Cohousing-L Mailing List: Fines?

[Dawn E. Slack (dawneslack]

Hello, wise humans! Our Board is discussing instituting fines (which we
haven’t really done in our 40 year history). As you can imagine, opinions
are split. I’m wondering: for communities that have gone this route, how
did it play out for you? For communities who have had members who have
repeatedly disregarded or violated agreements, what were some winning
strategies, if any?

I’ll add in here that our community had multiple significant ruptures
between 2020-2023 that we have struggled to recover from and repair, so I
think this factors in. Simultaneously, the specific neighbors in question
have been involved in several acrimonious conflicts over the past decade
(think Hatfields and McCoys; a professional mediator hired to help them a
few years ago told us she’d never experienced people so unwilling to budge
in her entire career), so this seems to be the latest iteration of that
dynamic.

Thank you in advance for any insight and experience you can offer!

Dawn