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.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/27/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Frank Deitle</b> <<a href="mailto:commoikos@gmail.com">commoikos@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Tree,<br><br>Thank you for the inspiring story and wow, I'm actually about a half<br>an hour away from Amherst, MA right now. Is Pioneer Valley Coho still<br>around?<br><br>Peace,<br>Frank Deitle<br><br>On 5/27/06, Tree Fitzpatrick <
<a href="mailto:therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com">therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>><br>><br>> On 5/27/06, Frank Deitle <<a href="mailto:commoikos@gmail.com">commoikos@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> >
<br>> > I'd like to hear more about the Spirited Work Community and open space<br>> > intentional communities in general. Ever since I discovered OST (or<br>> > did it discover me?) this year from the wonderful Lisa Heft, I have
<br>> > fantasized about what a large-scale residential intentional<br>> > community/ecovillage/sustainable human settlement would<br>> be like if it<br>> > was visioned, organized, planned, executed, maintained, and governed
<br>> > in Open Space. What kind of crazy, wonderful creature would that<br>> > become? What kind culture would emerge out of that? Are other people<br>> > out there thinking about this sort of thing? How do you see it
<br>> > unfolding/coming about?<br>><br>> I was a steward and convenor of Spirited Work for a few years, Frank, and I<br>> could tell you more about it sometime but my first response to your inquiry<br>> is to tell you about a co-housing community I lived in for two years in
<br>> graduate school.<br>><br>> I rented an apartment in Pioneer Valley Co-Housing in Amherst,<br>> Massachusetts for two years. It was a little different being a renter than<br>> being an owner, mostly because folks assumed (correctly) that I was not
<br>> permanently committed to the community the way an owner was committed.<br>><br>> The folks at Pioneer Valley Coho deeply understood concensus. And, in my<br>> humble opinion, they also deeply understood open space. Here is why I say
<br>> that.<br>><br>> When I joined the community, everyone was assigned to a work team. There<br>> was a series of rotating weekly assignments and each team took a turn at<br>> each rotation. I think it took about four weeks for one team to work
<br>> through all the different assignments. The assignments were evenly<br>> apportioned when I first moved in. Everyone took a turn cleaning the main<br>> house, everyone took a turn mowing the law, everyone took a turn doing
<br>> dishes, everyone took a turn doing supper, etc. This worked pretty well but<br>> there was always someone grumbling about having to do a task they didn't<br>> really want to do.<br>><br>> Pioneer Valley Cohousing had an annual retreat each year. One year, for
<br>> their annual retreat, they conducted an experiment in what I consider open<br>> space but no one called it open space. Together, we made a list of all the<br>> chores that needed to be done for the community. Then we gave everyone
<br>> stickers and asked them to put a sticker on a task they would like to do.<br>> We just wanted to see if everything could get done if we used an open<br>> approach. We wanted to experiment with what it would look like if everyone
<br>> was free to follow what had heart and meaning for them. Would the garden<br>> still get weeded? Would the compost pile still get turned? Would the snow<br>> still be plowed?<br>><br>> After the sticker exercise, we could see in a glance that there was someone
<br>> willing to do every single task that the community needed to have done<br>> except for one. Only two people had put stickers indicating their<br>> willingness to take responsibility for doing the dishes for the twice-weekly
<br>> group suppers. Not surprisingly, virtually no one weanted to do dishes for<br>> sixty or more people twice a week.<br>><br>> So the Pioneer Valley Coho decided to let go of rotating community chores.<br>
> They decided that they would step back and let folks do the chores they<br>> wanted to do, as a one year experiment. The only 'required' chore was that<br>> everyone had to agree to do the dishes once a month. A one year experiment
<br>> was declared. And it was a great success. All the chores of the whole<br>> community got done, including the dishes. Although there was not a lot of<br>> clear passion for one person to do the dishes all the time, there was, it
<br>> turned out, enough passion for the group suppers for everyone to be willing<br>> to pitch in on the dishes once a month.<br>><br>> And everything got done. There were people who loved riding the lawn<br>
> mower. There were people who loved weeding the garden. There were people<br>> who loved cleaning the shared main house. There were people who loved<br>> managing the community's bookkeeping and budget. There were people who
<br>> liked organizing activities for the community's children and organizing<br>> social hours for everyone. There were people who liked to organize the<br>> pantry. There was someone who wanted to do everything that needed to be
<br>> done. . . and more.<br>><br>> When the Pioneer Valley Coho stepped back and trusted that each member<br>> would follow what had heart and meaning for them, that all the community's<br>> needs would be met, that's exactly what happened.
<br>><br>> I think this was an excellent experiment in open space, intentional<br>> community, Frank. And I particularly love this story because no one called<br>> it open space. It was living.<br>><br>> This was a community of thirty two households, over a hundred members.
<br>> Their core organizing process was a deeply understood concensus model but<br>> during the whole time I lived there, I always felt myself to be living in<br>> open space.<br>><br>><br>> --<br>> Warmly,
<br>> Tree Fitzpatrick<br>> Hearthkeeper * *<br>> ==========================================================<br>> <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a> ------------------------------ To subscribe,
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<br>view the archives of <a href="mailto:oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu">oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu</a>:<br><a href="http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html">http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
</a><br><br>To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<br><a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist">http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Warmly,<br>Tree Fitzpatrick
<br>Hearthkeeper
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