Cohousing-L Mailing List: Coomon House management

[Audrey Watson (audrey]

Here is the way we manage our common house at Winslow Cohousing, in
Bainbridge Island, WA. 

1. The heating and cooling system is fully adjustable
to any individual's preference. - 

Well, much of the year heating and cooling is done by opening and closing
windows and we do that at will.  The heat is radiant floor heat in a cement
slab, and turning it up and down doesn't make any immediate changes, so it
is set.

2. The doors are left open all day and a few hours
after dark. - 

Our common house is unlocked during the day, locked at night, with a
rotating set of people responsible for lockup. Our office and shop are
always locked, unless someone is in them. But we live somewhere where it is
reasonably safe to leave it unlocked during the day.  If the doors are left
open the cats wander in, and we do have a policy of no animals in the common
house. We did have one cat that did a tightrope walk on the windowsills 2
stories up to get in an open window that didn't have a screen.

3. Kids are allowed to use the common house unsupervised. - 
No specific policy, kids are supervised in the common house about the same
as they are on the rest of the grounds.  We encourage respect for common
facilities, and have some rules about not eating on the new sofas, etc.


4. Any food in the refrigerator is free for the taking. - 
We have a log on the refrigerator door, leftovers are 50 cents a serving.
Food for upcoming meals are in one section, and can't be taken.  We don't
allow unattended alcohol anywhere in the common house. (so, no wine left in
the refrigerator etc)

5. We have two guest rooms and charge nothing to guests.  
We have one large guest room and charge a $5/night nominal charge that
covers use of water/electricity/replacement of linens etc.  Whoever uses it
is responsible for leaving it clean.

6. We have frequent public meetings and private socialevents and charge
nothing to the sponsors.
We don't charge anything for use of the common house, and in fact our
insurance discourages rental, then we'd have to have a different level of
insurance.  We don't have "public meetings" all events have to have a
sponsor/host.  We do have meetings that are open to the community such as a
recent candidates forum.

Audrey Watson
Winslow Cohousing
Bainbridge Island, WA