Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Membership policy

[Terry Lavender (wetcoast]

Thanks Liz - this is very useful!

Terry

On 2022-07-16, 12:32 PM, "Cohousing-L on behalf of Elizabeth Magill" 
<cohousing-l-bounces+wetcoast=gmail.com [at] cohousing.org on behalf of 
pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> wrote:

    We use traditional consensus.

    We have three types of membership.

    Hoa members own homes and are the only people who census on financial
    decisions. An hoa member can provide written permission for someone else (a
    renter or spouse most typically) to be an hoa member. ) Hoa members pay hoa
    dues (based on percentage ownership.

    Cohousing membership is an option open to anyone who lives onsite. Own a
    home, rent a home, rent a room, live here summers and go to school,
    whatever. If you live here you can choose membership. Each household
    declares who is a member of their household. These people consense on all
    non-financial decisions. Coho members pay coho dues—sliding scale, minimum
    is 5% of the average.

    Affiliate members do not live on-site. They have all the rights of coho
    members, but in fact few or none come to meetings and take part in
    consensus. They can use and reserve common spaces. Most pay 5% of the
    average coho dues. Two unrelated coho members are their sponsors. We don’t
    consense on affiliates but someone says “I want x person as affiliate “ and
    someone can object. Sometimes the objections are not worked out and they
    don’t become affiliates.
    We called them associates at the start, there was some problem I don’t
    remember. Then the new system was to call them friends, which meant anyone
    not approved felt “unfriended”. So this is version 3.

    Liz
    Mosaic Commons Cohousing
    Berlin MA

    On Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 11:51 AM Martie Weatherly <mhweatherly [at] 
earthlink.net>
    wrote:

    > Welcome to cohousing,Terry and all! Diana Leafe Christian's answer to you
    > has a lot of very well thought out and informative information on living 
in
    > a collaborative community. However, there are many of us who believe that
    > consensus can work following the traditional consensus model.
    >
    > This includes what i call the five golden nuggets of consensus: every
    > voice matters, relationships first, a clear pathway to consensus, dissent
    > instead of block, and a well trained group.
    >
    > Here is my tip #1 about changing the word block to dissent:
    > (https://vimeo.com/693751856
    >
    > To find out more about my next Consensus: from Conflict to Creativity
    > course, or with any other questions, email me at martiew319 [at] gmail.com
    > (mailto:martiew319 [at] gmail.com).
    >
    > Martie Weatherly
    > Consensus &amp; Process Coach
    > coachmartie.com
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org></cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
    > Sent: Jul 8, 2022 7:01 AM
    > To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org></
    > cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
    > Subject: [C-L]_ Membership policy
    >
    > Hi everybody. Just joined this email list and looking forward to
    > participating in the discussions.
    >
    > Our community, Treehouse Village Ecohousing in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia,
    > is just finishing construction and getting ready for move-in in early 
2023.
    > As we prepare for this final stage, we&rsquo;re trying to decide on 
various
    > policies, including membership &ndash; who can be a member of our
    > community, should there be different levels of membership and what rights
    > and responsibilities are associated with those categories?
    >
    > Some of the questions we are wrestling with are the rights of non-resident
    > owners (e.g., owners who rent out their units); the rights of tenants; and
    > the rights of associate members (if we decide to have such a category). Do
    > they get to use common facilities? Do they pay a fee? Can they participate
    > in decision making?
    >
    > We were wondering if other communities had any insights they could share
    > on this? What does your community do?
    >
    > Thanks in advance!
    >
    > Terry
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    >
    >
    > --
    -Liz
    (The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
    Pastor, Ashburnham Community Church
    Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
    www.elizabethmaemagill.com
    508-450-0431
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