, he will take
another job and then he will be unavailable." 

It was approved unanimously. If it hadn't been, we'd still have a weed
field. 
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Eris Weaver, Facilitator & Group Process Consultant
eris [at] erisweaver.info
707-338-8589
http://www.erisweaver.info


fa cil' i tāt: to make easier