Cohousing-L Mailing List: Forming group crippled by new members

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

I recently corresponded with someone who with their partner had been
involved with forming a cohousing community. The forming group appears
that it may fail to get a community built. It seems like a cautionary
tale worth sharing.

After having lived in another cohousing community, - a wonderful
experience - the couple moved and started working on creating a
cohousing community in their new area. They made a lot of progress
during more than five years, but they were very sad that, over the
final year they were involved, one couple with a very different vision
of community and cohousing joined the group. Since the group was
self-selecting and the new couple seemed oblivious to their being a
bad fit (non-fit) and chose to stay, my correspondent and their
partner decided to leave. The group has dwindled precipitously to
three households over the time the new couple has been involved . The
groups high point was about 15 households. The group had been using
sociocracy but likely no more. My correspondent still loves the idea
of cohousing but just does not feel they can start from square one
again.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532 My Link Pg:
http://fholson.cohousing.org                  ybb_