Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Categories & guidelines for emails to groups within the community

[R Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

Cornerstone started out with “Residents” as its primary community email list.  
Over time, Residents accumulated a mix of messages for community business, 
recommendations for hairdressers, and commentary on the Cambridge DPW — so the 
agenda for plenary got surrounded by discussions of noisy teenagers.  To help 
isolate the community business wheat from the general chaff, we eventually 
adopted a new community business list, “Key”.

“Residents” remains available for everything else … although some members 
believe that we previously agreed Residents is unsuited for political (or 
religious?) discussions.  Some members constrain email overload by not 
subscribing to Residents.  I have heard rumors that some members auto-block or 
auto-delete messages from other members from whom they wish especially not to 
hear.

What community business?  We divide our community business mostly among plenary 
(“General Meeting”, for which “Key” is a proxy) and seven standing, chartered 
committees with powers, duties and budgets — like “Repair”, “Community Life”, 
etc.  Each committee has its own email list.  Anybody can sign up (or opt out) 
for receipt from any of these lists, and even if not receiving, is also 
empowered to *send* to any list.  (In some respects, we’re a community of 
libertarians.)

Additionally, we seem to maintain two or three dozen lists for experimental 
groups, temporary task forces, abandoned committees, occasional topic meetings 
(like “Bikes”), etc.  For reasons best understood by others, we remain 
reluctant to discontinue such lists, although many or most of these lists are 
unknown to, and unused by, most of the membership.

Certain email controversies will simmer underground for months or years, and 
then suddenly re-ignite and flame out once more.  My personal view is that the 
complaints of “Too much email!” are sometimes a mask for resentment of messages 
containing questions that are too hard, or facts that are too disruptive.  But 
on the whole, I think our Cornerstone email system serves its purposes well 
enough.  We could invest in improving it, but in my view, we have more 
important fish to fry.

———————————
Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On May 14, 2025, at 10:31 AM, Lisa Kuntz via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> I'm curious about what categories other coho communities have for internal
> email groups that go to the entire community.
> 
> Some of our groups are very clearly defined, others need clarification.
> Confusion around how to use these categories and the absence of email
> guidelines specific to each group creates conflict and bickering! Ugh.
> 
> 
> Some of us love email, some of us hate it (the fewer, the better).
> 
> Sharon, I’ll bet I’ll hear from you!
> 
> 
> 
> Groups we have that are clearly defined
> 
>   -
> 
>   Board of Directors
>   -
> 
>   Homeowners Association
> 
> Groups we have that are not so clearly defined
> 
>   -
> 
>   RESIDENTS (Announcements Only): The group contains current residents
>   living at Daybreak
>   -
> 
>      Membership: All residents (people that currently live at Daybreak)
>      -
> 
>      Who can post: All members of the group
>      -
> 
>      When to use: Important announcements that affect all Daybreak
>      residents
> 
> Examples:
> 
>   -
> 
>   Plenary meeting minutes and agendas
>   -
> 
>   Changes to common area usage or availability
>   -
> 
>   Meal program announcements
> 
> 
> 
>   -
> 
>   SHARING: an opt-out group that contains residents and non-residents
>   (landlords, e.g)
>   -
> 
>      Membership: Varies, members can join or leave this group on their own
>      at any time
>      -
> 
>      Who can post: All group members
>      -
> 
>      When to use: All non-business announcements and discussions
> 
> Examples:
> 
>   -
> 
>   Requests for assistance
>   -
> 
>   Out-of-town notifications
>   -
> 
>   Impromptu social gatherings e.g., happy hour
>   -
> 
>   Announcements about non-Daybreak community events and activities
> 
> Most of the confusion is about email guidelines for different types of
> groups, especially Sharing.
> 
>   -
> 
>   Do you have the same guidelines for every group? If so, what are they?
>   - Do you have any group that might be used for Op Eds and
>   informational/educational emails about cohousing philosophy, e.g.? This is
>   not of interest to everyone.
> 
> 
> Lisa Kuntz
> Daybreak Cohousing
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> 
>