Here’s why
Because, Michael, unMonasterians are to receive a per diem against their living expenses. This was baked in the proposal so that people could not have to think about making ends meet and focus on their journey in and with the unMonastery. Per diems are to be financed with a grant by Comitato Matera 2019, hence taxpayer money. So, we need to be seen as 100% fair and transparent in allocating these benefits. We created a public call; put it out there four months ago on all relevant websites (ER, uM, MT2019) and pushed it out as best as we could. And indeed, applications flowed in – including some from the community: [elf Pavlik], [immaginoteca], [Kathleen], [mstn] and others. If we were now to say “wait a minute, we did not want applications for these people, we wanted applications from those other people over there” we would look like using public resources to distribute among our friends. If we keep applications open forever there is no way to defend ourselves from accusations of self-referentiality, if not discrimination. We did keep them open a good three months.
And there needs to be an unAbbott for the same reason. No, the unMonastery is not “a group of people coming to live together”: that would be any squat. The unMonastery is that, plus a social role: the local community, through the endorsement and support of the city hall, LOTE3 and other gimmicks, recognize unMonasterians as innovators-in-residence trying to solve problems of the local community itself. Back in the day, Ben, Nadia and others (mysel included) thought this would be crucial for the local context to embrace, rather than reject, the unMonastery transplant. So, to make this happen, we needed a local partner. We found one in Comitato Matera 2019; they are trusting us with a building, which is city property; cash resources; and legitimacy. We are accountable to them, and that means there needs to be someone that takes responsibility for the residency, and that someone needs to be paid and commits the full four months. Also, in the spirit of Benedict’s rule, an unAbbott is a valuable service to the unBrethren (see the unMonasterian’s expectation management primer).
These are all conditions for MT2019 stepping in with a building and resources. They (and I personally) did the work of digging out resources, therefore we called these shots.