Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Private use of Common Space

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Sep 14, 2005, at 9:18 AM, Jeanne Goodman, JP Cohousing wrote:

> Thank you, Sharon. Do you have any liability or insurance and safety 
> concerns that have to be addressed?
> Do you ever have times when community members feel as though they 
> don't have enough access to their own common house?

The liability issues are one reason we don't want to rent the 
commonhouse. If we rent, it raises liability expectations and would 
require us to post many more warning signs for example. It would change 
the nature of the space.

I don't think conflicts are common -- people just work them out. But 
that said some things have been moved to units or to local library 
community rooms, etc. So demand has slowed, I think, to a level that 
works without conflicts. If we allowed the space to be booked for 
repeated meetings on an annual basis (an ongoing book club, monthly 
bikers association meetings, etc.) it would get crowded fast.

We do have to juggle team meetings -- that drives me nuts -- but that 
is more a matter of figuring out a million schedules! I call it meeting 
roulette.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org