Table of Contents
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đź’ˇ Crewing is
- A small group of people (3-6) that meets
- Regularly for N weeks/time period and
- Reflects on their experience together (after N weeks)
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💡 This page is a manifesto answering the question “why do crewing at the Commons?”
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Why Crewing Benefits the Commons
On congregations (the Commons is a “congregation” (12 min video):
https://www.microsolidarity.cc/practice-programs/vibes-program/course-content/congregations
- “Because of my experience with communities over the last 10 years or so, noticing that community members who don't have a crew are often the ones who tend to be isolated and disconnected and miss out on a lot of the opportunities and the benefits of community life. It's just been a recurring pattern that the people who have the most joy, the best experiences in communities are the ones who have a great connection in a crew… when you're new… one of your first objectives should be to find your crew.”
- “We support crews to form because it has this benefit for the whole network of increasing trust and increasing coherence. It becomes a really strong foundation of trust and social fabric, a baseline foundation for any upcoming challenges that the community might face. If there's lots of crews, then there are lots of trusting relationships and good communication flows. So it's a way of increasing the resilience as well as the coherence of the community.”
Goals for the Crewing Program
Object Level Goals (”What”)
Per Johnson’s opinion, experience & interpretation of Microsolidarity:
- Connections - more and deeper ones at the Commons
- Belonging - deeper sense of it at the Commons
- Personal growth/development - creating space for it and encouraging it at the Commons
- All of this and more, leads to a stronger community at the Commons, and ladders up to something something golden age of society
Connections
Crewing is a practice that, at its best, effectively takes (to borrow terms from Dunbar):
- Strangers -> Acquaintances
- Acquaintances -> Meaningful contacts