Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: limited-access events in common space

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Feb 21, 2010, at 5:37 PM, Racheli Gai wrote:

> But the bottom line is that every community needs to work out what
> works for the particular
> people living (or planning to live) in it, not to follow some general
> rules or guidelines coming from
> elsewhere.

And also the design of the CH, which may be something communities will  
want to discuss before the fact.

We tell all groups that meet in the CH that the space is open and  
people will be walking through to get mail, do the laundry, kids in  
the kids room, etc. The kitchen is also open to the living room so  
groups who want a quiet meeting tend to reserve the kitchen too incase  
someone decides to make a cake. So some gatherings are just  
inappropriate to the space.

I don't know how people deal with this but I would have said very  
different things before move-in than afterwards when I had experienced  
the space and began using it.

When new people move in, there is usually some friction over how all  
common spaces are used because there are a lot of practices that has  
just evolved and never written down. We have to sort it out.

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