Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: bonuses to project managers

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA.

We hired a man to coordinate the building of our common house. 
Technically, we were the General Contractor, but without Malcolm's able 
direction we would have been at a real disadvantage. (Interestingly 
enough, Malcolm had been part of the earliest cohousing-interest group in 
Port Townsend here.) We chose him in part because he had coordinated the 
recent building of a Unitarian Church here, which was done with all 
volunteer labor, and of the same Rastra Block material as our common 
house. Most contractors would cringe from the task of using a lot of 
volunteers.

When we were done (with no great surplus of money left over) we honored 
him at our grand-opening-of-the-common-house, to which we had invited all 
the contractors who had worked on the building. A personal friend of his 
bought a gorgeous pottery serving platter he knew he'd like, and accepted 
donations from members to cover its cost (which was around $200). I'm 
sure he was pleased. The donation approach got around the members who 
felt he'd already been properly paid for his work and that we couldn't 
afford to give him more. 

I think "what's appropriate" will be different for every person. A lovely 
signed card might mean a lot to one person, while someone struggling to 
pay their dental bills might be grateful for cash. 

When my house was being built, the builder and his framers got an 
almost-daily delivery of coffee and snacks mid morning from the last 
person he'd built for! I couldn't understand why anyone would go to that 
trouble, but later was so grateful to this man that I was sometimes seen 
bringing thermoses of hot soup to his crew at his next site...

Lynn Nadeau
Spring flowers are starting already, and the fields are so green. We 
still love our common house. Only one resale available these days (a 
large custom home at $299K). AND last night it was announced that (a 
first on site) "we" are pregnant! Our youngest couple is expecting a 
second child. All sorts of things sprouting....


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

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