a community living la vida open space

Tree Fitzpatrick therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com
Sat May 27 14:43:36 PDT 2006


Oh, yeah, it's still there.  It's one of the oldest co-housing communities
in North America, maybe twenty years now?  They welcome visitors, like you
could drop by for one of their suppers for a small amount of money (cost of
food). Call ahead.  Google them to find a phone number.

On 5/27/06, Frank Deitle <commoikos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Tree,
>
> Thank you for the inspiring story and wow, I'm actually about a half
> an hour away from Amherst, MA right now. Is Pioneer Valley Coho still
> around?
>
> Peace,
> Frank Deitle
>
> On 5/27/06, Tree Fitzpatrick <therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 5/27/06, Frank Deitle <commoikos at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > I'd like to hear more about the Spirited Work Community and open space
> > > intentional communities in general. Ever since I discovered OST (or
> > > did it discover me?) this year from the wonderful Lisa Heft, I have
> > > fantasized about what a large-scale residential intentional
> > > community/ecovillage/sustainable human settlement would
> > be like if it
> > > was visioned, organized, planned, executed, maintained, and governed
> > > in Open Space. What kind of crazy, wonderful creature would that
> > > become? What kind culture would emerge out of that? Are other people
> > > out there thinking about this sort of thing? How do you see it
> > > unfolding/coming about?
> >
> >  I was a steward and convenor of Spirited Work for a few years, Frank,
> and I
> > could tell you more about it sometime but  my first response to your
> inquiry
> > is to tell you about a co-housing community I lived in for two years in
> > graduate school.
> >
> >  I rented an apartment in Pioneer Valley Co-Housing in Amherst,
> > Massachusetts for two years.  It was a little different being a renter
> than
> > being an owner, mostly because folks assumed (correctly) that I was not
> > permanently committed to the community the way an owner was committed.
> >
> >  The folks at Pioneer Valley Coho deeply understood concensus.  And, in
> my
> > humble opinion, they also deeply understood open space.  Here is why I
> say
> > that.
> >
> >  When I joined the community, everyone was assigned to a work
> team.  There
> > was a series of rotating weekly assignments and each team took a turn at
> > each rotation.  I think it took about four weeks for one team to work
> > through all the different assignments.  The assignments were evenly
> > apportioned when I first moved in.  Everyone took a turn cleaning the
> main
> > house, everyone took a turn mowing the law, everyone took a turn doing
> > dishes, everyone took a turn doing supper, etc.  This worked pretty well
> but
> > there was always someone grumbling about having to do a task they didn't
> > really want to do.
> >
> >  Pioneer Valley Cohousing had an annual retreat each year.  One year,
> for
> > their annual retreat, they conducted an experiment in what I consider
> open
> > space but no one called it open space. Together, we made a list of all
> the
> > chores that needed to be done for the community.  Then we gave everyone
> > stickers and asked them to put a sticker on a task they would like to
> do.
> > We just wanted to see if everything could get done if we used an open
> > approach.  We wanted to experiment with what it would look like if
> everyone
> > was free to follow what had heart and meaning for them.  Would the
> garden
> > still get weeded?  Would the compost pile still get turned?  Would the
> snow
> > still be plowed?
> >
> >  After the sticker exercise, we could see in a glance that there was
> someone
> > willing to do every single task that the community needed to have done
> > except for one.  Only two people had put stickers indicating their
> > willingness to take responsibility for doing the dishes for the
> twice-weekly
> > group suppers.  Not surprisingly, virtually no one weanted to do dishes
> for
> > sixty or more people twice a week.
> >
> >  So the Pioneer Valley Coho decided to let go of rotating community
> chores.
> > They decided that they would step back and let folks do the chores they
> > wanted to do, as a one year experiment.  The only 'required' chore was
> that
> > everyone had to agree to do the dishes once a month.  A one year
> experiment
> > was declared.  And it was a great success.  All the chores of the whole
> > community got done, including the dishes.  Although there was not a lot
> of
> > clear passion for one person to do the dishes all the time, there was,
> it
> > turned out, enough passion for the group suppers for everyone to be
> willing
> > to pitch in on the dishes once a month.
> >
> >  And everything got done.  There were people who loved riding the lawn
> > mower.  There were people who loved weeding the garden.  There were
> people
> > who loved cleaning the shared main house.  There were people who loved
> > managing the community's bookkeeping and budget.  There were people who
> > liked organizing activities for the community's children and organizing
> > social hours for everyone. There were people who liked to organize the
> > pantry.  There was someone who wanted to do everything that needed to be
> > done. . . and more.
> >
> >  When the Pioneer Valley Coho stepped back and trusted that each member
> > would follow what had heart and meaning for them, that all the
> community's
> > needs would be met, that's exactly what happened.
> >
> >  I think this was an excellent experiment in open space, intentional
> > community, Frank.  And I particularly love this story because no one
> called
> > it open space.  It was living.
> >
> > This was a community of thirty two households, over a hundred members.
> > Their core organizing process was a deeply understood concensus model
> but
> > during the whole time I lived there, I always felt myself to be living
> in
> > open space.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Warmly,
> > Tree Fitzpatrick
> > Hearthkeeper * *
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-- 
Warmly,
Tree Fitzpatrick
Hearthkeeper

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