Cohousing-L Mailing List: Income levels, jobs and stability

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

It is my experience, and belief from that experience, that the vast majority
of people living in Intentional Communities of any kind are excellent
people, highly motivated and very functional. The tiny percentage that are
not so are the ones which create the most dysfunction within communities of
any kind. If I were to create an artificial dysfunctional scale, it would be
consistent with my experiences that the most dysfunctional people did not
have job histories which most banks would consider for a mortgage. Thus, the
mortgage process is a screen for those communities that require such. It
only screens out the MOST dysfunctional however.

There are lots of high integrity, wonderful people who do not have a job
history that a bank would consider either. So unfortunately they get
screened out by income barriers. If a community does NOT have an mortgage
barrier screen, they will want to have some other process to evaluate and
screen the emotional, motivational, social abilities of their membership. Or
have a quick and easy exit process in place.

Income, jobs and stability are NOT the only measure for evaluating members,
but, there is a level of social competence required for most jobs, and so a
person who has held down a job with some social contact for a few years
tells you something about the person. I would be extra careful in
interviewing a prospective member who has a history of drifting to a new job
every 5 or 6 weeks. there are attributes of personal responsibility,
motivation and attitude which are important for intentional community
success. These same things are important in employment.

For a decade I helped create and attended dozens of communities gatherings
in the NW. It is my experience that there are lots of people moving through
the intentional community movement who, to put it nicely, would benefit
greatly from some personal growth. If your community is designed to teach
and mentor that growth, then you will have no lack of success. However, if
you seek people that are motivated, have positive personal outlooks and a
high degree of personal responsibility, you will need to screen carefully.

This also works both ways. People will also evaluate your forming or
existing community endeavor looking for certain attributes. So if people do
NOT join your particular community, or you seem to only attract a certain
type, it helps to be self-reflective and ask, Why is it that people with
skills and resources don't commit to this community? The key word is commit.
There are lots of people who are "interested" in community. If you scan the
FIC reachbook you would think there would be thousands of communities
everywhere. However, it seems that only a tiny fraction of all the wantabe
community seekers actually have whatever it takes to commit and succeed in
doing this community thing.

Good luck and best wishes on your community endeavors, for we are a
wonderful subset of the great American experiment. May our tribes increase.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com

http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L

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