Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: work and participation

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

> We are
>conceptualizing "work" in the wrong way. We are treating it like a voluntary
>activity when in fact it is an economic necessity. WorkShare should be
>considered part of the budget and handled by the Business committees, not
>the Social committees.

Some jobs, like accounting and record keeping, are clearly necessities. 
But just as in an individual household, some things get done because 
someone cares about it, whether everybody agrees it's necessary or not. 
I'd love to see our central field in waist-deep "waving fields of grain", 
rippling in the wind. But to others, a tidy mowed lawn is a thing of 
beauty, or they fear allergies or fires or want a big flat place to play 
Frisbee. Fortunately, there are those who love to ride the mower around. 
I do a whole lot of meeting and greeting and answering email inquiries, 
while others think it's nuts to put a lot of energy into potential 
joiners when all we have is resales from time to time. And so on. How 
clean does the common house have to be? 

Our Steering Committee has as part of its task to watch over what's 
getting done and what's falling through the cracks. If we need a Master 
Landscape Plan, and the grounds and maintenance folks don't want to deal 
with it, then we need a Task Force. And if nobody volunteers for a task 
force, we need to look again if enough people really do care about the 
matter. Or it might be something of a sort we could decide to hire out. 
It's about natural consequences: if you say you want to see something 
happen around here, realize that it will take time or money or both. 


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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