Cohousing-L Mailing List: Group vision/goals

[Nancy Wight (wight]

With all of the discussion here lately about defining group goals
early on, I'd like to know if other groups have encountered anything
like this:

In a conversation with one of our members last night, the topic came
up about people pushing for their own political agenda when that agenda
was never one of the stated primary goals of the group.  This person
said to me, "I don't care what the founders intended.  Our group is
different now".  I did not know how to respond.  Being one of the founders,
I found this very unsettling.

It seems that some of the newer members (people who have joined in the
last two years) somehow feel that our original vision and goals, which
were clearly stated at the beginning, are not *everyone's* visions and
goals, and feel we need to come up with a new vision statement, now
that we have reached full membership. This could be a good idea, as long
as the original vision and goals are for the most part preserved (i.e. we
could agree to add a few things to the stated goals, or to remove something
that no longer made sense anymore).  People were told when they joined that 
these goals represented who group was, and that membership included 
embracing these goals.

I agree that with the addition of members and the passage of time, 
a group must grow with the members and be flexible to change where
necessary, but if we as a *group* started incorporating everyone's political 
agendas we would never get a community built.  Also, since some of the founders
are still in the group, I see this as a breach of faith - that our
vision and goals don't count anymore, even though people agreed to them
when they became members.

I'm wondering if I'm totally off base here, or is this just one of the
hazards to starting a group - that what you could end up with is not what
you intended, despite your efforts to keep the original goals mostly intact.

- Nancy 

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Nancy Wight                                               (508) 659-4974
New View Neighborhood Development, Acton, MA            wight [at] wal.hp.com
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