Cohousing-L Mailing List: Safety charter

[Mona Loofs Samorzewski (mona]

G'day everyone, I've just joined the list recently and have enjoyed  
'lurking' and reading everyone's messages. It never ceases to amaze  
me that everything our group has ever grappled with has already been  
dealt with, discussed, chewed over and solved on this list!

I seem to be from one of the few southern hemisphere cohousing groups  
- Cohousing Co-operative in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. As far as  I  
know there are currently three cohousing communities up and running  
in Australia, ours, Cascade Cohousing which is just around the corner  
from us, and one in Fremantle in Western Australia. Does anyone know  
of any more? I know there are many in the planning stages and also  
close to completion (such as Earthsong Ecovillage). We are a bit  
unusual in being a Co-operative (I gather there a few others on this  
list), very small (11 households) and also government funded (all  
units are rental only).

I'm writing because we are in the process of pulling together a  
'Safety Charter', that is a policy around what we consider acceptable  
and non-acceptable behaviour for members, residents and visitors. We  
have had a few minor incidents and one major one (many years ago) and  
getting this policy together has been on the list of things to do for  
a long time! If anyone else out there has something similar, I would  
be very interested in having a look for ideas.

Cheers, Mona