Date:         Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:29:51 -0700
Reply-To:     John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: time share on a vanagon
In-Reply-To:  <e49bd5460604280738k4bbf73f7re2a04110b9b21580@mail.gmail.com>
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> Some cities have a car rental time share program. It differs from rentals
> because it is more of a co op ?  Of course vanagons would be more
> complicated because of the maintenece, however if the co op consisted of a
> bracnch of drivers that put in working hours at the main garage for credit
> twored driving hours. Here in Pittsburgh and I am sure as well in other
> cities there is a bike co op program like that. There mission is to keep
> old
> bicycles on the road.


Oi, I think that might probably work better for bikes than Vanagons, as
people probably all have about the same notion of how a bicycle should be
maintained. I have visions of one member getting credit for "repairs" and a
second member coming in and getting credit for "undoing so-called repairs".
A third guy comes in and spends ten hours adding pinstriping and spinner
hubcaps for credit. Yet another guy logs four hours but only seems to have
stuck a plastic compass and a stinky, blingy "crown" air freshener to the
dash. I'm probably just pessimistic from how most large housing co-ops end
up (a multi-way fight between the cheapskates, the "value-adders", and the
security paranoids is the favorite). I guess it's like any commune-style
setup. Works great for small groups of people who have mostly  known one
another for a long time, but falls apart when too many "outsiders" enter the
mix. I once had a long, interesting conversation with a man who lived on a
hippie commune for something like fifteen years. His observation was that
there were essentially three classes of people there in the beginning. A
small number of the Astoundingly Competent, a small number of the Useless
Leeches, and the Unskilled But Enthusiastic Majority. The Majority could be
coached by the Competent and made useful. The Leeches were the inevitable "I
didn't join a commune to WORK; I got papers if anyone has any weed" types.
As time wore on the Majority drifted away because they found that working
for your sustenance directly was no less work than working for The Man for
money, and you'd never have a lot of nice stuff unless you had money. This
eventually just left a small number of the Competent supporting the Leeches.
The Competent gradually got fed up and, one by one, moved on to more
productive ventures. The Leeches were the only group that actually GREW, fed
by a steady stream of free-rider dropouts following some bizarre idealized
vision of the hippy lifestyle (his exact words were "despite the claims of
their bumper stickers, these wanderers were DEFINITELY lost"). When it got
to the point where the "commune" was just some weird bazaar barely surviving
by selling weird hippy jewelry/junk to middle class hipsters, he left. Got a
job as a framing carpenter and did volunteer work on the side. I'm sure I
had a point in this, but I've lost it somewhere. Seeing as how it's Fridy,
I'll just post this and leave it up to the reader to find it...

Just can't wait untill I am putting in more hours sleeping in my van than
> working on it,
>

It's a wonderful day when you go out to the van on saturday morning after
MONTHS of slaving away at it and open up the engine hatch and say: "Hmmm.
I'm pretty much done in here. I guess I'll just wash it and get ready for a
trip."

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"