Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Voluntary vs mandatory cooking teams

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

I have only heard of one place that makes cooking mandatory, all others use
a voluntary system. At Sharingwood we use the carrot approach, cooks get
three free meals. If you eat community dinner then you are expected to sign
up to either cook, help or clean at least twice in a month, although nobody
monitors this. Community meals are not for everyone, and in my opinion,
people should be able to opt out without guilt or hassles. We have some
people who attend every meal, and some folks that rarely attend meals.

Sometimes groups start off with too many meals, then people burn out. It
might be better to start off slowly, once a week, let people get an
understanding of the enjoyment, then up the schedule. There are places that
do meals six nights a week, and some that only do once a week. At
Sharingwood we have sign ups for 4 nights a week, but usually only average 3
meals a week. If nobody signs up for all three spots, there is no meal and
this happens usually one day a week. Its not a big deal, and nobody seems to
feel unduely pressured or hassled. Your mileage may vary


Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood, Snohomish WA