Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Sliding Scales & Memberships

[Robyn Williams (pov]

Hi Sharon

Are renters not contributing to the maintenance because they don't want to,
or because they're not members?  And when you say renters, do you mean
people who have the lease on a house, or people who are sharing a house with
an owner or member/renter.

We have a 'Lovers, Lodgers and Rugged Individualistic Spouses' regulation at
Pinakarri which acknowledges a householder's right to share their home with
the person of their choice.  I think we taken the path of least resistance
so far.  We have quite a few non-resident people who often eat at the common
house.  Some are the other parent of community kids which is great, and
there's a few other regulars.  There's no expectation placed on these
people - we're big on 'rights' here (grrrr) - however I would feel very
disappointed if they didn't respond to contribute to a major work project,
for example.

However, privately owned houses are only rented to people who want to be
part of the community life.  Ditto for the 'public' rental homes which are
the majority in our case - willingness to participate in the running of the
co-operative is supposed to be mandatory.  Of course, easier said than done
as we all know.

Ho-hum.

Warm regards
Robyn Williams
Pinakarri Community
Fremantle, Western Australia





----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharon Villines" <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 2:31 AM
Subject: [C-L]_Sliding Scales & Memberships


> In Lynn's post she mentioned a  "social member". I'm interested in how
> people work out memberships.
>
> Our  physical plant is very much like a 43 unit condo with more common
> facilities (and prettier of course) but we are struggling with how much
> access to give to renters and to "guests." Some want everything open to
> everyone and others want responsibility to be tied to use by restricting
use
> to members but with an associate membership available.
>
> We do all the cleaning and landscaping and maintenance ourselves so just
> keeping the place clean and well-lighted is a lot of work.
>
> The target issue just now is the hot tub but is only an example. The hot
tub
> involves risk (drowning, heat, chemicals, etc.) and is work to maintain --
> chemical balance, security, etc.
>
> Should guests and renters who chose not to be members be allowed free use
of
> it? Should they be accompanied by members?
>
> How do people define memberships and privileges? This is big issue for us
> because in DC there are lots of house sharing arrangements. Renting a room
> out is very easy to do and often done. One afternoon I was in the
> commonhouse getting my mail along with 6 other people whom I did not know
> although I was pretty sure who they were renting from.
>
> We have forty three units with 51 owner members and 72 residents. I expect
> that to go to 85 with about 10 children. The rest renters. So you see we
> could have a number of renters, not just the odd person here or there.
>
> Just cleaning is a lot of work. Meals are big operations.
>
> Sharon
> --
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
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