Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: bylaws: active/inactive status

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hello Nancy and others,

	We have a similar work requirement (attend General Meetings, be 
active on at least one committee, and do 4 hours of work per adult 
resident per month).  In the beginning of our time we kept detailed 
records of the hours each person put in and exerted pressure -- social, 
financial, legal, or otherwise on those coming up short.  However, a lot 
of resentment came up about the heaviness of the accounting process -- 
the phrase "cohousing police" was often used.  Over the course of a 
number of General Meetings and community conversations, it became clear 
that we could have fairness/accountability or a flexible and light 
process, but not both.  At this point the community decided to go with 
the light process -- if some people did much more work than others, they 
could either accept that without resentment or cut back their extra 
participation -- if that meant that some required work wasn't getting 
done we would either find someone else to step up to the plate or we 
would hire out the work (with everyone understanding the budgetary and 
condo fee implications of that).  Since then this flexible arrangement 
has worked very well, with many members putting in extra work because 
they felt they could and wanted to or because they felt it necessary to 
get work done to their standards, without their resenting the situation 
because they could (and sometimes did) at any time unload some of their 
extra burden.  Of course, the rest of us made sure that they know that 
we appreciated their extra level of involvement and we made sure to help 
them out when they had requests!

We also have periodic work dates through the year when a given 
committee, e.g., outdoor, indoor, Community Life, etc., had a set of 
periodic tasks that needed doing.  The committee posted task lists, 
people either signed up to do them or paid a fee to bypass it, and if 
some tasks weren't taken the committee chair would urge us to sign up 
for them or would use the fee money or other budget money to hire out 
the work.  In the beginning these hours did not count towards the 4 
hours per month, but since we went on our light process, this became 
moot.

It works!

Regards,
David Heimann
JP Cohousing
Jamaica Plain (Boston), MA


Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2023 08:04:38 -0800
From: Nancy Morehouse <nmorehouse [at] aol.com>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Cc: "lienjud [at] aol.com" <lienjud [at] aol.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ bylaws: active/inactive status
Message-ID: <940F3C91-4778-4D37-80CE-801A7D527426 [at] aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

Wolf Creek Lodge, Grass Valley CA?
We have a Participation Team which maintains a current list of jobs and members 
doing them.  Annually all members are sent a participation agreement to sign.  
Participation Team does followup and suggests monthly cash contribution from 
those who cannot participate.  Amount of monthly contribution is voluntary.
But, as with any group, 20% of the people do 80% of work.
Nancy Morehouse