Cohousing-L Mailing List: most-appreciated documents at Cohousing Wiki

[Joelyn Malone (JKMalone]

A friend pointed out that I hadn't told people where to find the 
Cohousing wiki, when I was trying to re-generate interest in it! You can 
find it at http://wiki.cohousing.org. Have also been having discussions 
about it off-line, with some of the people involved in starting and at 
one point maintaining it.  We pretty much agreed that because every 
state's laws are different about commonly-owned property, actual legal 
documents may not be all that helpful. There are a few things I've found 
helpful as I work with newly forming groups and groups where we've got 
an interested developer that already has a site.
*Membership agreements and models of how to organize for different 
stages of a group as they move from just  talking  to actually taking in 
dues and dividing into work teams, working to attract new members
* what has worked for others at the point you need a legal entity that 
can negotiate with a developer and sign contracts,
* what are the various types of agreements groups have made with the 
developer, to assure him/her that there will be enough pre-sales by the 
time things need to be done (and money needs to be spent) that make it 
cohousng rather than a regular development;
* what policies groups have used in terms of money to get started (dues, 
initial joining fee, etc) and money required when it's time to make a 
serious commitment;
* various membership statements  that members of the group are are 
required to sign, showing that they agree to work requirements, values, 
clear communication understandings or whatever, and when in the process 
do you do this
* and of course, "house rules" or even official rules and regulations 
for after you've moved in -- what issues have come up for which you 
needed a written agreement endorsed by all the members, and how did you 
resolve it. Like...
- work requirements!
- Quiet time (when and where have you needed rules about this)
- Dealing with allergies and people who are sensitive to chemicals - ban 
everything? Different requirements for different spaces? Give notice 
when you'll be working with smelly stuff in the indoors common space?
- Pets!
These are all topics that have been covered many times on Cohousing_L, 
but it would be good to have some sets of rules and regs that have 
worked for different communities, by topic, in a place that's easier to 
visit than this e-mail discussion group.
Whew! a long message, but I hope it encourages groups to start posting 
things!
Joelyn [at] cohousingadvocates.com