The truth was often exactly opposite your proposition in that the ashram premies were the most responsible, and sometimes capable, ones around.  I know I was "tapped" by our new community coordinator, Ron Bator, who came to Vancouver and noticed that I and a few other stalwarts were generally eagre and willing to get involved, do whatever needed to be done.  We ashram residents weren't in any way "misfits" compared to the community premies. 

It may have been different in different countries, Jim.  In the UK I distinctly remember a lot of the ashram premies as being a particularly weird lot.  Some of the housemothers seemed quite repressed and odd, and the secretaries were often a certain type of Englishman - ineffectual, sort of "weedy", a bit of a "salesman" type - probably someone who never fitted particuarly well in the hippy world (a bit too straight at heart, but in an odd way).  A lot of the 'cooler' people stayed out of the ashrams and used to laugh at the ashram premies up to a point, whilst having a certain respect for their 100% commitment, and readiness to be posted anywhere in the country including Scunthorpe. 

It was a sort of standing joke in England that a real test of your commitment would be for Glen Whittaker to send you off to Scunthorpe (a particularly bleak part of England) for a life of unremitting arti at 6.00am, work in some dreary job, interminable jumbling etc etc.  Some of the ashram premies wouldn't even get to go to some of the festivals but had to stay back in the ashram taking care of things.  It was seen as a sort of dull, monastic existence, brighened only by the thought you might get posted to the Residence, or get wildly blissed out in meditation, or feel really really close to M all the time.

Possibly because M spent relatively little time in the UK compared to the US, the ashrams did become a sort of dumping ground for misfits, and you could moulder away there for years if you weren't careful - many did.

Livia