Doing the Dirty Work in a Cohousing Community

Sometimes there's just no way you can avoid doing the dirty work in a cohousing community, and Pacific Gardens sure needed it.

Weeds were taking over the gardens.  The compost bin was over-flowing.  Crayon and pencil marks decorated the walls.

Windows had a patina of grunge.  The new equipment for the playground had remained un-asembled for too long.

The window-sills needed dusting, the pot-holes in the driveway filling, and the dryer vents in the common laundry vacuuming.

Augggh!  It's bad enough having to do the housework in your own place, let alone in the Common House.

So how do you get people to do this stuff?  Well, it ain't easy.  We have tried several strategies in the almost four years we've been living here.

We drew up a Community Contribution list with all the chores on it, and the name of the person to contact if you were interested in tackling one.

Hmm. Not too many takers with that approach.

So, then we decided to have a Community Contribution System Team, whose members would gently - but firmly - encourage people to do their fair share.

Alas, no-one wanted to be a cohousing enforcer.

And then Kari came to the rescue.  She sent out an e-mail saying we were having a work-bee this weekend, and put up notices.

She asked for volunteers to provide snacks and drinks, as well as child-care. A list for what needed to be done both inside and outside appeared.

And here's the amazing thing.  With just two days' notice, on the first really sunny day of the summer, and a long weekend, people  turned out.

Not a whole lot, but the ones who did worked very hard, and the building and the grounds look fabulous. The day ended with a terrific potluck.

Not all the chores got done, of course - the crayon marks are still there, and some of the tasks requiring heavy lifting need a champion.

But the community - from age four-and-a-half to 81 - pulled together and gave our beautiful home some long-needed tender loving care. Wow!

It's another reason why I love living here.

Kathryn

Team Tinfoil Stands Firm

On Monday we received an e-mail from Susana with the subject line: "CORIX WAS HERE TODAY! BC Hydro will be meeting with the community soon."

Once again Corix was trying to instal smart meters at Pacific Gardens, despite our expressed wishes not to have them in our building. Fortunately our  agreed-upon warning strategy worked.

Here is Susana's report of what happened:

"Kara sounded the alarm....dinner bells....thank you so much Kara!! She managed to give us warning before Corix was out of their vehicles.

There was an installer and a supervisor. They were in marked Corix vehicles and installer in uniform. Several of us met them at the door and refused the meters. Supervisor did all the talking, and assured us they would not install, but wanted to take a photo in the electrical room to prove that they had showed up.

In hindsight, we should have told them to take a photo of the front door, just like the other 3 times Corix has been here. They are more persuasive now, and we let them in just to take a photo of the room. It seemed innocent, as we have letters on all meters showing refusals.

The installer started going through each letter to photograph it, and the individual meters, so they could match up letters with account holders. They wanted to deal with each resident independently. This was NOT OK with us, and not what they had asked to do.  We told them that we are a community, and they must deal with us as a group. A copy of the letter sent on behalf of the Strata was handed to the supervisor.

John asked them 3 times to leave, which they ignored. When we said that we would only deal with BC Hydro and no longer with Corix, the supervisor said he would get a Hydro rep. to meet with us, maybe next week. Finally they left after having photographed several of the letters and meters.

Be prepared for a meeting with BC Hydro. We need to stand firm and not let them bully us. Windsong Cohousing in Langley, speaks as a group. If one Smart Meter is installed, it affects the community, so they are standing together. Let's do the same.

Thank you to everyone who has signed letters. These are very important. If anyone sees any Corix, Hydro or other installers, please ring the dinner bells throughout the building, both floors, as Kara so wonderfully did, which worked like a charm!!"

The members of Team Tinfoil will be on the alert for the sound of dinner bells.  We'll keep you posted as to what happens next in this ongoing saga!

Kathryn

Fun with Finances at Pacific Gardens

Pacific Gardens is a cohousing community, but it is also a condominium, so each year we are required to present a budget at our Annual General Meeting outlining our income and expenses and all that tedious financial stuff.

Now in other stratas I've lived in, the hapless owners got the budget delivered to them before the AGM, full of incomprehensible columns of figures, and at the meeting, were given a cursory explanation of what it all meant, before voting on it.

Not so at Pacific Gardens.  We do it differently.  First, we include everyone in discussions about the budget - owners, renters, and children. Second, we explain why we spend what we do in a way that people can understand. And third, we try to make it fun!

So, on Friday afternoon, we had a Fun with Finances table out in the atrium, with pie charts, wall posters, a list of frequently asked questions, quizzes, a draw for a prize, plus tea and ginger cookies.

This all took place amidst the usual bustle of activity in the atrium - children doing cartwheels, Matt replacing burnt-out bulbs in the hallway lights, and me distributing containers of soup left over from the Thursday night potluck.

Mia made sure that everyone who passed by got asked what they would like to see in this year's budget.  Anna, four, asked if there was money for bubbles. Her older brother, Joel, wanted a peach tree in the garden. Soma hoped we could have monkey bars for the kids to play on.

The adults mostly wanted to keep their strata fees the same, but when they saw how big the slices were for our hydro and insurance payments on the big colourful pie chart on the wall, they realized that might not be possible!

I used to be a reporter, and I was always told, "follow the money" when I was trying to figure out what was happening for a story.  If people were trying to hide how money was spent, you knew something wasn't right.

And if leaders of governments and organizations were open and honest about their finances and made a real effort to explain what they were doing, you knew they could be trusted.

Finances and budgets may seem boring, but how they're handled can tell you something about what a community is like to live in - whether it's run democratically, or just for a few, whether everyone's concerns are heard and respected, or ignored.

That's why we try to make finances fun at Pacific Gardens, because we want everybody who lives here to feel included.

Kathryn