Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: work rules in cohousing

[Anne R Tyler (tylerar]

I fall somewhere in the middle in this discussion about 
work/contribution.

I currently would choose having monthly (or regularly scheduled
meetings) at which there is a list (or diagram or ....) of the work needed
for the next month (or ...). Then each person or group or family commits
to doing a certain amount. That way the work distribution is flexible
enough for different peoples' schedules. I'm a grad student with heavy
deadlines at certain times. I could contribute more at certain times of
the semester to "make up" for my lack of contribution at other times. 

If there are problems in getting the work done, there is a way of again 
negotiating how it will get done. Sometimes there's a need for more 
learning about specific tasks or groups of tasks. This could be part of 
the monthly discussion, eg, "we seem to need more training in how to take 
care of the (horses)--do we have someone here who could do the training or 
do we need to go outside and hire someone to do it?".

This way there's flexibility *and* respect for the different levels of 
skill and commitment each person has.

My 2 cents....

Anne

__________________________________________________________________
Anne Tyler
master's candidate in Community and Regional Planning
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque
tylerar [at] unm.edu