Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Members who are gone a lot

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 26, 2016, at 11:36 AM, Alice Alexander <alicecohous [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:

> One of the benefits of cohousing for members is being able to travel with
> the security of your home being watched and your plants being watered.
> However, the downsides to the community include fewer people to attend to
> daily maintenance needs and work sharing, and the missing the community of
> these folks.
> 
> In my own Durham Coho, I applaud the travels of my neighbors who are
> occasionally are gone for a month or three, yet I do miss their company
> when they are away! As a community, we have functioned well with periodic
> travelers, who jump back in to community work and social opportunities when
> they return.

Ditto everything Alice said. I also have a strong personal reaction to having 
empty units in the community. It’s like a black hole. And someone else does 
have to take care of what they would take care of if they were here. 
Emergencies come up, for example. What should we do?

We have some households that travel frequently for short periods — less than 2 
weeks. One does a month long tour every summer. It’s nice when they send 
updates and they often exchange houses via Servas (spelling?). One set of 
summer residents became friends of people here who keep up with them. They send 
news and pictures.

Those work well. Personally I have a hard time when “everyone" leaves in 
August. This is less common now for some reason but in the early 2000’s, the 
place would clear out. I feel lonely. Empty places all around.

And then there was the infamous August when someone or someones kindly arranged 
all the HVAC services for 43 units before they left. BUT they didn’t leave 
anyone in charge. We just got an email on the members list that said, here is 
the schedule of cleanings. Since almost half of them were away, we at home were 
stuck with trying to figure out how to get into units and how people would be 
billed.

I think with a 3 months snowbird, it would be nice to have a Servas trade so 
every winter Joe and Moe would be back. Someone who never sees snow otherwise. 
And fits into the community. That would be nice.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org