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 <commoi...@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.fitzpatr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 5/27/06, Frank Deitle <commoi...@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 * * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, > unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To > learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-- Warmly, Tree Fitzpatrick Hearthkeeper * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
