Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meal Tracking

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

We have a hybrid paper-and-electronic meals system. We put up a 3-month
paper calendar with spaces to sign up as a head cook, co-cook, potluck
dinner cleaner, or prepared-meal cleaner. We want to get 3 cooks and 4
cleaners signed up for the prepared meal, and 2 cleaners for the potluck
meals.

After the calendar is all signed up, someone transfers the info to an
e-document that is sent out to our listserv, and the same info is also
manually entered into our e-calendar. Once a week a message goes out
separately from the regular daily e-calendar email showing the cooks and
cleaners for the coming week's meals, which is very handy.

Signing up as diners for the prepared meals is also done on paper (some
people are permanently signed up and have to remember to take themselves
off if they'll be away), and the head cook hands the signup sheet to the
Meals Accountant after the meal along with the receipts to receive a check
or a credit as they prefer.

Our prepared meals generally draw from 30 to 45 diners, potlucks get fewer.
(We totally maxed out our cooking & dining resources once last fall with 60
diners - oof!) Will others replying to this thread please also mention
approximately how many people usually participate, especially in prepared
meals? I see that RoseWind gets by with 2 cooks - for how many diners,
usually?
   Muriel at Shadowlake Village, Blacksburg, VA