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

[JoAnna Allen (jowooallen]

Hi all, jumping in!!     which I tend not to . . .
    David's description pretty much describes what we have at Phoenix 
Commons, with us going from great concern that everyone wouldn't be 
doing their duty as residents to evolving to a "light" process.  We 
started with 13 hours per month required and everyone having to have 3 
hours in the dining program to now 10 hours and asking that everyone do 
one task per month in the kitchen., no matter the time it takes.  There 
is no policing and there is a healthy atmosphere of someone always 
jumping in, whether in the kitchen or for office duty.  We did have 2 
1/2 years of meetings over how to change the original system and now 
have a committee of three that is in the process of interviewing each 
resident.  We have several members putting in 30+ hours.  It is 
important that contributions are in accord  with physical abilities and 
skills. and IMHO that those who "work"  enjoy the task.   "Do what you 
love. Love what you do."   About 1/4 of our community (55+) work outside 
the community professionally but they too pretty much fulfill their 
requirements, often going beyond.  We do have a complex accounting 
system and send out reports privately with average contribution data but 
this is not cast community wide, which was the original complaint.  The 
original set up had too much of a "shaming" feel to it.  I feel it works 
well with an infectious sense of giving and generosity.   We even have 
some residents who never report their hours  which may skew the data, 
but still, it works.   During our monthly HOA meeting which everyone 
attends (for credit), we use kudos to show appreciation as well as 
frequent tributes through community-wide emails.   We once talked about 
"paying to replace hours" but dropped that idea early on, once we saw 
how much policing was not necessary and we could allow a great deal of 
flexibility.     Key to our situation is the fact we are 41 units, about 
55 members so that we have enough talent and bodies to keep up our 7 1/2 
year old 4 story building (urban so gardening only in planters).   
Because of pretty full participation we have not not seen any syndrome 
of "martyrs and slackers" as the term goes (knock on wood  🙂) .  Within 
the whole membership, IMHO, we have enough givers as versus takers. such 
that there is an "infection" of caring and kindness that affects all and 
keeps things rolling . . . so far.  We recognize things do evolve but so 
far, it's working as with David's community.

Regard, JoAnna Allen

On 12/14/2023 6:44 AM, David Heimann 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
>
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