Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The shelf life of decisions

[Lyle Scheer (wonko]

Lia Olson wrote:
> Okay, I'm not in a Co-housing community, alas, but this whole thread  has been a fascinating one.  What occurs to me is that Co-housing  communities are, apparently, not static.   The agreements  that are codified may reflect the values of people that are not even  there anymore.  Not only that, with every new resisident, a new  'organism' representing the whole community is created and a   whole new investigations of rules might be in order.  After all,  the agreements are not reflections of eternal and absolute values, but  of the fallible agreements of current participants.  When the  participants change, the guidelines may well need revising.  
>   
>   Rather than sancitoning and punishing new members who don't relate to  the old rules, it might be worth opening discussion and considering  with real honesty and openess the possibility that revision might be in  order.  If it turns out that a specific rule protects members from  genuine harm, a new resident who participates in the discussion is  likely to be drawn in.  If it turns out that a rule refelects the  aesthetic sensitibilities of someone who is not present and a minority  who of those who are, it might be time to rethink what is really  important. We may not be able to distinguish between  which rules  contribute to genuine community and which merely contribute to the tne  tyranny of those with historical power, but discussion might make us  more aware and sensitive.  
>   
>   I suspect that suspending the rush to point fingers and the commitment  to explore and investiatigate might results in authentic guidelines  that arise from wisdom rather than personal preference.
>   

Interesting.  This reminds me of a book I read a few years ago, called 
_Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies_ by James C. 
Collins and Jerry I. Porras.  Now, this book is about successful, long 
lasting corporations, so it's not really the same thing.  However, what 
I found interesting about this book is that it made the observation on 
these long lasting companies that they had a corporate culture that 
actively drove away people who didn't "fit the mold."

This discussion is an interesting one in that it has touched on the 
points of an evolving community, changing the rules to fit the members. 
 However, I also see processes in place in current co-housing 
communities that attempt to find people who are actively interested in 
"the cohousing way."  In a sense, rejecting those who don't "fit the mold."

This leads me to raise the question, in what areas would you decide to 
evolve the policies, and which would you hold firm, so as not to dilute 
the "cohousing culture" too much?

- Lyle