Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Need "Work Group" how-to guidance - help homeless veterans

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

There is much in the archives on this frequently discussed topic. As one who 
has spent much time on policies, schedules, task identification, etc., and been 
a long time advocate of requiring and reporting a minimum amount of hours, I 
now think the following practices encourage self-organization. Most are working 
well at Takoma Village.

1. Thinking in terms of assuming responsibility, not hours. Define discrete 
tasks and ask people to take responsibility for them.

For example: if one person takes responsibility for checking light bulbs in 
public areas, and ordering, changing, and recycling bulbs means no one else has 
to be concerned about burned out or nonworking lights. Other tasks include 
overseeing specific rooms cleaning, keeping order, getting things repaired. — 
laundry room, office, kids room, etc. 

Whether one task takes 2 hours a month and another 1 or 6, the real benefit is 
that the job is done or listen to harangues about it not being done.

2. Workdays. We have about 6 workdays a year plus 2 half days for the gardens 
and landscaping. When we started these it was wonderful. One person collects a 
list of all kinds of tasks that need doing — jobs that need more than one 
person, special tasks like washing the wall on the stairs, cleaning out a 
storage closet, cleaning and organizing kitchen cabinets and supplies. Fix door 
knob on the office door. It’s usually a long list of small jobs. Sometimes a 
large task requires more than one person like weeding along the block long 
fence or installing a path. These often require a supervisor/instructor.

Include socializing activities. Early coffee and bagels, lunch. One community 
has half days every month combined with a pot luck cook off — chili, pesto, 
salads, etc. The half day allows people to hang out after the lunch.

3. Stress self-organization along with the expectation that everyone 
participate in maintaining the facilities. Invite the invisible to participate 
with a group or a friend. I’ve been amazed at how incapable many people feel.  
They need to be personally invited.

4. Allow people to choose responsibilities and keep them unless there are 
serious problems with performance. People need to feel ownership and mastery in 
their responsibility. And no one wants to train new people all the time or feel 
anxious about whether a new person will do it well. Our “Goddess of Light” did 
the job with her son for 10 years. No one else even had to think about lights.

5. Discuss the work required when purchasing new equipment or starting new 
activities. This raises consciousness of work as an element in planning and 
budgeting. If we add more garden space do people have time for maintenance? Who 
will do the staining of the new wooden fort? What kind of maintenance will be 
required to take care of a larger gas grill — ensure it is working accurately, 
cover replaced, returned to its storage space.

It took a long time to get the place where we don’t have to worry so much about 
things being done. Part of that is the maturity of the community and better 
orientation for new members, and partly it is the experienced members who have 
learned to organize and lead. in the beginning we could define jobs very well 
because we didn’t have a clue what many of them were. And over time we have 
established standards for care and use of the facilities that are respected.

It’s not a good idea to try to be too rigid or controlling in people’s homes, 
which includes common spaces. Define tasks and expect people to find their way 
to them. Don’t try to get consensus for the task definitions. That becomes a 
oath to on everyone’s part to do the work. Any member or team can add to our 
list of tasks. If no one thinks it needs to be done, it isn’t. 

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