Sunday's Community Meeting - in a nutshell
It was raining, the loft was chillier than expected, the facilitation was excellent. We discussed --Strata fees, Waste water treatment, and How to share more information. I coerced the group to make animal noises and Yonas gave a development report. We wish you'd been there too, but did okay without you.
Surprise!
The folks who are building houses right now, want to be able to move in when they're finished and flush their toilets. Can you believe how fussy they are ??? They want to flush!
Just kidding.
But seriously, the Solar Aquatics waste water company hasn't started digging yet, the current system isn't large enough to accommodate these homes without spending more money and we want these families to move into their homes as expeditously as possible. I see some worried faces. But you know what? We're all in this together, and at the October 3rd Community Meeting 1pm -3pm - together- we'll make sure it happens.
Families will be flushing soon.
Strata fees-
At our Community Meeting on Sunday, Beverly and Maureen presented an exercise from their Ad Hoc Strata-fee-determining Team, to get us moving towards a consensus of how we'll pay for the everyday, shared, expenses of living here. And so we have no surprises later, they asked us first to brainstorm and then list all the possible fees we might need to cover - from lawn-mowing to house insurance and Common House maintenance etc. And next, they asked how we might balance various ways of determining fairness in paying--- by household --- by assessed value -- by square footage etc. Wearing various 'hats' like 'single person in small unit' and 'large family in large house' we put ourselves into others' situations and expressed our/their values and concerns about the various routes.
For example- If we determine by income level, it is certainly a way to share payment responsibility between those who have plenty, and those with less; but it might challenge folks' wish for privacy about their sharing their income information.
The Team will pay attention to our values for fairness, sharing and building community and come back to us at the next meeting, with some possible strata fee mechanisms -- perhaps a blended formula that will consider for some of the expenses, bigger units or those with more people, use more resources than singles in small places, but also, that some costs are likely to be most fair when divided by household.
And in taking this project on, these team members are modelling constructive, enlightened self-interest. If you, like they, have concerns about how things unfold here, then be pro-active seeking answers and present your ideas to the appropriate Team. You might just get what you want/need.
Pssst. Hey, you! You! ... want to know what's really going on in the ecovillage? ... want to see into our village's future? I can be your Personal Guide to Knowing - How the decisions are really getting made here, what's going to happen next, and how much it's all going to cost. I can do that ...I have the power. Lower your voices and come this way ... Can you hear the gypsy music? Come behind these curtains where it's dark and mysterious. I'm a medium, ready to channel your concerns and questions to the 'other' side.
Okay now, whisper your questions and priorities for information into my ear.(Please) What keeps you awake and worried in the middle of the night? I'll spring into action and delegate to Teams to share answers and processes with you on some clever web document.
Ha! I'm psychic and I can get other people to do my dirty work while I swan around in my gypsy costume and eat dates.
A little known fact about Ecovillages: there's a money back guarantee.
Yes, indeedy. If your chicken should happen to escape from its hutch, another villager will find it and pop it back in. Or your money cheerfully returned. It takes a village to raise a chicken.
Our Name
Here's what I know about our name. We chose Blackberry Commons as an interim name to see it if would 'stick'. Some folks (a minority?... you tell me.) are happy with it... it's representative and unpretentious. Blackberries are ubiquitous, juicy, sweet and great in pies and jelly.
Others feel blah about it.
Some folks have a problem with it ...too similar to Cranberry Commons, too like the handheld device, too much a prickly and invasive species.
Others prefer 'Convivium'
Some think we'll revert to calling ourselves 'Yarrow', in any case. Others, who are currently active on Teams, find it useful to have a name to disinguish the cohousing from the other aspects of the village, from the town of Yarrow, from Yarrow Central and from Yarrow Ecovillage Coop. We might be like Nevada City Cohousing ( Chuck's home) which still hasn't decided on a final name.
No matter where we go, there we are ... and it's all good.
Editor's note:
I hear from other experienced cohousers , that every problem we wrestle with here, has been wrestled with by the other Cohousing villages too ... taking time choosing a name, bickering over storage lockers, feeling the unfairness of who comes first. Darn! I thought we were unique and special!
Buildings 1/2 and 11/13 ... my new neighbours
The diggers are here! There are test holes all over the place. What for? Never mind, they've been filled in.
All I know is that new owners who were pacing out the ground between the fluorescent stake corners of planned living rooms and front porches yesterday, are appalled and excited by huge piles of dirt and rectangular holes today .
This and that
We are *this* close to telling you exactly what units are left in the site plan of the cohousing village- how big they are, where they're sited, if they have lofts for bedrooms or storage and how much they'll cost.
*This* is Beverly holding up her right forefinger and thumb in a pincer pose and squinting between them. She also talks of matches and gasoline, and then she grins. Keep your eye on this dynamo-woman, she's coming out with a map of available units, momentarily.
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