Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RE: dues and an experimental structure

[Raines Cohen (raines-coho-L]

"Ruddick, T.R." <RUDDICK [at] edison.cc.oh.us> wrote on 2/28/2002 10:01 AM:

>But on another level we think it might be good to organize a sort of
>"umbrella" organization that could act as central resource/recruitment
>organization for as many cohousing projects as our region would generate.

This is exactly where we're trying to take East Bay Cohousing (EBCOHO). 
Various people have worked through the group, in three prior 
incarnations, without a site in mind, but trying to operate as a 
community trying to build, and found they had to start over nearly from 
scratch each time. An ongoing group could do the educational functions... 
AND help existing local communities (since, in our case, there are six) 
in working together and doing outreach, etc.

>The thought process is that Dayton Cohousing, Inc., would be a cheap
>organization to join and would require little active involvement by most
>members: its function would be to publicize cohousing, recruit, advise,
>consult, promote, and generate cohousing projects but not to actually build
>or maintain them.  It would be run by a small elected board. 

It might be good to use coho-style structures as a way for people to get 
practice with consensus and similar systems, as well as 
instruction/exposure. The challenge is making it so that the constant 
influx of new members doesn't mean the group gets stopped up by people 
inexperienced with the process or needing to revisit decisions; perhaps a 
process where membership is earned after attending for x meetings and 
people earn the right to fully participate / block by some higher level 
of membership commitment.

> Our urban
>retrofit would be the first affiliate; as we go along, others may want to do
>lofts, suburban, rural, cheap, expensive, and other communities.  Each
>community would operate independently.

There may actually be synergies in having communities share professional 
relationships, LLC, and other structures... economies of scale, at the 
very least, if not avoided duplication in effort.

>SO: does this sound whacky to too many people here who have more practical
>experience than I?  Where are the pitfalls that I'm not seeing?  Help help
>help!

Not at all, in my experience. In fact, operating this way makes more 
sense than trying to define a group with high levels of commitment in 
terms of $ without having a site... but you might consider higher dues or 
a tiered model that lets people invest more in the group to get more 
benefits.

This model could lend itself well to turning into a chapter of The 
Cohousing Network. The Network has a couple of existing chapters, but 
they are fairly loosely defined and autonomous... there may be ways, for 
a group that was solely educational in purpose, to operate under the 
fiscal sponsorship of TCN, to avoid having to get its own nonprofit 
status, and to integrate its database of inquiries with TCN's list of 
10,000+ people across North America who have expressed interest in coho - 
as well as providing regional/local updates to the Journal and TCN 
website, etc. I'd be willing to discuss this concept further on or off 
the list with anyone looking to pursue it further... with TCN's Board 
coming up on a face-to-face gathering in Tucson next month, this is a 
great time to flesh out innovative ideas like this and see if there's 
sufficient support / market demand for the group to pursue 'em.

R

Raines Cohen <coho-L [at] raines.com> <http://www.swansway.com/>

  Vice President, Swan's Market Cohousing [Old Oakland, CA]
Where I rushed down early this morning to throw out some smelly trash 
just before our big dumpster was collected from just below my unit's 
window. I was too late, but I realized that it was a nice day, and I was 
dressed and up early, and the dumpster itself was in pretty bad shape, so 
I left it on the sidewalk, put out some traffic cones, went back up 
through the CH to pick up the power washer without disturbing the Yoga 
class in progress in the kid's playroom, zipped back up to my unit to get 
my basement key so I could flip the breaker to  be able to plug in the 
power washer, and again up to my unit to get the container of Big Orange 
cleaner to feed it. I got the dumpster much nicer after about half an 
hour's work, and went to drain it... and found that I'd need a wrench to 
open the drain plug. There wasn't one in the workshop and the gas-shutoff 
wrench was too small, but I ran into one neighbor who found an adjustable 
wrench that seemed like it would do the job while another neighbor went 
to look for one. I couldn't get traction with it, and realized that, 
because we haven't been doing regular maintenance on this, the threads 
were stuck/rusty. At this point, another neighbor saw out his window what 
was going on, and offered the use of his tools, including a crescent 
wrench with pipe extender, and his WD-40 to unstick it. We managed to get 
the dumpster tilted on the edge of the sidewalk/driveway curb cut so that 
the water didn't cover the drain hole and he stepped inside ("I've got to 
shower anyways") to put WD-40 in the drain hole. However, his weight 
caused the dumpster to shift, spilling water back in the hole. Once we 
got that cleaned out and WD-40 put in, he got back out and we managed to 
break his wrench, and then spent another few minutes discussing 
alternative repair strategies, including siphons to get the water out and 
throwing in crumpled newspaper to act as a big sponge. I biked off to do 
some errands and visit the hardware store down the street where another 
neighbor has arranged 10% discounts for all of us, to pick up a big solid 
wrench of exactly the right size. When I came back en route, I saw him 
and his 2-year old daughter trying to open it on their own. I deterred 
them from doing this and am off to the hardware store. (to be continued)

  Member, East Bay Cohousing [site searching] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Adapting to operate as an ongoing "umbrella" educational group, 
supporting multiple site-search efforts and the many built communities 
here.

  Boardmember, The Cohousing Network <http://www.cohousing.org/>
Looking for updates on Communities Under Construction.


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