Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: S. Kashdan (skashdancablespeed.com) | |
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:00:56 -0700 (PDT) |
I personally don't feel comfortable with a chores system that requires people to work or pay. Some people may have family or job challenges that make it difficult for them to do community chores for a while, or they may have or may develop health problems or disabilities of various sorts which may make it difficult for them to do chores, but may be living on fixed incomes. For those people such a system could be a significant burden or embarrassment. This could be the case for older or younger residents. Most people at Jackson Place Cohousing do what they can when they can, and most people in our community aren't lazy. I think there needs to be other more neighborly and humane ways to deal with getting community chores done than privileging those with the most energy, time or money or the least family or job problems or the least disabilities. In the 10 years we have lived in our community we have tried various work systems, all of which have worked for a while, and have required fine-tuning and change as the needs and desires of our residents have changed and as our residents have changed over time. For the past year and a half, we have been using a system that involves four chore groups which take turns doing community chores. Chore groups A, B and C take turns during different months doing a list of specified chores. Each of them does chores every third month. Chore group D does other regular chores every month. We have a notebook with the signed-up group members on the cover and the chores specified for each month on sign-up sheets where people can check off what they did that month. Those signed up for groups A, B and C try to get together to do chores together or to coordinate the chores they do during their specified months. I am the chores group coordinator, so my job is reminding everyone of when the new chore group takes over, and I also thank those who have done chores each month, as well as listing those chores that have not been done each month. While the current system is not perfect, it seems to be helping people to encourage each other, and to focus more on what chores need to be done and to help get them done. There are always things that we need to hire professionals to do for which everyone shares the cost in the community budget. This makes it less a question of blaming or shaming anyone and more a question of figuring out how best to get things accomplished... Those who don't mind paying for chores they don't want to do are paying more in their monthly dues, and those who can't do chores and are less well-off and more financially challenged are helped out by the cost being shared by the rest of the community without blaming or shaming. And, those who can do more chores are encouraged to do so to help bring costs down a little. In community, Sylvie Kashdan Jackson Place Cohousing 800 Hiawatha Place South Seattle, WA 98144 www.seattlecohousing.org info [at] jacksonplacecohousing.org ----- Original Message -----
-
work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Kay Argyle, April 14 2011
-
Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Daniel Lindenberger, April 14 2011
- Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? S. Kashdan, April 15 2011
- Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Sharon Villines, April 15 2011
- Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? David L. Mandel, April 16 2011
- Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Sharon Villines, April 17 2011
- Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Beverly Jones Redekop, April 17 2011
-
Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice? Daniel Lindenberger, April 14 2011
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.