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

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

As one of the members of TVC who takes off every August to get out of the heat 
…  I do appreciate that my house is looked after in my absence.  AND I am also 
very aware that while I’m gone for a month … my household is not contributing 
to the workload of the community.  In my defense,  I do not take any other 
extended time away from the community during the year.  Thanksgiving and 
Christmas, Spring Break, all three-day weekends … I’m home.  I try to 
accumulate workshare brownie points while I’m in residence but still … that 
month in August leaves others to figure out how to parcel out the work.

What about people who are gone for extended periods and who also don’t 
participate in the work of the community while they are here?  That begins to 
feel as if the community is a Time Share for them.  My guess is that a number 
of communities have something of this going on.

In re:  snowbirds … how many snowbird households are we talking about?  One?  
Five? More?  Absorbing one household’s workshare load is one thing … five 
households is another.

I’m thinking that what really matters is:  how do we share the work of the 
community?  Whether you have people gone for extended times or people who 
travel for business a LOT or who simply don’t show up for the work of living in 
community.  What is important is the conversation among members for making sure 
everyone’s needs are addressed.  

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654

A friend recently told me I was delusional.  I nearly fell off my unicorn.
> On Sep 26, 2016, at 11:53 AM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
> sharonvillines.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
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