Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Why would anyone join a cohousing group?

[John Major (jmajor]

Hoooeeee! How I do love this online community... Online "communities" are no
substitute for the Real Thing (as the Work of CoHousing has taught me), but
the wired version has plenty of the intimacy, astonishment and wisdom of the
Real Thing, so hey - and it'll give me lots of advice about how to lay out my
Common House kitchen, besides!

As usual, some of the "village elders" spoke up, with calm and considered
voices that cut right through the noise. I think Rob S. and Stuart's screeds
on "Why I Live in CoHousing" will go right into our marketing packet, along
with the original question, which does a great job of summarizing the normal
concerns that many folks have. Thanks, all, for the thoughtful words. I just
want to add a few more comments. 

Stuart Staniford-Chen wrote:

> I am not exaggerating when I say that what I have learned has allowed me
> to transform my workplace from being rather dysfunctional to being quite
> effective.  My workplace now makes all decisions in consensus meetings
> with a facilitator and a notetaker.  We have a clear overall sense of
> our goals and we pay regular attention to whether we are on track to
> achieve them.  People work together and co-operate rather than working
> on separate parts of the project and blaming each other when the parts
> did not fit together.  Better process has directly translated into
> greater effectiveness (and, incidentally, into more pay and prestige for
> me).

This is absolutely true - CoHousing groups, before you have moved in, MUST
develop excellent meeting skills, otherwise you lose members from boredom and
pissedness. For example, sometimes we have a general meeting where we get
sloppy, and don't put timings ("15' for this, 25 for that...") next to agenda
items - and find that this *always* results in a boring and annoying talkfest,
where we don't accomplish what we set out to do. Had one last Saturday, left a
terrible taste in the mouth, and a lot of undone biz - thank heavens there
were no new members there that day! 

So in my experience, my CoHo group has vastly superior meeting skills to any
group I've met in the business world. And I have taken what I've learned and
applied it to that world with great success (my work environment, like
Stuart's, is the computer engineering world - filled with many highly
intelligent people with poor social skills - bad meetings are particularly
prevalent, and even more annoying!).

And if I may wax misty-eyed, I'd like to say that CoHo gives you the rare
opportunity to experience real Democracy - one Vermont Town Meeting after
another...


John Major
Wasatch Cohousing