Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Standing exclusive-group dinners vs standing community-group dinners--do the former inhibit the latter?

[drmaryanngroups (drmaryanngroups]

We have several types of dinner groups: 

- Our long-standing all-community weekly dinner cooked and served by four 
different dinner team (one for each week of the month, months with 5 weeks have 
a potluck). Everyone is invited and this is the meal we generally invite 
outsiders and new prospects to attend.

- Several years ago a small group wanted to have a smaller, more intimate 
dinner group so they started a subscription dinner limited to about 12 
individuals. They take turns cooking and generally are closed, although if you 
want to attend, it's not too hard to wangle an invitation from one of the 
members. One of the reasons for starting this group was to have a completely 
alcohol-free dinner (there is sometimes wine available at the all-community 
dinners) and also to have a meal in a quieter venue (our dining room is noisy 
and uncomfortable for some folks with hear-aids). This has expanded and 
contracted, sometime having two different groups that meet on different nights 
and sometimes only one. 
- We also host a vegan dinner that was started by community individuals who 
converted to vegan eating and wanted to get together to share recipes and 
sample dishes. This group meets once a month and is open to anyone who is 
willing to bring a vegan potluck dish. It includes both community members and 
outsiders.

Although there have been people who only attend the small group dinners in 
general this hasn't had a major impact on the all-community dinners which are 
often over-crowded. 

Mary Ann
at Manzanita Village where community members are helping us become more FireWise

On Feb 9, 2012, at 5:26 AM, Howard C. Katz wrote:

> 
> Hi Fellow Cohousers-
> 
> In your experience, do standing exclusive-group dinners inhibit the
> growth of standing community-group dinners?
> 
> Some definitions:
> * EXCLUSIVE-GROUP DINNERS are cooked by and serve only the members of
> the group and their guests. Nonmembers can attend if they bring their
> own dinner, but they are not served by the group. Group membership is
> controlled by the group.
> * COMMUNITY-GROUP DINNERS are cooked by a group of community members.
> The group is open to any community member, and the group serves any
> and all who sign up in advance.
> 
> At the 30-household Jamaica Plain cohousing, we've have a standing
> 10-household exclusive-group dinner group for about 4 years. During
> this time, our standing community-group dinners have attrished
> repeatedly.
> 
> Any thoughts on whether this is correlation or causality?
> 
> Assume that both kinds of group cook equally well.
> 
> And if this question has already been answered, please feel free to
> refer me to the archives.
> 
> Thank you very much.
> 
> Howard Katz
> JP Cohousing
> Boston, MA 02130
> 
> --
> Howard Katz
> Mystic River Communications
> Technical Writing | Grant Writing | Advocacy Writing
> Words that explain and convince
> www.linkedin.com/in/howardckatz
> 857.294.3553
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> 

--
Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination 
whatsoever.

Mary Ann Clark                                                  drmaryann49 
[at] mac.com
Check out DrMaryAnn's Academy at http://drmaryann.wordpress.com/