Re: Commitments to community | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Heimann (heimanntheworld.com) | |
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2016 07:52:02 -0800 (PST) |
Hello,Our experience at Jamaica Plain Cohousing has been similar to Springhill, except that our work requirements are 4 hours per month (48 hours per year). During the first several years we kept a strict accounting of who worked how many hours. However, after a while many people were complaining about the bureaucracy. After a long discussion we decided that informality and flexibility was preferable to fairness (yes, that was the choice we had to make), and have since have had people informally and semi-formally carrying out the various work tasks, some on workdays and some on a steady basis throughout the year. If something isn't getting done, we bring it up until someone steps forward. This system has been going on without serious complaints for around seven years now.
Regards, David Heimann
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 16:31:08 +0000 From: Malcom Eva <malcolm [at] m-eva.co.uk> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Commitments to community Message-ID: <158CCDAC-7F11-48F7-A026-572E2AB626AC [at] m-eva.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 At Springhill we started to record work done. We set a rule that every adult should contribute 20 hours per year to the running of the community. This was originally in the form of physical maintenance of the site and the common house, but was extended to necessary admin jobs as well, so that people not so physically resilient were able to make their contribution. For the first two years we kept a record in an A4 book so that everyone could log the hours and say what they did. We also run 5 or 6 workdays a year when as many people as are available and want can tackle various maintenance jobs and enhancement projects, all in a communal/social setting. However, some people never bothered to enter their hours; some people contributed way over 20 hours a year, and others way under; it became clear that the record didn?t actually tell the whole story so we scrapped that, but we still have the workdays, as well as smaller groups of people who look after general maintenance, keeping the common house clean and running the common garden areas. There is no way of enforcing the 20 hours rule, and it would cause much bad feeling if we did. Most people join in and help keep Springhill working well, and those who don?t, well, we say that it is their loss! Newcomers are told about the 20 hours and the workdays, and by and large our experience is that they bring much good energy and enthusiasm to caring for their new home/community. They do have a welcoming buddy who help with the induction, as well as a comprehensive welcoming booklet which gives necessary information (when is the rubbish and recycling collected etc). Although we have no way of enforcing participation and a few, often for very good reasons, don?t join in much it works well here. Malcolm On 18 Jan 2016, at 22:17, Beverly Jones Redekop <beverly.jones.redekop [at] gmail.com> wrote:No record keeping at all? No public log to record one's activities and time? No communication? How do new people figure out how the place runs itself if we don't tell them what we do and how long it takes? How do we gift our extra hours to people whom we wish to support (a busy farmer or phd student, a family with cancer or a newborn baby)? How do we talk to the disengaged who don't realize how much maintenance work is done or who imagine that the people working the most are happy to carry the slack of nonparticipants? Why do dollars for strata fees/HOA dues require accountability while hours for maintenance can run on inspiration, whims, and guilt? Of the happy, well-functioning communities (the ones that are in good repair and that have community dinners at least a couple of times per week), what is the split between recording and not recording? Do recorders and non-recorders both have reasonable contributions in lieu of participation from those who didn't contribute much time? We're very close to getting the occupancy certificate on our common house here in Yarrow, BC, so it's nice to know how thriving communities are achieving their health and happiness. Beverly at Groundswell Cohousing On Mon, Jan 18, 2016, 1:35 PM Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote:I?ve said this before but will say it again because this is such a problem in cooperative ventures with no definition or enforcement of cooperation. After 15+ years of reading the list, participating in food coops, school coops, churches, college faculties, etc., and various schemes to increase participation, I believe that hours and money are not the answer. Almost every time we have asked for hours or money in special circumstances ? emergency or desired extra ? we have gotten it. It?s much more important for me that people take responsibility for maintaining the community. Pay attention. Don?t make work for other people. Leave it better than you found it. Do something nice for a community member a few times a month. Assume a task that needs to be done on an ongoing basis so others don?t have to even think about it. Take charge of the sump pumps, the lawn mowing, straightening up the kids room, posting minutes on the website, etc., and do the job dependably and without reminders. A person who takes responsibility for the parking gate, ensuring that maintenance gets done and calling for service when necessary. Regular maintenance is a annual contract but it has never worked that the service people automatically show up. And when they don?t, the gate will break down a few weeks later. No one can get in or out. She is on it the minute she is informed. How much time does this all take? Probably a few hours a year. But I don?t even have a car and I bless her. The letter carrier blesses her because then she doesn?t have to carry mail from the other street ? a one block walk. Garbage pick up and recycling can back up very fast if the gate doesn?t open. When the community is on the whole functioning responsibly, I feel safe. It took me a long time to get to this. Rob Sandelin once said, how can I judge the value of 8 hours cleaning the trails (they have woods) and holding a half hour ksession with our children talking about ethics? (They have a philosophy professor.) Sharon ---- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/_________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ ------------------------------ End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 144, Issue 20 ********************************************
- Re: Commitments to community, (continued)
- Re: Commitments to community Sharon Villines, January 19 2016
- Re: Commitments to community Malcom Eva, January 19 2016
- Cooperation & Transparency [was Commitments to community Sharon Villines, January 18 2016
- Re: commitments to community Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah, January 18 2016
- Re: Commitments to community David Heimann, January 20 2016
-
Re: Commitments to community Mary Baker, Solid Communications, January 21 2016
- Re: Commitments to community alberta maged, January 21 2016
- Re: Commitments to community Sharon Villines, January 22 2016
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.