Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Membership Requirements: a volunteer ethic

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

Denise Meier  asked about Sharingwoods option agreement provision for =
people to contribute work to the community in order to keep their place =
in the lot selection queue.

Details.  Hours requirement is by household, not person.  A four person =
household can split their hours however it works for them.
Tracking:  This is self tracked by the option holders.  When they reach =
the required amount they hand a record of it to the secretary.
Amount of hours. We only ask for 40 hours of time over a year.  Pretty =
minimal.  You could easily do this just coming to most the meetings.
I have never heard complaints from the singles in our group that this is =
unfair to them, but then again, the issue of fairness doesn't wash in =
our community because many people in our community give very unselfishly =
of their time and money, way beyond  expectations, and so whining about =
fairness wouldn't go very far by someone complaining about having to do =
40 hours over a year.  We don't worry about about "fairness" too much.  =
People who want to make commitments to the community do so from their =
own schedule and heart and if some folks do much and others do less, it =
doesn't seem to matter too much most the time.  If the job isn't getting =
done we ask for volunteers again.  Someday I suppose when we ask for =
volunteers, no hands will go up, the so we will have to deal with it.  =
That hasn't happened yet, and people make the choice of how much to give =
so they have little excuse to be burnt out because we don't require =
anybody to volunteer, we simply ask and you have the right not to.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood