Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Pay for work

[Rick Gravrok (rick.gravrok]

Here at Monterey Cohousing (in Minnesota) as an alternative to doing chores, 
etc folks have sometimes volunteered to pay for items for the community (grass 
seed, a HEPA vacuum, etc)  or for services, for example, deep cleaning of 
Common Space once a month.
We have had Work Fairs where folks would sign up for chores (3 major, 3 medium 
and 2 seasonal), or switch chores with others. 

In general, the concept was to provide eight hours of service a month.
For s while we kept track of how much time folks put in but we don’t do that 
anymore.

Rick

Rick Gravrok
iPhone 952-220-8153

Monterey Cohousing Community
http://www.montereycohousing.com <http://www.montereycohousing.com/>
2925 Monterey Ave 
St. Louis Park, MN  55416-5801
Cohousing Radio Show: http://l.cohousing.org/monterey-cohousing-AM950Radio.mp3

“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” – 
Mark Twain
======================

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 11:03 AM Lauren Lake via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
cohousing.org <mailto:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>> wrote:
> Hi Dorothy,
> 
> At Green Grove, we have a policy that requires households to pay an hourly
> rate for any unfulfilled workshare requirements. However, we have never
> actually had to invoke it.
> 
> The policy was primarily established as a deterrent for potential buyers
> who might not fully understand the expectations of living in a cohousing
> community. The payment rate is based on local hourly costs for tasks we
> could outsource, such as landscaping, common house cleaning, and handyman
> services.
> 
> Our specific policy wording is: “If a resident is unable to meet their
> workshare obligations, they will be required to pay for the unmet hours to
> avoid overburdening others and to cover the cost of hiring outside help.”
> 
> In practice, we strive to avoid charging members who are unable to
> participate by finding alternative tasks that are appropriate for their
> specific abilities.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Lauren Lake
> Green Grove Cohousing
> 
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2026 at 4:05 AM Dorothy Stroman via Cohousing-L <
> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org <mailto:cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>> wrote:
> 
> > Gainesville Cohousing wants to consider creating a system whereby members
> > who are unable to participate in workshare can pay fees to offset the
> > expenses we incur to hire certain necessary work to be done, such as lawn
> > mowing, landscape work, cleaning, etc.
> > We would appreciate hearing from other communities who have tried such a
> > system, voluntary or involuntary, and what worked, didn't work, or needed
> > to be changed.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Dorothy Stroman
> > Gainesville Cohousing
> > Florida
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> > http://L.cohousing.org/info <http://l.cohousing.org/info>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info <http://l.cohousing.org/info>
> 
> 
>