[bestwayfarms] Re: Betterway
- From: "Kim Cooper" <coop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bestwayfarms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:03:08 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Beth:
Thanks for speaking your mind.
I have a great respect for what you are observing.
I promised you a document Friday night and failed on delivery. That doesn't
mean there hasn't been about 6 hours of dialogue, both written and unwritten
between Jean and I. And, I've been sleeping way too much, with a sinus
infection. I also had a cortisone injection in my shoulder Friday. I know
- I'm not eating right.
We feel we need to speak as one voice because if we cannot come to a bottom
line consensus, then how can 5 people or 10. So we want to represent - to
the group - what would cause us to throw the switch. I have two pages of
single spaced typing, both red and black and Jean has a single paper, hand
written (don't know why).
We are close - but what we are providing is what it will take for us to
throw the switch, sell our house, change our lifestyle and move on to a new
dream. And we want to keep this at the least common denominator to remove a
lot of complications.
We seem to agree in principle, but not necessarily on paper.
The other issue is that we want Jean's Mom's buy in. She has bought in in
principle, but we want to make sure she understands how serious this is.
Interesting - if we all agree, then we have 'two families' - one who hasn't
attended any meetings. She isn't wealthy, but would have her own contributed
resource if she sells her dwelling. So far, her quote has been, "I started
on a farm, I guess I can end my life on a farm." To her, it's not progress
- funny huh? But, I think it sounds like fun for her - amazing for 81!
If everyone comes to a 'switch throw' posture, it is simply a matter of
comparing the matrix and establishing at least a high level set of governing
statements (constitution).
Sincerely:
Kijm
-------Original Message-------
From: Kip and Beth Gardner
Date: 7/16/2007 8:47:37 AM
To: Betterway Core Group:,
Cc: bestwayfarms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bestwayfarms] Re: Betterway
Dear all,
Thank you for the responses I've received since the last email. I
now know that my messages are being received (on the computer I am never
entirely sure :)).
I know that when I posted my vision I didn't talk a whole lot about
my physical requirements for land. Mostly they include enough land for
seperate housing, recreational and farming space, preferably with some trees
or water source, and must be within commuting distance of both Canton and
New Philadelphia, and within close proximity to a town (large town) or city
(such as Wooster.) My vision focused on the other aspects of community which
are more definitive of community for me. If my life situations were
different I could probably thrive in an urban community fine as well, but
that would not meet our family's needs or address upcoming sustainability
needs in this changing world.
I also didn't post what I'm willing to commit to move this process
forward. I am willing to continue hosting meetings if people will attend. I
am willing to try to get some formal facilitation training and help
facilitate meetings if the group wants me to and/or no one else steps up (I
feel like I've tried to facilitate by default instead of by group decision
sometimes.) I am willing to continue to educate myself about communities (
although Kip and I have been doing that for many years) and and willing to
take one issue the group needs to learn about and research it to the best of
my ability (if each of us did this we could cover a whole lot of ground.) I
am also willing to be putting some amount of money towards then process on a
regular basis if we create a mechanism for doing that.
Maybe just as importantly, here's what I can't do right now. I can't
put in large amounts of money, because we just don't have it. Emotionally, I
can't continue to attend or hold meetings where 4 or 5 of us talk in circles
and say we can't do anymore because we don't have enough people. I can't
continue to have meetings with no agenda or where we agree to proposals that
we don't follow through with between meetings.
If we are to move forward someone else needs to propose the next
meeting times, as I just can't. Likewise, someone else needs to state where
they feel we should go from here, as I'm just too emotionally invested right
now, possibly to the detriment or neglect of other aspects of my life and I
need to take a couple of steps back for the moment. I am not speaking for
Kip, just myself.
Sincerely, Beth
From: Kip and Beth Gardner
Date: 7/12/2007 7:55:54 AM
To: Betterway Core Group:,
Subject: Betterway
Dear All,
I don't really know how to start this email so please bear
with me. I have tried really hard to sit on my hands since the last
email I sent and see what the group is thinking about moving forward.
We seemed to be having trouble getting people to meetings, sometimes
even when we all (all present) sat together and picked out a date.
It's really difficult to move forward by having meetings when the
meetings are made up of Kip, myself, and 2 or 3 others. So Kim
graciously and usefully put us on the freelists email group so that
we could all communicate and get discussions of key issues moving on
email. Nothing seems to have happened there. At the last meeting we
("we" at meetings always refers to those who showed up) agreed we
needed a starting point and asked everyone to contribute the answers
to 2 questions (what were their minimum requirements or vision of
community and what commitments were they willing to make to move the
process forward.) This was nearly 3 weeks ago. I'm the only one who's
posted. It wasn't even my idea, although I thought it was a good one.
I also posted a list of items before our last actual meeting that
we've discussed addressing but have never actually addressed or
finished and had absolutely no response.
Look, I know it's Summer. I know that everyone is busy. I
know that we are trying to build a new way of living while living the
lives we are in, so I'm really not trying to blame. Kip and I have
been at this full-time for 5 years. I feel better about this small
core group now than any other group formation we've had. I really
like all of you and when we are together and focused (or together
just hanging out) it feels so right and seems like we could really
make it happen. But in-between nothing seems to be happening and we
just aren't going to get there by meeting once a month! Yes, it's
hard. In Creating A Life Together Dianna Christian says that some
people living in communities said "Don't tell them just how hard it
really is, no one will try."
Please don't take this to mean that I want people to make a
firm decision right now that you are "in" or "out", and I don't want
anyone dropping out of the process because they feel pressured. If we
worked REALLY hard at this we probably still wouldn't be ready to
purchase land for a year. But how can we do this if we can't even
examine in a concrete way what we want from community and what we
want to give to the process and the community once formed.
I will speak for just myself here. Kip and I do have a "plan
B", seeing if we could find a smaller piece of land with just a
couple of other households, including someone who wanted to farm with
Kip. I could live with it, but it's not really what I want, it's not
my dream of community. But Kip and I are going to have to do
something soon or we will lose our chance to raise Hannah in the
country, for Kip to farm, for us to live consciously in a different
way. I want to see community happen not just for us but because it's
the right thing for this area and people right now. I believe this
group could do it, but I don't know if we will do it.
Please think on this. I'm sorry if it sounds like a rant, I
don't mean for it to, but I needed to put this out there. And I
really need some sort of feedback (through our personal email or the
list, I don't care) and to know if I'm sounding unreasonable or if
anyone else sees it his way.
Sincerely, Beth
--
North Canton, OH
--
North Canton, OH
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