Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Teeth in Rules

[R.N. Johnson (cohoranda]

New Brighton doe not have any "teeth" in our community work agreement, but I  
would argue that it still works fairly well.  People who want everyone to put 
in equal hours are frustrated, but most people in the community seem to feel 
like we are all contributing, and that those who are not contributing much at 
any one time will put in more time at some other moment.    We encourage people 
who do not participate in community work days to pay someone to put in their 
hours, but there is no requirement.  It has actually been helpful, as it allows 
us to hire more "brawn" when we need it. We try to recognize people who put in 
time above and beyond what is expected, and try to put in to place reminders 
for those of us who get  too busy and forget.  We have a few meeting 
'shirkers", and a few who come to meetings  but don't do as much physical 
community maintenance work.  As long as we don't too focused on closely 
monitoring work hours, it seems to work
 out. Out of 17 adults, we have far more who do more than expected than who do 
less. We try to follow Rob Sandelin's excellent advice: if your are doing too 
much as resenting how much others are or aren't doing- take a step back and 
either do less or change your attitude.
Randa Johnson
New Brighton Cohousing
Aptos, CA

***********************