Robs Conference Report | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsan![]() |
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Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 12:59 CDT |
The most amazing aspect of this for me was that we all seem to find ourselves going through the same sorts of issues and difficulties and joys at roughly the same time during our growth and development. Patterns kept emerging the more I talked with people from different communities. I spend all night Saturday, laying awake digesting these patterns and will tell you about them when they crystallize. And also, we are only 3 years old and much wiser than we know. Significant learning's I came away with. 1. The atmosphere of community dinner does a lot to encourage and discourage peoples attendance. Having a Sunday dinner is a way to let the poor 12 hour a day working folks be involved. 2. (This is sort of metaphorical - sorry) If you look at a flower from two feet away it is beautiful. That is our first perception of cohousing the ideal. When you look at a flower from 8 inches away you begin to notice the imperfections, a petal missing, a chewed leaf etc., this is cohousing after you have been together awhile but don't have land yet. When you look at a flower from 3 inches away it can be quite ugly, hairy, scaly and full of bugs. This is cohousing after you have land and are doing the intense development work. The important thing to realize is that it is still the same flower and by stepping back you can see the beauty. As we get into the intense real estate development part it is crucial to create community support, even though you have no time or energy to do this, so you remember and appreciate the beauty. I talked with 4 groups who didn't do this and many were very fragmented and unhappy after moving in. They never really built community along the way, they all expected it to happen once they lived together and were disappointed that it hadn't yet, or that it wasn't what they wanted. In crunch time you need to save at least 10% and put that energy into social stuff - hanging out with NO BUSINESS on the agenda, just socializing. 3. What we are doing is right. For centuries upon centuries we lived in tribes. Our instincts tell us to do this and cohousing is an expression of this. We must spread this to the rest of our society by being the examples of how to live in tribes again. We cannot live in isolation in our cohousing groups, we must gather and share what we have learned. 4. I spent a lot of time talking and listening to architects. (Sharingwood is looking for one to do our second phase). The ones I talked with and listened to are very much building centric. The best designs and designers are people centric. 5. If cohousing is going to grow and expand it has to be made easier. We will need to develop competent professionals to do the hard part (the land development stuff) for us and spent much more time as future residents building our personal relationships rather than being land developers. This is beginning to happen. Rob Sandelin Sharingwood
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Robs Conference Report Rob Sandelin, October 18 1994
- Re: Robs Conference Report Mark Ottenberg, November 10 1994
- Re: Re: Robs Conference Report Roger Diggle, November 10 1994
- Re: Re: Robs Conference Report Rob Sandelin, November 12 1994
- Re: Re: Robs Conference Report Stuart Staniford-Chen, November 13 1994
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