Cohousing-L Mailing List: Members and rentals (was Short-term Rentals)

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

Subject line changed to reflect a tangent...


On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 12:39 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> 
wrote:

> ...
> On the whole, at Cornerstone an owner is a member of the community, and no
> ownership = no membership.  At any point in time we have about ten adults
> living on property who are "tenants" and accordingly not "members".


We (Mosaic Commons) have taken what I think is a unique approach to this
situation which it might be helpful to share.

We have two separate operating organizations:

1. Our home owners association (Condominium Trust, technically) which is
pretty much like any other condo association: membership is determined by
ownership of a unit...no more and no less.  This body is responsible for
stuff involved with our physical and legal needs: plowing, maintaining
buildings, insurance, bookkeeping, and other typical, boring condo stuff.
 This constitutes the majority of a budget, but a tiny minority of what we
actually DO.

2. Our cohousing group.  This body is responsible for everything that makes
us a "community" rather than a "condominium": meetings; work days; social
events; shared resources like lawn mowers, laundry machines, and common
house furnishings; conflict resolution; policies about common house usage,
pets, smoking, quiet hours, etc;

The second group membership has been much discussed and we FINALLY (after,
no joke, months or maybe even years of discussion) decided on a membership
policy:
http://mosaic-commons.org/membership
Basically, anyone who lives here and participates in the community is a
member -- ownership status not relevant.
This body also has "associates", which are people who don't actually live
here, but participate in the community nonetheless.  Our associate policy
is still under discussion, but our current version is here:
http://mosaic-commons.org/associates

The idea is that everyone is engaged on equally footing on the stuff
relevant to them: home owners on issues relating to their properties;
community members on issues relating to the community.

Time will tell how this works out, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
 But then, I'm in BOTH groups as a resident/owner...our non-resident
owners, or non-owner residents, might feel differently.

Diana