Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community Size

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

Another consideration about size is that over time, some people may "retire
on the job" - they still live in the community but have stopped
participating or dwindled to very little participation. Usually people who
stop feeling the love leave, but sometimes they stay, as owners if not as
residents.

In a  very small community, if you had just enough pairs of hands to do the
expected workshare from the git-go, it will become darned near impossible
without those folks. Even if you have a system where members pay money for
skipping work duties, it won't be possible to do everything you expected to
do based on everyone stepping up and volunteering.

We have 3 nonparticipant households, but the other 30 are active and we're
still fully functioning. I think it would be tough to sustain a healthy,
satisfying cohousing life with just a few other households to pick up the
slack.

But I agree with Sharon that there's a thing as too big. The 25-35 range
sounds right to me.
     Muriel