<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Further to Tree Fitzpatrick's inspiring story
...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the early 90s I was part of a group which was
planning to co-create the Halifax Ecocity, a community of about a thousand
people living in the middle of the city of Adelaide in South Australia. <A
href="http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/1998-June/005381.html">http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/1998-June/005381.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(This grand Ecocity enterprise did not
materialise, mainly, in my understanding through lack of financial resources in
the face of competition for the site from 'business as usual' developers).
</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Several friends and I were responsible for the
concept and design of a co-housing component which was to be in a 5 storey
apartment block. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here is story which greatly influenced
me and others about the meaning of community living in this
manner. The background is that Robert Gilman, founder and editor of 'In Context'
magazine at the time, came to Adelaide in the mid 90s with his 13 year old
daughter. They gave presentations to an audience of people interested in
intentional community living. Robert spoke on the creation, operation and
design of the cohousing community on Bainbridge Island near to
Seattle, into which he and his family had moved after the construction was
completed. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Robert's daughter spoke of her experience
of living in this complex. She said that there were about 90 residents, 50
adults and 40 children. "Among ourselves we have solved a problem which is
widespread throughout North America: excessive watching of TV. We have so much
fun playing together that we do not have time for TV!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To a question from the audience, "What
happens if a family approaches your community with a request to join and says
one of their children has a severe behavioural problem?"she responded "We
don't accept people like that, they accept us."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I note that Chris Corrigan wrote to Florian
Fischer on 17 December 2003 Re: City council and civil
conversation</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT size=3>I just forwarded this post of yours to <SPAN
class=hl>Robert</SPAN> <SPAN class=hl>Gilman</SPAN>, a local (Langley,<BR>WA,
US) friend and (hopefully) soon-to-be city council member who is<BR>interested
in doing community-wide open space as part of an ongoing<BR>civil
infrastructure. I am helping him to develop a prototype online<BR>environment to
help support the process with a design team of about 40<BR>citizens who want to
help facilitate a community vision of the future of<BR>our
town</FONT>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And from a google search that Robert Gilman is
a now a member of the Langley </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>City Council. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Where may these threads be leading? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With love</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Alan</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hong Kong </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I</FONT>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com
href="mailto:therese.fitzpatrick@gmail.com">Tree Fitzpatrick</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, May 28, 2006 5:43 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: a community living la vida
open space</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>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="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">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, <BR>> unsubscribe, change
your options, view the archives of<BR>> <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>
To<BR>> learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:<BR>> <A
href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist">http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist</A><BR><BR>*<BR>*<BR>==========================================================<BR><A
href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</A><BR>------------------------------<BR>To
subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, <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 * *
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist@listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist