Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community Work Hours

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hello Randa,

	We set the number of work hours per month per adult household 
member at four hours.  Participation by children and by renters are at 
the discretion of the unit owner.  There are also around 5-6 outdoor and 
indoor work days per year, and people are expected to attend General 
Meetings and be active on at least one of the condo committees.

	We started out by having people report their work hours and 
keeping an account of them.  After significant complaints against the 
complications and the bureaucracy of the system, we had a discussion at 
a General Meeting and realized that we could have fairness or we could 
have simplicity and non-bureaucracy, but we could not have both.  We 
decided in favor of simplicity and against fairness (if someone feels 
they are working too much or that they are burning out, they cut back, 
and if someone feels certain work is not being done, they approach the 
appropriate committee or do the work themselves).  That's what we have 
done since.

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing, Boston, MA


> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
> We do 4 hours a month in our affinity groups ( common house,
> landscape, garden) 6 hours a quarter of work party hours and
> participate on a committee. The committee work hours vary widely and
> are not tracked. Work includes physical work, shopping for the work
> party, sometimes research for projects and organizing materials and
> tasks for the work party. People can pay someone else to do work they
> cannot or don?t want to do.
>
>
> ------------------------------