Cohousing-L Mailing List: The shelf life of decisions

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

 When a group makes a lot of decisions what can happen over time as new
people move in then some of the decisions get sort of buried in the past. My
own rule of thumb is that if an agreement does not get used for 3 years, it
is worth questioning whether you need it or not. Some agreements become moot
after you learn and experience things, so what you thought was an issue,
really never becomes one. After 5 years, an unused agreement certainly
should be reviewed since in almost all cohousing groups, 5 years represents
a huge amount of new people. Groups grow and change. It is silly to hold one
group of people to rules another group, many of whom no longer live amoung
you, created back in ancient history.  That is not to say that some
agreements do not stand the test of time, some do. But at your five year
community anniversary I suggest examing ALL your early agreements and spend
your fifth year re-engaging your intentions and desires around how you want
to live. Maybe every five years that is a good time frame to examine your
agreements.

I recall visiting a group who made an agreement about setting up their
kitchen to be vegan friendly, with a bunch of special requirements for food
prep. The one vegan, who apparantly insisting on this never actually moved
in, and only a couple people remembered the agreement, and clearly none of
the special food prep was being done. 

If, as a group, you are widely not aware of, or following your agreements,
clearly you have some work do to.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Community, Snohomish, WA
Naturalist, Writer
The Environmental Science School
http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
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