Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mandatory cooking cautionary note

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

Clarification: Really, you have four person cook teams, since you have 
separate people who clean up. The community I'm speaking of has only two
people do all the work for an entire meal. It's way too much.

We have one team of 3 do it all, since we felt that some people are much
more messy to clean up after than others. People have the option to have
different numbers of people on their team, like four. They have to cook once
for each person on the team per quarter. So a 3 person team cooks three
times every three months, and a 4 person tem cooks four times in 3 months.

If it works, it works-there's no arguing with that. However, I have seen and
heard about too many groups that don't want to make any work mandatory that
end up hiring out too much work and don't have enough meals. This means they
will eventually have spent years of their lives developing cohousing, only
to end up living in a condo no different than any other. I predict that many
cohousing communities will end up this way, but hope to be proven wrong.

--
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California

tamgoddess [at] home.com
http://members.home.net/southsideparkcohousing

----------
>From: Kristina Spencer <kspencer [at] drizzle.net>

>
> Just have to pipe in here. My family is the newest at Winslow Cohousing in
> Bainbridge Island, WA (we moved in last October). We have 2 person cook
> teams and cooking is *not* mandatory... yet we still manage to have meals
> 5 nights/week (Sun-Thurs) and a decent participation rate (ballpark
> figures: a small meal is 20ish, a large meal 50 or so with most falling
> into the 35-40 range out of a population of 80). I've lead cooked twice
> now and have found both times to be fun and not very stressful at all (the
> anticipation is worse than the actual doing). Granted, we have the benefit
> of being one of the oldest cohousing communities in the states, so we've
> had time to work through the bumps to find something that works well for
> us.
>
> The way it works here is that you determine how many nights/week you plan
> to eat a common meal in a 7 week cycle. Depending on how many people opt
> in, and how often they plan to eat, a schedule is created. Each night
> there is a lead and assistant cook, and 2 cleaner-uppers. We eat
> twice/week which gives my husband and I each 4 work shifts in that 7 week
> period (if a larger than normal number of people opt in, we would still
> have 4 shifts, but the 7 week period would be extended). Lead cooking
> counts for 2 shifts (as it entails responsibility for creating the menu,
> shopping, cooking, and accounting). Some people always want to cook, some
> people never do - that's okay, because they do cleanup.
>
> Anyhow, just a differing opinion. There are a lot of ways to make this
> work, including non-mandatory, and with 2-person teams. Mostly, it seems
> to me, you have to have people who are committed to it. Mandating that
> people participate doesn't seem the best way to motivate, imho.
>
> Kristina
> Winslow Cohousing
> Bainbridge Island, WA
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Kristina Spencer     We are an endless moving stream
> kspencer [at] drizzle.net     in an endless moving stream.
>               -Jisho Warner
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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