Cohousing-L Mailing List: committee structure in mid/small communities

[Ruth Hirsch (heidinys]

Dear Co-CoHousers,

We have grown from 12 to 18 households in the past few years.  Our  
initial move in was more or less 11 years ago.

We recently had a Community Living Day focused on meetings, and in  
forming the Agenda for that day, realized that our process could go  
better in terms of committee work.
Since then, one neighbor pointed out that we have a lot of meetings  
for committees, and raised the question of whether we could we  
combine some of them.  I will list our Committees, below.  Mostly we  
are wondering:
How does your community-- and we'd love input from established  
communities close to our size, as a first choice-- How does your  
community do with committee life?  what is your structure?  do  
committees have regular schedules?  Here, prime meeting time is after  
Sunday Dinners.   Do you have as many as we?  Do you have suggestions  
for streamlining?  thank you.

COMMITTEES

Activities- Chair Barb. Thaddy, Mary Ellen, Dennis, Susan, Cathy, Ruth

Aging in Community- Coord Janet. Lee, Barb, Sara, Cathy, Thaddy

Common House- Co-chairs Ruth & Sara. Helen, Susan, Lee, Cathy, Leah

CH Basement/kids: Barb, Victor, Gail, Wendy, Johanna, Thaddy/Kids-  
Ruth, Michael S, Dennis, Johanna

Development- Co-chairs Doug, Kathy & Dave. Victor, Ruth.

Grounds- Co-Chairs Kathy & Susan. Dennis, Ruth, Karen, Johanna, Mary  
Ellen, Cathy, Soon, Leah, Jason, Mark

Legal/Finance- Chair George. Matt, Karen

Long-term Planning- Karen (convener), Doug, George, Peter

Membership- Chair Mike C.  Ruth, Mike S, Susan, Lee, Janet

Safety- Chair Doug. Peter, Susan

Site & Building Maintenance- Chair Peter. Wendy, Dennis, John, Matt,  
Dave, Ruth, Victor

Wretched Refuse [garbage] - Susan, Dave

TASK GROUPS
Architectural Preview-[only meets as needed Chair Susan. Helen, Ruth,  
Janet, Gail, Sara, Peter
Arm-of-the-Sea - Sara
Barge - Victor, Lee, Stephanie, Doug, Michael S, Susan
Bulkhead (1/25/04) - Karen, Matt, Susan, Doug, Peter, Dennis, Victor
Common House Expansion (1/25/04) - Co-chairs Gail & Thaddy. George,  
Karen, Janet, Susan, Kathy, Mary Ellen, Peter, Cathy
CH Library- Karen, Ruth, Susan, Johanna
Mill Property - John, Johanna, Lee, Karen, Stephanie, Victor, Cathy,  
George, Helen, Susan, Peter
Parking - Michael C, Steve, Janet

Appreciate input,
thank you
Ruth J. Hirsch
Cantines Island, Saugerties, NY