Cohousing-L Mailing List: Orienting New Members to the Values

[RJ Hirsch (heidinys]

Hi, Emilie,

While we have a vision statement,  it is on the broad-based side.  

What we have done well that might be worth considering,  is shifting how we 
develop proposals/agreements.  It helps to keep in mind that some of us are 
meeting hardy,  some find meetings more difficult.
We seen that having everyone sit around to hammer out a concept, or the wording 
on something is both satisfying and can take a lot out of some people.  Folks 
can be great neighbors,  and also not want to spend much time in meetings.   A 
smaller group can often work something thru just fine,  hammer out a Proposal.  

We have --rather organically-- shifted to have more done in Task 
Force/Committees,  and then brought to the whole group as Proposals.   We have 
in fact amazingly,  decreased the number of full community meetings as our 
Committees and Task Force groups are more and more effective.  This is amazing 
as we have grown in number of households-- and then eventually, decreased 
frequency of meetings.  
And yes, sometimes a Proposal is brought forth and the entire group will 
re-work it.   that can happen.  More often,  we are grateful that a group of 
folks interested in the specific area has hammered something out.

Congratulations, on finding property,  and making sure you have fun together,
Ruth Hirsch
Cantines Island, Saugerties

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 08:16:53 -0700
From: Emilie Parker <emilie.v.parker [at] gmail.com>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ Orienting New Members to the Values

Do we need to DO something to make sure people who are committing to
Louisville Artists Cohousing really support the values and vision?  We have
approved values and vision but not everyone who is now a member worked on
them.  We go over them at our monthly meeting/orientations but not everyone
attends those.

In Louisville Artists Cohousing we are in the process of getting our
members more deeply financially committed.  We have property identified and
are working on figuring out how to finance it.  Values and vision is before
or concurrent with commitment.

Do any communities use a questionnaire on their values to get a signature
from members before they commit larger sums of money?  I was thinking of
putting our values into a questionnaire so people could think hard ahead of
time what our shared values are and sign it or comment.  I'd like to know
if other communities have had any success with doing that.  What processes
and what else besides values goes into that questionnaire?   We don't have
policies yet -- like pets and parking.  We have a few draft policies on our
website but they have not been vetted/voted on.

We have a big party dinner coming up next Wednesday (Mar. 4) that is
exclusively for core member households.  We are making a slide show with
member pictures and some other fun stuff -- pictures of the property.  I
will include a bunch of slides with the vision and each value on it.
That's not enough.

Has your community had success with this in the earliest formative times?
We want to get our group to all be sharing the same vision/values before we
get a ton of money involved.

What kind of things should we understand, do, or sign in terms of our shred
values before or when we commit money?

Emilie Parker
Louisville Artists Cohousing, Colorado
www.meetup.com/artists-housing-community, www.synergy-arts.org
-----------------
Emilie Parker
emilie.v.parker [at] gmail.com
303-317-4558 main
240-350-8533 cell
PS:  I have an intermittent e-mail glitch.  If you write and do not hear back 
from me shortly, please call me or please re-send.  Thank you,  Ruth