Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Cohousing/Guest Ranch

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

There are  some folks who insist that as soon as you do a community
business, which employs people in the community, you are no longer
"cohousing" but "an intentional Community".

Why it is important for this distinction to be made I don't understand. The
Cohousing Company folks for one seem pretty ardent about this, and they
invented the word Cohousing, even had it trademarked at one point, but there
are others as well who say this.

Operating a community business does indeed change your realtionships so that
you rely on each other a great deal more, and might even, Gasp!, share
income! This notion is perhaps unsettling to the image of cohousing as a
respectable, middle-class endeavor? I don't know. It seems to make lots of
sense, that if a community business makes sense, that it happens. I am not
sure of the role of the Cohousing Network, but I don' think there is any
Cohousing police that will bust you if you run a community business and call
yourselves XYZ Ranch Cohousing. YOu might just have to put with a small
amount of flak as a few people insist you are not REALLY cohousing......

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood