Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: guidelines for use of common house

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Apr 21, 2015, at 11:50 AM, Judith Lienhard/US/OR/CC via Cohousing-L 
<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi: here at Cascadia Commons, we are thinking about putting together 
> guidelines for use of our common house. We talked with other area cohousing 
> groups and none have developed guidelines. I searched the archives here and 
> found many entries from 2001 and 2007 but nothing more recent. 
> We have had some requests for having house concerts and things like craft 
> fair where a member would exhibit her work and bring in other artists as well 
> and apparently. there was quite the opposition. do you request donations, 
> charge? how does this affect liability, etc? how do you prioritize the use of 
> the common house? if you have guidelines, would you be willing to share them 
> here? thanks so much for any and all input.

Our guidelines are posted at the address below under "Policies." 

We started out encouraging all kinds of uses but soon stopped because it meant 
the space wasn't available for spontaneous use, and outside groups or members 
sponsoring outside groups too often scheduled much further in advance than we 
did. One year our standard Christmas decorating party evening was closed out by 
a reservation made in July. 

I think we now have an outside group once or twice a month but they are always 
hosted by a member.

The other problem is that people looking for a meeting space are often too 
large to meet in homes. So it is likely to be a largish group that has to be 
cleaned up after. I recently hosted a friend's mother's 90th birthday dinner. 
People just kept coming. And going. And coming. And going all evening. And it 
was a potluck dinner. Lots of pots and lots of luck. 

Without my knowledge a blanket invitation had gone out to a church congregation 
thinking "no one would come." 

There were many people helping clean up but none of them lived there. It was 
hard. I was exhausted. It was a wonderful party but if there is a next time, I 
will suggest my friends hire some of our older teens to help with the cleaning 
up. And seriously limit invitations.

Even a group without a meal needs chairs, sound equipment, etc. The groups that 
have worked most smoothly are members office retreats. We also have house 
concerts and those go well because there are lots of members there.

On the whole it has worked well to require that any event be hosted by a member 
who is present at least most of the time. The problem is not rowdiness but the 
work. It's work. Hotel banquet halls cost a lot of money because they pay a lot 
of labor.

ONE OTHER POINT: Having a large space is a new responsibility. Sometimes people 
fill it without realizing the consequences. One household invited 35 children 
to their son's birthday party. The space is large and is open to the rest of 
the community -- lots of exits and entrances, etc. They hadn't arranged for 
more adult supervision. It was pretty much animal farm until other members just 
passing through noticed and stepped in to help.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org