Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Non-resident members

[ElanaKahn (ElanaKahn]

Hi,
Janine S. asked about non-resident members. About half of the Westwood (in
Asheville, NC) members live in other parts of the country and even the world;
one member currently lives in Israel. We have devised a proxy partner system
that works well. Each long-distance member pairs up with a local proxy
partner to represent him/her at meetings as well as possible from the
distance. The two get to know each other well enough by phone, letter, fax,
email or whatever that the local one has a pretty good idea what the
non-local one's major concerns are. The long-distance member's job is to keep
up with the minutes and other mailings and contact the local proxy partner
(and pay for the call) if and when an issue comes up that is especially
important. The local proxy speaks to the other's concerns at a meeting and
contributes to the decision-making process with that person's views in mind.
If the long-distance person feels strongly enough about something to hold up
consensus, the local proxy helps to resolve the problem. It is not as good as
being in the room all together hashing it out, but it certainly gives
non-resident members a way to participate and helps build personal
relationships and trust.

Elana Kahn
Westwood CoHousing Community
Asheville, NC
where we have found a builder, are now negotiating our construction loan,
hope to start building in January, and have 3 dwellings available out of 24!