Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Volunteer Guidelines for our community

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 16, 2026, at 10:38 AM, Stuart Bush via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> At RCE, all adult residents of the community, including renters, agree 
> upfront to contributing 4-8 hours per month towards upkeep of the community.

> What work counts? Does all work have equal value? 

Many people do not count committee meeting hours as work, or any paperwork or 
computer recording of data, or research to support purchases or other 
decisions. These amount to hours and hours of time. When you need a new vacumn 
cleaner, what to buy? A large, high-powered system that does different things 
or an inexpensive stick vacuumn that people will use after watching TV with 
snacks?

Talking to members to get opinions and experience with systems they recommend, 
finding dependable reviews, resolving objections — takes time.

There is also the issue of what kind of work can be hired out and what kind is 
better done by people who are members of the community. At one point at Takoma 
Village we were having trouble maintaining a meals program. When we considered 
hiring out maintenance twice a month so more hours were available for cooking 
meals, the people who cleaned the common house objected. They liked cleaning 
the commonhouse. Some of them cooked in addition but none of them were 
interested in cooking instead of cleaning.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD
Founding member and 25 year resident in Takoma Village, Washington DC