Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mission statements

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

I'm wondering if maybe "Mission Statement" is some kind of misnomer that leads 
us astray.  When I think about "missions", they tend to be very explicit about 
tasks and goals, like ... Place a colony on Mars.  Eliminate poverty in Baxter 
County.  Become the international leader in guitar-making from locally 
harvested wood.  That kind of thing.  Maybe sort of like a campaign or business 
plan.

I can't speak for any any other cohousing, but I am kind of intuiting that this 
level of focus and specificity will not work for my community, Cornerstone in 
Cambridge, MA.  I am wondering if "Identity Statement" isn't more appropriate:  
Who we are, and whom we aspire to be.

Eh?

R Philip Dowds AIA
Cornerstone Cohousing
175 Harvey Street, Unit 5
Cambridge, MA 02140
617.354.6094

PS: Cornerstone's "Mission Statement", ten years old, now needs a lot of work 
...

On Nov 20, 2011, at 3:41 PM, Kay Wilson Fisk wrote:

> 
> Our community is nearly 7 years old, and the mission statement we wrote back 
> around 2003 doesn't seem to as well as it once did. I would like to compile a 
> list of mission statements from other cohousing communities as examples, and 
> would appreciate seeing what other mission statements say.
> 
> Kay Wilson
> Meadow Wood cohousing
> www.mwcondo.com
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: 
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 
>