Re: work allocation [was Re: how many people for common meal...just starting]
From: R.P. Aditya (adityagrot.org)
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:43:53 -0700 (PDT)
On Thu, Aug 10, 2006 at 02:51:16PM -0400, Sharon Villines wrote:
> There is HUGE resistance to quantification. And to preserving the 
> status quo. People who do not work are not penalized so why work? (My 
> judgment.)

to be sure, we don't have any enforced penalties but we also have no chronic
cases of negligence, so far.

> Even with the system of assigning hours to tasks rather than having 
> people track their time (a non-starter) we can't get closer to a 
> logical and fair system. We are due to review a voluntary system this 

we have work coordinators/point people who follow up on things like CH
cleaning jobs or landscaping jobs who are not afraid of approaching the
assigned person and asking them to step up etc. -- it's difficult, but
it's easier to deal with it like that before it becomes a community-wide
issue.

> fall so there is always hope. Hearing about a community that has such a 
> system that works, and that accomplishes so many meals, would be a 
> great incentive for us. Everyone wants more meals.

We recently added 2 hours a month each for two "counted" members per committee
in addition to the committee convener, who already received work credit hours,
to the work program. That means a total of 32 more hours in the work program
that recognizes committee work (which had been done uncounted so far), but for
that counted members are expected to attend every commmittee meeting
(typically twice a month) and do all the commitee work required that isn't a
separate job in the work program. This further quantifies work, and was a
tough sell, but I think the uniform recognition of community work makes a
compelling case.

I do think we are on the extreme end of the quantified/organized scale, but it
is also much easier to explain and discuss when everyone has a currency
(hours) that is universally tangible. I wish we didn't have to do all this
since it introduces an organzational overhead, and I would love to believe
that 60 adults could just make it all work on unwritten/untracked good faith,
but the examples where that works seem rare.

> Do cooks pay for the meals they cook?

cooks pay for the foodstuffs they purchase for the meals and are remibursed
once they hand in their receipts, either by a check or as a credit to their
household meals account.

Adi

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