Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community size

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

RoseWind Cohousing (long built) in Port Townsend WA has 24 households. For 
various reasons, several households don't participate. About 16 participate 
fairly regularly (meetings, work, social), with the rest on a spectrum in 
between. I'd be concerned that with a small number (like 6-12), a few who 
didn't participate could create a significant work crunch, as well as making 
decision making trickier, if a few were absent. On the other hand, perhaps with 
fewer people it is more evident that participation is vital. With a larger 
group, I think some people just figure "somebody" -- Magic Elves??-- will 
replace the light bulb, buy the toilet paper, weed the patio, deal with 
finances and legalities, etc. And so far, "somebody" here does attend to 
things, though we "somebodies" (a friend calls us the Diligencia) wish we had 
more help!

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau