Cohousing-L Mailing List: Rules

[bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

        Another related issue which favors written rules is orienting new 
folks.  When we first moved into Swans Market Cohousing it had been up and 
running for three years.  Many of our neighbors had been meeting for years even 
before that during the planning and design phase so there were many agreements 
which had been hashed out already and not all of them had been written down.  
There was no formal orientation process in place so the way we learned about 
many of these expectations was by violating social norms and being told about 
it after the fact.  Believe me this is an uncomfortable orientation to a 
community.  In response to this I convinced the community that we needed some 
orientation documents in place before the next new people showed up.  It took a 
year of interviewing people, writing it all down, running it by the HOA and 
then revising before we got our final version which is reviewed annually by our 
group process committee so it stays up to date.  We also have a one page sheet 
for guests who stay in our guest room.  Clarity is a great virtue in a 
community.
                                         Happy camper from Swans Cohousing,
                                                   Bonnie Fergusson






Sent from my iPad