Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Coho without work expectations?

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

We have a chart http://mosaic-commons.org/membership
that says

Participate in cooking or clean-up for meals: members are expected to
do this if they participate in meals.

Participate in work weekends: members are expected to do this

Engage in work to sustain the community: members are expected to do this.

Not sure that actually counts as a "work expectation". There is no
time to sign up for work (other than meals) nor any check as to
whether anyone has signed up for work. There are a few jobs that folk
check are done. I finally joined the mowing team, even though I don't
mow, because I wanted to be sure that the mowers would do my backyard
and they weren't doing it. But almost nothing has any consequences.

How does it work?

It depends on who you ask. For some people, it is really annoying that
they do a lot of work when others don't. For others, it is not. For
some people there are important tasks not done, for others we are
getting to it all soon enough. I'm not sure we are keeping up our
buildings sufficiently, but we have one person who gets frustrated
occasionally about that and drives a repair project throughout the
community to get that one thing fixed. (We will all have newly painted
trim in another two weeks.)

It is a common topic for discussion, but so far unresolved.

Joyce said
>> Secondly, the founders were idealistic
>> and believed that "everyone would simply want to pitch in" and "it would
>> all work out."

We totally have lots of people who think that.

Our community also was under great pressure for four years after
move-in to sell empty homes.

Philip Dowds says
> Not explaining the cohousing lifeway to the last wave of buyers may have been 
> an omission with durable consequences.

[Shrug] I'm sure that's true. But when 20 of us were facing a bill of
$250,000 each to cover the unsold homes we had different durable
consequences on our mind.

To be honest, I don't hear that communities that *do* have work
policies are having dramatically different problems than we are.

Joyce you may be interested to know we came up with the chart after
about six years in place, and the goal wasn't to describe work but to
describe the difference between being a "friend" and a "member". A few
people (myself included) said you couldn't list benefits without
listing responsibilities too. Thus the chart. I'd guess half the
community knows that there is a chart.

Liz
mosaic-commons.org in Berlin, MA


>>
>> I'm a newcomer here, so these are stories I have heard, not lived thru.
>>
>> No work requirement - or expectation - came about for two reasons: when
>> construction was over and the group was moving in several years ago, the
>> group had to sell the remaining slots to whoever would buy in order to stay
>> financially afloat, so the whole co-housing thing was understandably
>> downplayed in favor of mortgages. Secondly, the founders were idealistic
>> and believed that "everyone would simply want to pitch in" and "it would
>> all work out." Now, most - definitely not all - residents would prefer that
>> newcomers be involved in community activities and projects, including
>> participating on committees and with work, but there is no expectation or
>> requirement. A hope of participation held by most, but that is not the same
>> as an expectation. jc
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 3:06 PM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Joyce!
>>>
>>> Takoma Village in Washington DC falls into the expectation of work w/out
>>> enforcement.  So I don’t believe we will be of any use to you in re: the
>>> question you posed.
>>>
>>> What community are you with?
>>>
>>> And, can you tell us a little more about your community’s decision to have
>>> no work requirement?
>>>
>>>
>>> Best --
>>>
>>> Ann Zabaldo
>>> Takoma Village Cohousing
>>> Washington, DC
>>> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
>>> Falls Church, VA
>>> 202.546.4654
>>>
>>> As long as you have two or fewer … your ducks are always in a row.  The
>>> Covert Comic
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Jul 2, 2018, at 4:58 PM, Joyce Cheney <jcheneyjc [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone live in - or know of - a cohousing community that does not
>>> have
>>>> a work expectation? Yes, some don't have work requirements, or have work
>>>> requirements or expectations that are not enforced, but is there a
>>>> community out there - besides ours - that does not have a work
>>> expectation
>>>> for residents?
>>>> If so, I'd appreciate communicating with someone from that community re/
>>>> how that came to be and how that is working out.
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Joyce Cheney
>>>> jcheneyjc [at] gmail.com
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>>>
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-- 
-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431