This is a guest post written by Ann Congleton.
In a Nov. 6 post on this blog about planning for the floor under the proposed Health Center, I described some possible uses of this Lower Floor which I believe would support and strengthen our community life. Responses I have received have been very encouraging, including suggestions of additional community-enhancing possibilities. Responses, however, have also included requests for discussion of the alternative proposal, the proposal to use the Lower Floor for apartments for new residents, increasing the total number of Kendal at Longwood residents as a fundraising technique.
Genuine discussion of choices about the Lower Floor needs more than a follow-up blog post or a general meeting or two, and I have not heard a convincing reason why it is not possible to postpone this major decision for, say, six months to allow the needed discussion. A delay is also likely to clarify national economic trends.
Therefore two things seem needed immediately. The first is postponement of any decision.
The second is formation right away of a Kendal at Longwood Resident-Staff Collaborative Committee for the Lower Floor, a committee on the model of the collaborative committee that has produced the promising design for the Health Center floor, the plan so well presented by Sarah Matas and others on Sept. 28.
A Lower Floor Collaborative Committee would need to be established before any further decisions are made, because without it, only administrative views are assured of adequate inclusion. And, like the successful Collaborative Health Services Committee, the Lower Floor Committee needs to be a Kendal at Longwood Committee, not a four-campus committee.
Once genuine deliberation about this decision can be launched by the committee, there can be discussion of whether to use the Lower Floor for spaces for community-enhancing activities or to use it for fund raising by building apartments for new residents, increasing the total number of residents. In a previous post, George Alexander offered a strong case that building apartments in the Center for new residents is not a financial necessity. The two proposals can therefore be compared simply in terms of their long-range impact on our community.
Because my Nov. 6 post has already sketched ways in which the Lower Floor could be used for activities to strengthen community life and attract future residents to Kendal at Longwood (hereafter KAL), here are some thoughts on ways I believe building apartments for new residents in the Center would weaken the community along with passing up possible community-enhancing uses of the space.
The problem that has received the most discussion so far is that using the Lower Floor for apartments that would increase the number of residents at KAL is a danger to the sense of community which is such a major reason many of us have come to KAL. In an earlier blog post, George looked at the general literature on community size. That literature supports the view that face-to-face communities need to be small.
Size has been addressed by others also. For example, Harry Hammond in a valuable comment on George’s Oct. 8 post points out that having KAL be a face-to-face community was a basic goal of the founders, and keeping KAL small enough to be a face-to-face community was the reason for creating a second face-to-face community, Crosslands, rather than enlarging KAL.
Just as community as a value was reflected in the limitation of size and in the ground plan that made the Center the gathering place equally accessible by all, so other founding values of KAL were also expressed in its physical structure. For example, the value of “simplicity” was expressed in the modest design of the cottages. The value of “equality” understood as economic inclusiveness was expressed in having cottages of a range of affordability with the sizes intermixed to avoid discriminations among neighborhoods. The value of closeness to nature, a major reason for choosing its beautiful location, was expressed in its design as an array of walkways and trails rather than as a giant building in which people both lived and gathered, staying mostly indoors. The value of having residents remain community members even as they declined was expressed by provision for declining members to live in the Center for the purpose of enabling them to remain community participants as much and as long as possible, aided in this by the support not only of our excellent and kind Health Services but of the Independent Living residents coming to the Center.
Deciding to have a large sub-population of Independent Living residents move into the Center without first having been members of the cottage community challenges all these aspects of KAL’s “character of place,” the expression of KAL’s values in its physical features. The proposal thus raises the question of what sort of place KAL wants to be today. This question needs to be seriously discussed before deciding how to use the Lower Floor space, since that decision is of a magnitude that will affect the character of place of KAL for decades to come.
The first step toward avoiding unreflective drift is to ask ourselves what KAL seeks to be today and in the future before making such a momentous long range decision. The best way to do that seems to me to be immediate formation of a Kendal at Longwood Collaborative Committee on the Lower Floor to do for that major space what the Kendal at Longwood Collaborative Health Services Committee seems to be doing so well for the Health Center. The meeting on Nov. 28 could be an opportunity to begin the process of creating the needed Lower Floor Committee.
On the Kendal Journey 
I think it is critical to make the best decision possible, not the one which is quick and expedient. I hope we can have an EXPRESSION of the opinion from all in the Kendal community about this major proposal.
LikeLike
ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
I would like to share a few of my thoughts about three of the several issues that came up during the discussion of Health Center Renovations. I have shared this with Lisa and her leadership team.
Values I suspect that the majority of residents and administration subscribe to the set of values that guided the founders of Kendal and those who have led it for the past half-century. There seem to be some among us who believe that the way the founders chose to embody those values in the 1970s are the only way to implement those values. I would argue that the task now confronting Kendal residents and administration is to work out how best to incarnate those values for the second quarter of the twenty-first century. Our society has changed substantially in the past half century and we have both new tools and new challenges that will shape the expression of those values in future decades. One of the watchwords of the 16th century Protestant Reformation should guide us here: “Reformed, and always being reformed.”
Community While the number of individuals in an organization sets some constraints on whether a “sense of community” develops, it is not the only determinant. With a current IL population of 300 or so, Kendal has long passed (if it ever had) a size when every person knows every other person quite well. As with most organizations, an individual’s choice to participate in activities with other members of the group is the major determinant of whether that individual has a sense of being a part of a community. The Covid pandemic clearly made it more difficult for individuals to participate with others; especially those who became residents during the times of restriction. Becoming friends with a sub-set of other residents while working toward a common objective is the best way to development a sense of community. I believe that Kendal can do a better job, from recruitment of new members through their initial months at Kendal, in articulating an expectation that each resident will contribute to the well-being of the community with whatever skills, gifts, and energy they have. We did not choose a luxury cruise where everything is provided by paid staff; rather, we residents chose a place where we could shape the community through our personal and collective contributions. I think this message “got lost” for a significant number of residents who joined since 2020. Whether than arguing over the impact of overall size, I believe more can be accomplished by repeatedly lifting up the value that each person has something to contribute to our life together.
Timing An upgrade to the Kendal Health Center has been under discussion for all the ten-plus years the Kimmel have been residents. How many Kendal residents have died during this time without experiencing the benefits that a renovated health care facility could provide. If our medical staff treated us only with the knowledge and therapies that were available in 1970, we would be outraged. Yet we have not significant upgraded the facilities to reflect more recent research and practice. Extended Quakerly deliberations are preventing residents from benefiting from current knowledge about the environment that facilitates healthy living. Let’s get on with the job!
LikeLike