Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community size

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

I totally agree w/ you on all points.  

While our budget may only be $200 k we still have $15 mil of valuable property 
to care for — and since we are a condo when one pipe bursts in one house it can 
affect many houses.  What one person does or doesn’t do to their property 
affects us all.

Sorry I’m rushing out the door so I can’t engage further right now.  I hope 
others will, tho’

On Sep 14, 2014, at 6:35 AM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> 
> Well, hold on:  Land and buildings together may value at $15mln, but that 
> doesn't make you a $15mln enterprise.  Your annual budget is surely in the 
> low six figures, and with very few employees, little tax complexity, and 
> mostly recurring costs like the annual insurance policy, it can't be a big 
> brain buster to manage.  Or shouldn't be.
> 
> At Cornerstone, I find that most of our management complexity comes from 
> reality denial about "saving money" by "doing it ourselves".   Of course, it 
> builds community spirit and saves money when we do our own yardwork and 
> gardening.  But somehow, volunteer labor is not keeping up; the yard has 
> turned into a nightmare, and we are now interviewing landscape services for 
> seasonal help.  Once we have cost estimates and price offers in hand ... then 
> we will have many community meetings about how we might or should make a 
> better show with volunteer labor.  Maybe it's time to re-invent the yardwork 
> chore system, rather than boost the assessment.  Or, maybe not ...  This sort 
> of conundrum applies to other things like the gutters or cleaning the 
> refrigerator or snow shoveling.  Sometimes we think we can save money by 
> being our own carpenters or roofers.
> 
> I guess I agree that self-management is very hard when you don't want to 
> spend money, don't have enough time, and find it difficult to make decisions. 
>  Even for tiny $200K enterprises.
> 
> Philip Dowds
> 
>> On Sep 14, 2014, at 10:32 AM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Hi all!
>> 
>> In re:  The Diligencia
>> 
>> A little bit the same only different thought from moi — sometimes I sit with 
>> my elbow on my knee, my chin crunched on the upturned palm of my hand and 
>> ponder:  
>> 
>> Are we CRAZY?  Whoever gave us the idea we can run a $15 million dollar 
>> complex on the very part time work of 65 adults most of whom have full time 
>> jobs, some of whom have children at home, are caregivers of elderly parents, 
>> new moms n’ dads (very new!), newly weds in their first home … who said we 
>> could do this?  How naive were we?
>> 
>> And then I remember:  Katie and Chuck.  That’s who.  And then I told a bunch 
>> of other people what they said. We all believed them.  And now look.  We’re 
>> doing it.  We don’t do it perfectly — we have some bumps and grinds.  But, 
>> truly, we do a pretty good job maintaining the physical fabric of the 
>> community altho’ it often seems a stretch.
>> 
>> I’m ever grateful for the retirees who devote an inordinate amount of time 
>> to the community.  But sometimes I wonder if the Diligencia are also part of 
>> the problem?  Maybe if we REALLY retired others would step into the space?  
>> I dunno.  It's a possibility.  On the other hand — because I alway have more 
>> than one contradictory opinion at any time — when people don’t participate I 
>> just say some folks never really get the taste of the stone.  And that’s 
>> their loss.  They never really get the depth and boldness of what it means 
>> to live in community with all its warts and bad hair days.
>> 
> 
> 



Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646