Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: labor credit / Twin Oaks

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

An enthusiastic member tried out a small scale system of this called 
Sharingbucks, which was sort of a internal money system for bartering. It 
never went anywhere. My own take on it was that quantifying it was annoying. 
If I want to give time to someone, then I do so. If I have some skill they 
need I am usually happy to share it without thinking about its "value" and 
getting a "fair return" .  

I reccomend that communties that are built making a mimimum hourly requirement 
of all members, and then charging $10 and hour for those that do not 
participate the required hours. Then you can use the $10 an hour to hire 
somebody else, or let the non-participant pay someone else directly the $10 an 
hour to do their minimum hours for them.

I would also make accounting systems annual rather than monthly. This way low 
participation one month can be averaged out with high participation another 
month. 

At Sharingwood we require members to contribute 2 hours a month on a team. 
This is 24 hours a year, a very small amount, but its also something like 60 
people hours a month, which is a fair amount of human capital. 

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood