Cohousing-L Mailing List: ZEGG workshop

[mtracy (mtracy]

ZEGG (Zentrum fur Experimentelle Gesselshafgs Gestaltung) will be hosting a 
weekend workshop Friday Oct 7 through Sunday October 9 in San Francisco.  The 
workshop costs $140.  Vegetarian meals are provided.  Call Bill Cerf at 415 
664-0434 for details.

News about ZEGG appeared several months ago on this mailing list.  For those 
of us who don't have gophers handy, here's a simplified account.

ZEGG started about five years ago in the Black Forest, Germany.  There are 
about one hundred members plus twelve children.  About half of them each 
contributed about $5,000 at the start.  This money bought a fifty-room 
mansion and food and expenses for two years.  During this time, the original 
members pledged to live together, without outside work or distractions, and 
with the sole intention of getting to know each other.

During this time, they experimented with numerous techniques for breaking 
down personal barriers.  Techniques which might be used for 15 minutes in a 
typical self-growth workshop, were used for days at a time.  At the end of 
the two years, almost everyone was still a member, and working techniques for 
encouraging connectedness and avoiding conflict had emerged.  The group, 
which seems to be able to raise large amounts of money at a moment's notice, 
bought the entire 40 acre East German Secret Police training camp, and moved 
there.

Since then, they have supported themselves with large summer camps devoted to 
music and applied sociology, and some large-scale ecological inventions.  
During their two-year development, they decided to share property and income. 
They also became musically and sexually sharing.  Their model of sexual 
sharing is that if Bill asks Sally to sleep with him and she wants to, she 
will, and that will be fine with George, who slept with her last night.  If 
she doesn't want to, that will be ok with Bill.  If Bill and George both want 
to sleep with Sally and she wants to, they all will.  If Sally chooses to 
sleep only with Bill, and if the group feels the loss of her attention and 
energy, she may be questioned or challenged.  This is not to be confused with 
the Kerista model (if it's Thursday, you must be Thelma).

It is part of ZEGG's current agenda to reach out and grow their community.  
This workshop is apparently part of that outreach.
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Martin Tracy        mtracy [at] netcom.com       Los Angeles, CA