Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Paying members of group for work

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

I have only heard of one of the ten cohousing groups in our area (Puget 
Sound) paying a member to do work and that was for doing a full time 
development manager job. (He is an architect and has that specialized 
experience).

Everybody else uses volunteers to get it all done.  What this means is 
that some things don't get done right away.  At Sharingwood we 
prioritize our tasks so that the primary energy goes into stuff that is 
most important.  What this means in practice is that the amount of what 
gets done, and when it gets done, reflects pretty clearly the energy 
and commitment of the group at that particular time.    We still 
haven't got the entrance project started, two years after we did the 
plan. And it took us three months to finish the playground out (And the 
grass never did get planted on the side) Almost always stuff that is 
important gets taken care of and the rest.....well, relax and live with 
the mess. (I know that this is hard to do for some types of people - 
the drivers want it done to spec and on schedule. But dealing with 
their frustrations and expectations is really a communications/group 
process activity such as a sharing circle - see the current issue of 
Cohousing magazine for details)