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

[Cheryl Keil (cheryl.keil.wc18]

I might be deviating from the main topic….and if I’m muddying the waters/“doing 
this wrong” I apologize as this is my first real foray into cohousing-l. 

All of that said, is there any data about each Cohousing community’s 
participation requirements?  There’s some info presented in this thread (which 
is very helpful so thank you) but I wondered if there’s any way to get a more 
comprehensive understanding of “who’s doing what”

Thanks all!

Cheryl Keil 
Wasatch Commons SLC Utah
Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 14, 2023, at 7:45 AM, David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
> 
> 
>