And found it so Profoundly Against Your Nature that you couldn't enjoy the results?
The 47 unit mobile home park I own my little dwelling in was one day away from being seized by the town for back taxes and was bid on by a developer. We had to save our homes, so we formed a nonprofit housing cooperative, matched the developer's offer in accordance with Massachusetts law, got financing and bought the park ourselves instead. We are rehabilitating it after decades of very serious mismanagement, and we have far to go, because basically the entire infrastructure has to be rebuilt over a few short years. I was and am one of the key people pulling off this acquisition and easing us into resident ownership. I am also a very extreme Introvert.
There are meetings, meetings, meetings, sometimes four a week between the Board, the membership, and various committees. There are fires to put out. There is the newsletter I edit. There is a deliberately uninformed minority who resent us for saving their shabby little homes and think we interfered with their getting a big bundle of money to leave them. There are the inevitable imperfectly coordinated bylaws and rules that already are revealing where they need to be fine-tuned, and the inevitable infighting that effort leads to. There is backbiting. And there is at least one Toxic Person who has made it onto the Board. My free time now is all sucked away by the needs of the Cooperative. I worked to save it, but now I hate it here.
Frodo couldn't stay in the Shire either.
The 47 unit mobile home park I own my little dwelling in was one day away from being seized by the town for back taxes and was bid on by a developer. We had to save our homes, so we formed a nonprofit housing cooperative, matched the developer's offer in accordance with Massachusetts law, got financing and bought the park ourselves instead. We are rehabilitating it after decades of very serious mismanagement, and we have far to go, because basically the entire infrastructure has to be rebuilt over a few short years. I was and am one of the key people pulling off this acquisition and easing us into resident ownership. I am also a very extreme Introvert.
There are meetings, meetings, meetings, sometimes four a week between the Board, the membership, and various committees. There are fires to put out. There is the newsletter I edit. There is a deliberately uninformed minority who resent us for saving their shabby little homes and think we interfered with their getting a big bundle of money to leave them. There are the inevitable imperfectly coordinated bylaws and rules that already are revealing where they need to be fine-tuned, and the inevitable infighting that effort leads to. There is backbiting. And there is at least one Toxic Person who has made it onto the Board. My free time now is all sucked away by the needs of the Cooperative. I worked to save it, but now I hate it here.
Frodo couldn't stay in the Shire either.
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Re: Ever had to jump into the social blender for the greater good?
Fri, June 6, 2008 - 10:41 PMSOMETHING VERY SIMILAR HAPPENED TO ME. OUR OLD DOWNTOWN WAS THE TARGET OF GREEDY REDEVELOPERS. THE GROUP I LEAD PUT AN INITIATIVE ON THE BALLOT AND STOPPED THEM COLD, BUT.....THE "CAUSE" TOOK OVER MY LIFE. THERE
IS HOPE FOR YOU. THE FRANTIC PACE DOES SLOW AND FINALLY IT IS ALL OVER. IT TOOK ME MUCH LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD TO RECOVER. THE SACRIFICE OF YOUR WELL BEING IS THE STUFF THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON. I AM HONORED TO BE IN YOUR TRIBE.
