Cohousing-L Mailing List: COHOUSING-L digest 24

[Jake Morrison (jakem]

Keith, read this if you have time for a laugh. The reference to a
closing ceremony involving esoteric religious practices has to do with
the closing cerenony of the last North American CoHousing convention,
held in Boulder last fall. Some attendees objected to the 'New Age'
closing ceremony. Other references should be obvious but maybe not.
  Jake


On Sun, 31 Mar 1996 16:26:15 -0600, cohousing-l [at] mtn.org wrote:

>                           COHOUSING-L Digest 24
>
>Topics covered in this issue include:
>
>  1) Press Release
>       by Buzz Burrell <72253.2101 [at] compuserve.com>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: 31 Mar 96 17:15:27 EST
>From: Buzz Burrell <72253.2101 [at] compuserve.com>
>To: CoHo List <cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org>
>Subject: Press Release
>Message-ID: <960331221527_72253.2101_EHJ75-1 [at] CompuServe.COM>
>
>                       **PRESS RELEASE**
>       NORTH AMERICAN COHOUSING CHAMPIONSHIPS ANNOUNCED
>
>April 1, 1996
>Boulder, Colorado --
>
>The Rocky Mountain Cohousing Confederation is pleased to announce the First
>Annual Cohousing Championships.  The event, timed to coincide with the other
>Olympics to be held in Atlanta, will pit the top teams from around North 
>America
>in the classic cohousing challenges, to determine who is the best cohouser.
>
>According to Zev Spaiss, President, guru, maeven, and man-about-community of 
>the
>RMCC, "It is important to foster greater cohousing skills by coming together in
>the spirit of community whereby there are many ways of doing things considering
>everybody has a piece of the truth regardless of the outcome because the 
>process
>is the most heartfelt thing I have ever experienced in my life."
>
>Debbie Barrens, another stalwart board member, offerred, "Since all of us on 
>the
>RMCC Board are independently wealthy and have nothing else to do with our 
>lives,
>we felt we needed to produce another event now that the National Conference is
>moving to wetter pastures".  She further added that many of the visiting
>attendees that have been hosted in local cohouser's homes would like to come
>back to Boulder in order to see their new babies for the first time. 
>
>The awards ceremony will be especially memorable.  3rd place teams will be
>awarded Bibles for all participating members;  2nd place recieves a set of
>guided meditation tapes.  The first place award will be free Sufi dancing
>lessons.  Katherine ...Catherine? Kathy..Cathryn?... Whatever Lorenz, RMCC 
>Bored
>member and statistician coordinator, said "We wanted to give people something
>everyone will feel completely comfortable with".
>
>In order to not offend anyone or cause controversy, the Closing Ceremony will
>consist of everyone doing 1,000 prostrations before a Haitian Voodoo king while
>drinking goat blood, channelling ancient dieties, visualizing tantric sex
>rituals and reciting the entire Urantia Book.  Naked. 
>
>The competition will consist of the standard cohousing events.  In keeping with
>the true spirit of coho, all events are for groups only;  there is no 
>individual
>ability recognized or desired.  The main events are:
>
>"Longest Single Meeting" - Food breaks acceptable, as long as it's either cheap
>pizza or chinese;  at least 50% of the participants must be in a conscious 
>state
>at the end.
>
>"Most Overall Meeting Time" - Starting with when a group formally chooses a
>name, to when they actually occupy their dwellings;  expected to be hotly
>contested.
>
>Since larger groups clearly have an advantage, numerous other events have been
>included in order to be fair.  Nyland Community lobbied hard for "Longest Time
>Spent Designing a Kitchen", but was overruled as it was obvious no one else
>would even bother to enter.  Instead the following will be contested:
>
>"Architecture:  Most trouble spent making identical houses somehow look
>different".
>
>"Decisions:  Longest time spent wrestling with a single issue".  (Time must be
>in years in order to qualify for entry).  
>  
>"Cost:  Biggest difference in the higher price of coho units compared with
>identically built single family houses in the same neighborhood".
>
>"Pets:  Most virulent discussion".  Ruthless insinuations score 1 point each,
>crying fits score 2, hysterical accusations count 3 each, long term members
>quitting the group score 5, and lifelong friendships severed forever score 10
>points.
>
>All groups will have to document their entries with Decision Logs and Meeting
>Notes.
>
>Since grace and style are important, but are often overshadowed by the power 
>and
>endurance events, the following category has been included for the female
>viewers:
>
>"Most number of words used to describe a single decision".  Judges will award
>style points for the following:
>1. Use of words that do not appear in any dictionary
>2. Ability to combine totally incompatible opinions into a seemingly consensual
>decision
>3. The most members who don't understand the outcome
>4. The most number of members who can't remember what the question was
>Qualifications for entry - Decisions must take up at least three single spaced
>pages, deciding such subjects as "How to calculate membership dues for toliet
>paper usage".
>Additional style points will be awarded each time the following words are used:
>
>integrated; options; organizational; flexibility; systematized; culminating;
>optimum;  programming;  concept;  transitional;  time phase;  sychronized;
>over-arching;  attuned.
>
>Special bonus's will be given if these are used in conjunction, such as:
>"The integrated options time phase programming concept will commence next
>meeting".
>
>Every Olympics needs a systematized culminating optimum event, and the North
>American Championships are no exception.  The final day of competition will
>feature:
>
>"Consensus:  who can make the fastest decision".  This grueling and intense
>event pits the top coho teams from around the country in a process-to-process
>battle.  Each team, which must consist of at least 5 members, will be asked a
>single question at the same time.  The first group to come to a consensus wins.
>The decision must be related to the question.  Agreement to "let's end the
>meeting NOW" won't count.
>
>Full media coverage will be present.  Due to European broadcast rights, this
>event will take place at two in the morning.  Newbies will not be allowed;  
>this
>is for well-trained veterans only.  Contestants must sign a waiver of 
>liability.
>Groups that vote are banned.  Groups that have no training, experience, or no
>real concept of what consensus is, are of course heartily welcomed.
>
>The question for the inagural 1996 Cohousing Championships will be:
>
>"What is cohousing anyway?"
>
>
>For more information, contact:
>
>Buzz Burrell
>72253.2101 [at] compuserve.com
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of COHOUSING-L Digest 24
>****************************
>


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<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
<Jake Morrison          jakem [at] Synapse.net        Terra Firma Housing>
<769 Bayview Dr.; Constance Bay, Ont, K0A 3M0  voice: (613) 832-1458>
<BBS: MindBender's BBS       FidoNet 1:163/112        (613) 832-4097>
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