Cohousing-L Mailing List: shared work agreements in cohousing communities

[Rachael Shapiro (rachael]

	Hello, I live at Ecovillage-Ithaca. Our second neighborhood 
is up and running-all 30 homes finished and occupied (except 1). My 
family and I lived in the first neighborhood for 7 years and have 
lived now in the 2nd neighborhood for 1 year. We are beginning to 
work out our shared work agreements. I have begun to look up what 
other cohousing communities are doing in regard to this on various 
websites. Could you direct me to any websites that have given this 
good attention?
        Some specific questions-
Do you have a suggested amount of time people should be putting in to 
the community per week (we are saying 2-4 hours per adult)? Voluntary 
or mandatory?

What counts as community work?  (we are looking at the essentials in 
maintaining  the community  (landscape care, meal prep, commmon house 
cleaning, etc.)  vs. committees that are essential to the development 
phase we re in vs. short term ad hoc individaul or team 
projects/tasks vs. things like doing a party)

What ways do you use, if any,  of keeping people accountable and/or 
of geting disengaged peole more engaged?  (We do not want to "police" 
people but have agreed on the need for some nonpunitive way to keep 
people accountable.- having people pay their way out is definitely 
unacceptable to us... but we have quite a few peope who contribute 
very little....)

What Expectations do you have for renters to have to contribute to 
the community?

Agreements that there are situations that will exempt folks from work 
(illness, life transitions, birth,etc)

Can you suggest  processes that we can do at the community meeting 
(we will have two one hour slots at the two meetings in June) that 
will help to resolve some of these issues?
                Any insights on this topic would be greatly appreciated!
                        Thanks! Rachael

The toads are mating and the spring peepers are singing here in 
Ithaca-signs of spring are bursting about everywhere (finally!)