my food coop

I walked off in the rain and cold (winter DID come after all, and we even got a little bit of snow, although it melted immediately) to the food coop to meet up with F, who vouches for me so I can be taken up in the coop. F reminds me v. much of K's old flatmate D, our favourite gay choirmaster. He has the same straightforward, honest and direct yet respectuous way of speaking, moderating and taking responsibility for all sorts of things - linked with the particular type of scatterbrain that D is also well known for having. (it was never a surprise to find an unpaid phone bill and a reminder or two for that same bill - plus threats to cut the phone line - under a pile of paper on his desk. As for F, he told me and another person that the plenum would take place in Körtestr, when in face it was in a parallel street. Which didn't matter for me, as I met up with him earlier, but was rather inconvenient for the other person.)

F and I are both in the group of coop people trying to set up alternative structures for direct cooperation with farmers, but F is going away to India for two months and coming back right when I'll be going away. It's a shame, because I instinctively like F and would have liked to work with him and the rest of the group. That will wait for autumn.

In any case, we eventually went to the plenum. At first not quite ten people were there, and gradually more arrived, some a half hour later, others an hour and a half. On my right, people in their forties and fifties. On my left, people in their twenties and thirties. The right side kept making side comments, talking while somebody else was explaining something, having conversations with their neighbours and generally being undisciplined and unruly. The left side was peaceful and bathed in a different plenum culture - the plenum culture I instinctively apply in such a context (or try to), implicitely demanding that each wait for their turn to speak, wait for the other person to finish talking before jumping in the conversation, try to include everyone in the debate, and listen respectfully. F did his best to disciplin the older fraction. There are a few difficult cases, but one gets used to every personality, I suppose.
What's more important for me is the gradual discovery of the number of details and organisational difficulties that exist. I still imagined that the whole business of organising one's food supplies would be pretty straight forward. Miss A wants to order her vegetables from farmer family W and does so. But in reality, Farmer family W only delivers the food on saturdays, and the rest of the food coop wants the delivery during the week. Farmer family delivers the produce if the order is for 50 euros at least - but the food coop people don't know the produce that W can deliver and wouldn't buy them. etc etc.
We'll see how it goes. All is possible, but it's a long educational process... In any case, in the mean time, I have my food coop. Hurray.