Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: how to handle "donations"

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Nov 8, 2025, at 10:24 AM, Mac Thomson via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Our entire community would never decide about something so trivial as a 
> furniture donation.

Well, objections to the word “trivial.” It is important to realize that the 
look and feel of the common spaces has a strong influence on the culture of the 
community and the behavior in meetings and general hanging out. It isn’t a 
science, but people know what they are comfortable with and respond 
accordingly. The community should discuss this and have agreement on the 
general look of things and how far you will go on avoiding things like leather, 
fragrances, pet hair, people jumping on furniture, cleaning standards, etc.

If the donation of a particular item becomes the focus of community conflict, 
then certainly the whole community might be involved in discussing and 
resolving the conflicting veiw points. Takoma Village once had this situation 
around the use of wool in the common house rugs, even sustainably and 
considerately raised sheep.

> All the rest of our decisions are delegated to teams. In this case, it’s the 
> Common House Team that needs to accept donations. Thanks, but no thanks, to 
> unneeded donations.

It’s important that the community be able to object to things they find 
objectionable and explain why. It would be rare that a team wouldn’t be able to 
resolve a situtation but a team can’t be aware of the history of all sorts of 
things that become physically objectionable to others. 

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD
Formerly of Takoma Village, Washington DC