Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Archiving Tips?

[R Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

Decades of efile management in both business and communal settings have left me 
pessimistic about systems where each person adopts the strategy s/he prefers … 
or neglects to have any strategy at all.  Yes, somebody well trained in set 
theory, Boolean logic, and the vagaries of Google Drive versus Mac finder 
versus Mail search versus Windows queries, can probably, after some trial and 
error, pull up the relevant documents.  My personal experience is that many or 
most people are not all that well trained; these people become dependent on the 
community’s Filing Guru (if there is one).

I might instead argue that each group or circle or team should have a 
continuing role of Librarian.  The Librarian takes responsibility for making 
sense out of, and managing, the filing of the group.  This begs the question: 
Should some aspects of the filing strategy be uniform across all groups?  Like, 
if meeting minutes reference a set of photos and a proposed contract, where and 
how should these referenced exhibits actually be filed and retrieved?  We are 
all working with volunteers, not paid and trained IT specialists … but without 
some sort of standardization, I think we’ll need a high tolerance for chronic 
confusion and disappointment.

———————————
Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Mar 4, 2025, at 3:48 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> We have a 20-year-old wiki that contains all the information related to 
> maintaining the buildings and grounds. It includes notes from members of the 
> team, invoices, bids, descriptions, research, ideas, etc. There is a menu of 
> headings and subheadings. The search is by keyword and it searches everything 
> — tags, titles, text, etc.
> 
> When I set it up, I found advice for determining the headings and subheadings 
> that was perfect for data that would be entered by a large number of people 
> without requiring too much training. The advice was to set up only a few 
> major categories — Common House, Basements, Grounds — and allow people to use 
> headings and keywords that make sense to them when they make entries. Then a 
> Wiki Minder can review things over time and gradually align headings. Once 
> the menu exists, people will use the existing headings if they apply. 
> 
> Unless people work together every day, it is very hard to adopt a uniform 
> system that covers so many topics — pest control, sprinkler heads, laundry 
> room equipment, lawnmowers, storm sewer inspection, watering schedule, 
> specifications for hoses, etc. One person might be making entries once or 
> twice a year on one topic — mowing or sump pump replacement. And the person 
> setting up the menu will go crazy making all the decisions about what to 
> include.
> 
> The most important thing is that everyone who works on the buildings and 
> grounds will feel comfortable enough to enter any information that might be 
> helpful later. Particularly since the search will find anything, recording is 
> more important than a precise cataloging system. 
> 
> Another tip from an office organizer is you don’t need a subheading until a 
> heading has "more than 10-20 pieces of paper in one folder." We were still 
> working with paper files so that was very helpful. The standard still works 
> for Wikis — you don’t have to set up a menu with a subheading for each kind 
> of paint used in the Common House. Until you have painted the common house 
> many times over many years, one heading “Paint” will be more useful than a 
> hierarchy of subheadings: kitchen, living room, guest rooms, etc. Or Sherwin 
> Williams, Benjamin Moore, Home Depot, etc. Or blues, greens, browns, etc.
> 
> Starting with broader topics will be less intimidating and require much less 
> time because you don’t have to make so many decisions to find the precise 
> location for the information you have. 
> 
> When all the entries under paint begin taking time to peruse, the most useful 
> subheadings will become clear and you can sort the stuff.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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