Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: CH TV + Simple Wins

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Mar 25, 2013, at 6:00 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> When you stop to think about, opportunities for simplification are nearly 
> unlimited.

Not when you have to educate 75+ users. That is the real stopper. As the 
community grows in size it is harder and harder to keep everyone up to speed 
without literally forcing them to come to a meeting, and holding 3 such 
meetings to cover all the times they can attend, or putting locks on things. 

( Locks I have opposed in the CH in several instances. Like locking the living 
room so kids can't sneak in and watch TV. I just don't think TV constitutes 
such a danger that the only nice comfortable room in the CH should be locked to 
prevent use. Or that this is a problem the parents can't control with a little 
effort.)

This is not just the TV but in all things community. The larger the community, 
the more education becomes an effort and a constant challenge as the turnover 
becomes also greater. I'm more and more convinced that smaller communities work 
more easily. I'm curious to see what happens in Australia with a planned 
ecovillage of 500+ residents that will function in smaller cohousing units. 
(Apparently 500 is one of the estimated number required to sustain all the eco 
friendly services for sustainability.)

BUT back to TV, speaking of sustainability! The suggestion for a programmable 
remote sounds wonderful. I didn't realize that they could be programmed to turn 
on and off all the devices. I have recruited people who are in favor of 
soldering the cables so they can't be moved -- we have a whole TV for gaming in 
another room, with a Wii.

We have thought of plugging equipment into extension cords that lead to 
different electrical outlets strips so each set can be turned on and off at the 
same time but that left us still with the remote. The programmable remote 
solves both problems.

We just installed an antenna for all the units so we could get broadcast TV 
without interference -- we are right next to train tracks -- the Metro, 
Amtrack, commuter lines. Missing the final 5 minutes of the Good Wife for a 
whole season drove me back to cable a few years ago. BUT moving people to the 
antenna was done by promising satellite in the CH. I find cable preferable to 
satellite but DirecTV doesn't charge us commercial rates, which the cable 
people would have.

Who would have thought that TV connections could generate such a long message?

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org