Cohousing-L Mailing List: sweat equity

[fassnach (fassnach]

  We at Porchlight Cohousing are in the process of developing some of
our basic, defining documents.  Associated with the definition of
membership, we wanted to include some sort of definition of seniority.
Seniority, we thought, should be based both on the number of months
that equity payments (of at least the minimum amount) are made, and on
the amount of sweat equity contributed.  But how to measure sweat
equity?  If we just count hours, then inefficient work can be
"rewarded" just for inefficiency.  But maybe this is something we
shouldn't really be worrying about.
  The reason that seniority became an issue, is that we thought we
might use it in assigning house locations when that time came (tho'
after reading the discussion on this list about alternative ways of
allocating houses, I do think that seniority needs to be used with
discretion).
  How do other groups deal with counting sweat equity?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Stephanie Fassnacht
Porchlight Cohousing
Madison WI
fassnach [at] ssc.wisc.edu