Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What is “Open”

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Feb 5, 2016, at 10:21 AM, Jude Foster <foster.jude [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Anyway, back to “what is ‘open’” - I am about to report out to our community: 
>  these people prefer texts, these prefer email, and so on.  And then good 
> luck to us all to notice the preferences, to make it work, and to keep up 
> with continuing change.  

We do have a policy that the email list for members is the common means of 
communication on community issues and if you read that list, you should know 
everything.

One of the incidents that prompted the message was a community meeting on 
putting a controversial sculpture in a local intersection that has problematic 
traffic problem already. The group says they are open but shares no information 
except one announcement with no reminders of the date of the next meeting. They 
agreed at the last meeting to post their minutes on the neighborhood list. Here 
are the minutes:

> Dear Neighbors - 
> 
> On Wednesday (February 3) night, a group of folks from the area met to 
> discuss continuing efforts to try to return the civil rights sculpture, "The 
> Hand," to the Takoma Park area in Washington, D.C. It was a productive 
> meeting with a lively exchange of different views on the topic. If you are 
> interested in the background of what this project hopes to achieve and what 
> happened at this community meeting, please open the link immediately below:
> 
>  http://www.mainstreettakoma.org/the-hand/
> 
> We will keep you updated on the progress of this project, including 
> announcing any upcoming meetings, as information is available. We also will 
> be sending this and other updates to the listserves in the surrounding area. 
> Please feel free to forward this to anyone you believe might be interested. 
> Thank you.
> 
> Dan
> Laurel Street


This is one of the least informative “minutes" I’ve ever seen. None of the 
decisions or the names of the people are included. When you follow the link you 
find only a picture of the sculpture and its history a part of the civil rights 
group. No more information about the meeting.

The group also states definitively that "Members of the Takoma community would 
like to return The Hand sculpture to Takoma, DC.” There is no basis on which to 
make this statement—no request for public support. Even when we asked for a dog 
park, we had to have 500 signatures.

In cohousing, they would be subject to a barrage of email. 

Thank you for the appreciative comments,
Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org