Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Snail mail privacy

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

On Jan 11, 2008 9:03 AM, Brian Bartholomew <bb [at] stat.ufl.edu> wrote:
>    Are you really willing to put your underwear up for inspection in
>    the common house laundry?

Absolutely; we even have cards created by a neighbor that let us
communicate to other neighbors our preferences for whether/how they
should move our laundry along to the drier so they can get on with
their wash without delay. This is how cohousing helps us live
healthier, richer, better-supported lives. But the topic is not
laundry but mail (the remainder of this message was written yesterday
before I saw yours, Brian, so it doesn't directly reference it):

On Jan 10, 2008 8:40 AM, Bob Morrison <RHmorrison [at] aol.com> wrote:
>   I would be uneasy about the USPS delivering mail to a master mailbox and
> someone in the group distributing it to per-unit mailboxes. This would be a
> lot of work, and he/she would have to do it on time six days a week. There
> is also a privacy issue.

Berkeley (CA) Cohousing has 1 big mailbox (the old-fashioned kind with
a flag, like Monterey Cohousing does per Joelyn's post) at the
entrance to the common house. Whoever feels like it picks up mail and
brings it inside to our
pigeonhole-style old-fashioned mailslots and either they sort it or
someone else does or several someone elses do.

At Swan's Market Cohousing, where I used to live, we didn't have any
mail slots besides the official individual-unit mailboxes downstairs
outside by the parking lot door, so there was no way to leave
something for someone who wasn't around other than sticking it on or
by their door, exposed to the elements, or to leave it out in the CH
with a note.

This is a community, so the privacy issue is simple: you give up some
of your privacy by getting mail here. The many benefits outweigh
little sacrifices like this. Us knowing little things about each other
from sorting mail actually, IMHO, enhances community connection and
can provide a seed for conversation. And having a place to stick your
dinner napkin for later re-use or leave off errant booties and
personal notes is awfully handy. Plus we can see at a glance if
someone's mail is piling up, or they have a package, or if they're
still using that awful credit-card company that is eroding our
democracy, or if they got that magazine I want to ask to borrow when
they're done, or if we can rib them about getting jury duty over
common dinner - lots of little, fun things that contribute to
community. Some people could care less, while others get into it. For
me, that's one of the secrets of community: people don't contribute
equally, they contribute uniquely... in ways that they enjoy or have
skill at or happen to get to first. Heck, I doubt anybody else
actually enjoys calling catalog companies to get them to stop sending
mail to people who haven't lived here in a decade, but, sometimes, I
do!

It doesn't feel like a lot of work; it's something I enjoy doing when
I happen to be the first one by after the mail is delivered, or with
someone else who happened by sorting alongside, and I also enjoy
coming and seeing it done already. As for "on time" -- what's the
rush? The mail will still be there the next day; not everybody picks
up mail every day in any case.

> How many and what kind of alcohol containers are they recycling
>  each week?

This actually is not easy to tell, as the recycling is all common. We
know who drinks, because they're the ones pouring glasses at our
thrice-weekly common dinners. And more power to 'em, if the latest
health research is to be believed, regarding the life-extending powers
of moderate drinking. We like our neighbors and would love to keep
'em.

If all this is of concern, why choose to live in community? Or in
particular, this sort of community, where transparency can be a value,
and where knowing something about your neighbor, even if learned
inadvertently, where you have a relationship and ongoing connection,
can provide the opportunity for engagement, intervention, support, and
more.

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach
Planning for Sustainable Communities

Happy to be home after an extended stay away... which included a
Sustainability and Community presentation at Eastern Village (Silver
Spring, MD) and a visit with Mid-Atlantic Cohousing regional organizer
Ann Zabaldo at Takoma Village Cohousing (Washington,
D.C.), and a tour of Rossmoor Leisure World, a Beacon Hill
Village-model meeting in Virginia and a visit to see a great-aunt in
an assisted living facility, opening my eyes about Aging In Community
options and got me excited about the potential of senior cohousing to
offer new options

Facilitator, East Bay Cohousing http://www.ebcoho.org/
Encouraging anyone interested in cohousing around here to participate
in a tour like the upcoming bus tour Feb. 2; plus, Dave Wann is coming
to town in mid-February for the Simple Prosperity book tour

Regional Organizer, Northern California Cohousing
where a Silicon Valley Cohousing social at a retrofit community [yesterday]
in Mountain View attracted a standing-room only crowd for tours and
networking

Boardmember, Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC)
http://www.ic.org/
publishing Communities magazine and the Communities Directory

MeetUp Organizer of the Week!
http://orc.meetup.com/archives/2008/01/raines_cohen_is.html