Cohousing-L Mailing List: Hire Babysitters?

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Coho Folks —

At Cornerstone in Cambridge, MA, we greatly value the maximum participation of 
everybody at our business meetings — most notably our monthly plenaries, but 
also committee meetings as well.  But for our numerous families with small 
children, parental participation is often a challenge for both single parent 
AND two parent households.  Accordingly, we’re now looking at proposal to fund 
babysitters during certain meetings, at a total annual cost estimated at $1700 
(appx $53 per household).

My question is:  How do other communities liberate parents for meeting 
participation?  Any details about your version of a babysitting pool?

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA