Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: work-or-pay system - legalities? general advice?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 20 Apr 2011, at 11:45 AM, Richart Keller wrote:

> Its important to keep in mind the reason for the work requirement...i.e.
> that working together on community (and individual) projects is central to
> building the social capital which is essential for successful cohousing
> communities.

But is it? Like other theories of cohousing this one may be languishing as 
well. Meals are a major social time and do not satisfy any work requirement, 
except fixing lunch on workdays. We have one person who has paid rather than 
work for years — it didn't diminish his participation in the community and we 
need the money as much as the ork. Some people who do work, participate barely 
at all — their jobs are solo jobs.

It hasn't worked out that entering the community through the CH, for example, 
has affected the community one way or the other. Most of our residents do not, 
and some even park on the other side of the property. Some then pick up mail 
later in the evening which actually provides an opportunity for more casual 
conversation. More and more work at home so they are in the CH at varying times 
during the day.

The laundry room provides almost no social interaction in the CH because some 
people use the side door and do not enter directly into the CH. Others put in 
the laundry and go back upstairs, returning only to switch to the dryer or pick 
up their laundry. The only interaction is when actually in the room when 
someone else is putting in laundry.

More new communities are hiring developers, and developers developing 
communities. Is there any evidence that these communities are less strong than 
self-developed communities? Does participating in the design process produce 
architecture that is any more unique than other new communities? A few years 
ago I visited a rental building a block away from us and had a very eery 
feeling about the place. Then I realized it looked just like ours except they 
had bamboo floors and a better layout. To keep building costs economical, there 
are only so many choices to be made. Aesthetic decisions we left to our 
developer as too polarizing for a group to make ourselves anyway.

I think occasional large activities that involve everyone might be better 
community builders than routine tasks like cleaning the CH every two weeks or 
scrubbing toilets. Other jobs we do better ourselves like managing the finances 
and supervising hired workers.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
"Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert 
Einstein