Common spaces – making decisions!

The Reef
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Here’s a couple of points from my side:

  • An elevator in every building to me is not only common sense, but also something that should be self-evident in a cohousing that takes inclusion as a key value. We don’t know what the future brings: someone can get disabled after a heart attack or an accident, someone could get a disease that leads to paralysis, someone could get a child with a disability, some of our loved ones could lose mobility, … I personally find it inconceivable that we would say “bad luck” if that would happen to someone living an apartment on a higher floor.

  • I would like to keep the discussion open on increasing the price of the square meter by 50 euro. First because this more or less means that if we all decrease the surface of our unit by 1 m², we could increase the surface of the common spaces without an extra cost. Second because I think that it is impossible anyway to count on the 4370 euro figure to be the final one.

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hi full and associate members (@reeflings ),

As discussed yesterday in the plenary, the plan is to organize a half-day workshop (not online) to progress on the common spaces topic.
If people have experience or ideas for this workshop, you are welcome to join the helping circle ‘common spaces’

Here is a poll to see your availability:

  • Saturday 29/06 9:00 - 13:00
  • Saturday 29/06 13:30 - 17:30
  • Saturday 29/06 16:00 - 20:00
  • Sunday 30/06 9:00 - 13:00
  • Saturday 06/07 9:00 - 13:00
  • Saturday 06/07 13:30 - 17:30
  • Saturday 06/07 16:00 - 20:00
  • Sunday 07/07 9:00 - 13:00
  • Sunday 07/07 13:30 - 17:30
  • Sunday 07/07 16:00 - 20:00
  • Saturday 13/07 9:00 - 13:00
  • Saturday 13/07 13:30 - 17:30
  • Saturday 13/07 16:00 - 20:00
  • Sunday 14/07 9:00 - 13:00
  • Sunday 14/07 13:30 - 17:30
  • Sunday 14/07 16:00 - 20:00
0 voters
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i am ok not participating…

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The poll has spoken, and the workshop to continue the discussion of the common spaces will take place on Saturday 6 July from 9h to 13h…
:slight_smile:

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@reef-associate @reef-full
message of chris just above…

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@Sarah
As discussed : L’échappé is booked from 9 to 1 pm for the circle
At 1 pm - Exploring member could join for a visit with Marie (commun spaces - 1/2h)
Then we go can go eat somewhere closeby.

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@reef-full , @reef-associate : we got an answer from Tivoli about organising a visit and also discussing how they got to making a decision about their common spaces. It would be on thursday 11/07.

We are waiting on an answer about how many can join. When we have an idea of that and of how many we would actually be, we will see about opening this to exploring members as well (and I’ll put it in the summer schedule then).
So can you fill in the poll below? Thx!

  • I’ll be joining
  • I won’t be joining
0 voters
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In the evening I guess?

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Yes! Waiting on exact time!

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Hi @reef-associate and @reef-full members !

Following our post two weeks ago (Common spaces – making decisions!) and the decision taken in the plenary to organize a workshop dedicated to listing the functions desired for the common spaces (as the architects have requested that we do), the Common Spaces Helping Circle (CSHC) has prepared a second questionnaire for all Associate and Full Members to fill in, available in this Google form. Your answers to the questionnaire will be analysed by the CSHC and used as preparation material for the actual workshop. (The raw data of the surveys will also be made available.)

Date of the workshop: 6 July from 9h to 13h (at L’Échappée, Laeken)

It is strongly recommended that you first read Alberto’s recent post on the topic of how buildings learn (How buildings learn: some reading as we prepare to discuss common spaces and other building-related matters), and also this blog post that Lucia came across (The Common House - The Heart of a Cohousing Community — Schemata Workshop). I’m not sure if the books and/or philosophies of the latter post are good or not, but it’s a very nice account of why it’s important to try and think well about what we’re doing here :slight_smile:

Please could everyone who wants to have a voice in this process (of deciding on the common spaces) fill in the survey by Wednesday evening, so that we can process the results before the workshop on Saturday. We intended to make this available much sooner, but it has been no small thing to put it together, particularly in a period when so much has been going on with the Reef. It should take about 15 minutes to complete, although it can be done much quicker if there are functions that you don’t have particularly strong feelings about, and it can be returned to more than once rather than do it all in one go.

The decisions that we make, or choose not to make, will play a big part in the functioning of the community that we are all planning on being a part of. For this reason, we encourage people to take the time to fill in the survey and participate in the upcoming decision-making processes. We are also optimistic that we will all continue to approach this discussion with openness, honesty and a willingness to compromise, because that’s how we roll :slight_smile:

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A reminder to all @reef-associate and @reef-full members that the deadline for filing out the common spaces survey (link in previous post) is officially tonight, and unofficially Thursday lunchtime… thanks !

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Hi @reeflings !

Anyone interested in viewing the results of the common spaces survey can find them here: Login – Nextcloud

Thanks @els for collating them for everyone :slight_smile:

Could anyone from the common spaces helping circle (@els @LuciaM @Sarah) tell me if it would be possible to provide the survey in a readable format for the Exploring Members, so that the results will make more sense for those who didn’t fill it in?

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Hi @mieke @els @SophieC @Sophie_B @ugne @manuelpueyo @MariaAM @Sarah @LuciaM and @joannes !

The common spaces workshop takes place this Saturday morning at the l’echappée cohousing in Laeken. We will begin at 10am, not 9am as it said in the original poll, and finish at 1pm. I believe that we will be able to have a tour of l’echappée immediately afterwards, and we may be joined by some Exploring Members for that. Subsequent food, drinks and frivolity possible, as always…

Joannes has very kindly offered to facilitate the workshop using his ‘tried and tested’ storytelling approach to cocreating common spaces. It’s really important that we start on time on Saturday, to have enough time to do the technique well. He and I will be there from about 9ish, so feel free to come early, especially if you would like to have a good look at the way that l’echappée have organised their common space, with the guest room mezzanine, etc…

(@Sarah - who do we have to contact to be let in at 9h?)

In the post above this one, you will find a link to a correlation of the common spaces survey results. It is highly recommended that people attending the workshop have a look at them beforehand, although if you don’t find the time to do that, Els will be giving a brief presentation of them at the beginning of the workshop.

For the rest of the workshop, we will be using a ‘day-in-the-life’ approach, where we break into small groups and tell stories about a day at the Reef during the week, or the weekend, or a holiday. This will be followed by presentations and reflections, and lead to cards of functions arranged in a hypothetical Reef space (Joannes - feel free to jump in with more detail if my very brief summary isn’t doing the approach justice). Finally, there will be some reaction rounds, and an attempt to put the results of our time together into a form that adds another constructive element to our process.

For those who can’t make it, the presentations and reflections following the group work will be recorded and made available on this thread afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday…

:slight_smile:

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Thx for organizing, I am already looking forward. Do we bring lunch or do we go somewhere for lunch afterwards?

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At 1pm - Marie from L’echappé will make a tour of commun spaces for exploring member /or the one’s who didn’t see it yet. It will last 1/2h.
Then the idea is to go for lunch at BE.THERE (not everything is open but a good part of it). There are tables and possibilities to buy things around. So, also possible to bring things from home.

For the meeting, I’ll bring coffe&the/tisane + some biscuits. If needed, bring also what you want…

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Thanks @SophieC !
I’ll bring some oat milk and sugar…
And as we won’t be having lunch until about 2ish, definitely a good idea to come prepared with snacks everyone :slight_smile:

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I assume Marie will let us in… @SophieC ?

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Thanks so much for all the work guys! Very interesting stuff!

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hi, I created a PDF version of the survey results as they were in the odt document early evening yesterday, nicely printable on A3 (and A4 for those who possess a magnifying glass). I used Excel to make it convenient.

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Thanks Joannes !