Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: dining clubs

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

In 13 years of common house use at RoseWind, I don't think we've ever 
encountered the idea that it's rude to have events that don't include everyone. 
There are Community Events that are always for any and all of us: Thursday 
potlucks, Monday cooked meals, meetings of all sorts, any time we've done a 
spell of TGIF gatherings, or a monthly brunch. Holiday meals, such as 
Thanksgiving, Christmas. RoseWind events such as these always take priority for 
reserving use of the common house. 

We also have Personal Socials (such as birthday parties, cast parties, family 
reunions) which are by invitation and may include some RW folks and sometimes 
only the sponsoring member. And Sponsored Events: meetings of organizations, 
slide shows, workshops, retreats, rehearsals, dances, etc. These are mostly non 
RW folks, besides the sponsor(s). In addition, some subset of members might 
decide to have a brunch or get together, just spontaneously, usually with small 
numbers, at a time nobody else is using the CH. It's kind of a spare living 
room/dining room/kitchen. 

Occasionally we've had hybrid events, like the New Year's Eve party that was 
"the" RW NYrs party, and was also publicized as a party for the GLBT folks in 
town: must have been about half and half. That worked so well that we just 
recently had a dance party that was similarly GLBT and RW. With the combined 
populations, we had a crowd of just the right size. 

The times we've had events that were all members, but not whole community 
events, were like the no-alcohol dinners another post-er mentioned. A bunch of 
members were into a very specific diet, according to a certain book, and they 
gathered for such meals. I guess anyone who wanted to follow that constraint 
was welcome to join their potluck, but nobody else wanted to eat that way. 

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
www.rosewind.org
where the weather is mild and glorious, the garden overflowing with goodies...