Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The rugged individual

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

     MMMM, yes Mary, the missing or trashed stuff is a
problem.  It helps that we are a relatively small
community--20 condo style units all stuck together so
whatever has gone missing is never very far away.
     In the workshop most of the shared communal tools
are too BIG to wonder far, table saws, sewing
machines, oversize ladders, etc.  When things aren't
there we knock on doors, starting with the heaviest
tool users first, or put out an email or hang a note
on the common house door (traditional place for
urgent, immediate messages), or sometimes all three. 
It usually works. Smaller tools like the power drill
seem to be the big dissappearers--hence the plan for
personal lockers in the workshop where people can keep
their personal tool stash handy to the work area but
still control it.
    Like right now I'm missing some small casserole
dishes that I used to put leftovers in the Common
House fridge after a common dinner I cooked recently,
because they were the right size and we don't have
many small sized storage containers there.  They went
missing, presumably taken by whoever took the
leftovers.  I will put out an email and hang a copy of
it on the Common House door before dinner tonight and
they will probably come back to me, often left on the
chair outside my front door if I'm not home.
     It helps that we are all on email, DSL is paid
for out of our HOA dues for all of us.  Of course some
folk never check their email, but we know who they
are, and they get the message by the copy of the email
hung on the Common House Door when they come through.
     I think you always have to be willing to let go
of what you lend, things will get broken sometimes,
that's part of life.  If people consistently trash
things folks stop being willing to lend to them in
Cohousing as well as everywhere else.
                       Love,
                    Bonnie Fergusson
                    Swan's Market Cohousing
                    Oakland, CA


                
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