Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: other kinds of membership..

[Cohousing-L Listmgr (fholson]

Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] crd.lotus.com or Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] NewView.org
is the author of the message below but due to a listproc problem it was
posted by the COHOUSING-L list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
********************  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS ***********************


I wanted to learn about other group's experiences with defining and living with 
other sorts of membership categories beyond the normal legal minimum of 'I'm a 
home owner here".

The membership committee and the steering committee at New View (Acton MA) are 
beginning to deal again with three related membership issues: A potential 
adjacent land owner who wants to be integrally involved with as much of the 
community as possible; renters; and people that want to sometimes come by.

The potential neighbor is someone currently on our waiting list who has decided 
that they probably won't get a place on our site soon, because all the houses 
are accounted for, and no one is dropping out. They could build next door & 
have some sort of special membership. The group and committee have begun to 
talk over the pros & cons. One concern is the complexities of defining this 
relationship. They'd like to pay some portion of the usual condo fee, put money 
into our development costs (roughly equivalent to an equal share in the common 
house), particicpate in consensus, etc; but they can't be a part of the formal 
condo association.  Any experiences out there to help us understand how we 
might work with this situation?

Renters will probably be our next issue, but I seem to remember earlier 
discussions on that: I'll check the archives.

We've also talked before about friends of New View who come by sometimes. We've 
talked about different models for how to do this. One is a no-cost deal where 
if you are invited by any household, you can come on by, with that houeshold as 
your sponsor & responsible for communicating and/or enforcing any community 
agreements we've agreed to.  Another is a more formal arrangement, where you 
pay some money and go through a more community-wide membership process.  Any 
experience to share here?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

-Jim Snyder-Grant
New View (Acton MA)
Where we have 12 out of 24 households moved in;
Much mud or snow, depending on the weather, instead of landscaping;
and we are spending much group & committee time rethinking how to finance the 
common house, now that we are getting a more complete sense of the degree of 
our cost-overruns.

Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] crd.lotus.com
or
Jim-Snyder-Grant [at] NewView.org