Tracking Community Service Hours

Community service hours are typically required in cohousing and intentional communities that are also self-managed and governed by all members, not a board. This is done both to build a stronger community and to reduce expenses of maintaining the common facilities. In communities that are self supporting, in whole or in part; there is a commitment to growing a percentage of the community's food; or in ecovillages committed to reducing waste or recycling, the work requirements may be much higher.

In large conventional condominiums board service and committee work is most often voluntary. The contribution of hours may only be required if the management company or a service provider is on strike or otherwise unavailable. Then residents may be asked to work the front desk, sort mail, and perform any other non-specialized work, but even this is generally voluntary.

What Counts as Work?

In communities where a specified number of hours is required or requested, the community will have to define "job" or "community work." What counts? In some cases this is very clear. The halls, if any, need to be vacuumed and cleaned. The landscape needs to be maintained — the lawn mowed, flowers planted, and trees pruned. Public seating areas will have to be de-cluttered and and the pillows fluffed. Broken hinges and loose table legs will have to be fixed. No matter how the neat the kitchen or party room will have to be deep-cleaned.

In other cases, what serves the community will not be so clear, or the hours not so easily counted. If a resident attends a Green Festival and returns with ideas for new recycling or composting equipment receive credit? How many? The whole day? If a group of residents decides to make coffee for residents on Sunday morning, does that count?

Do board and committee members receive credit for meetings?

Some communities allow anything a resident wants to report to be credited. Others specify which jobs will be credited. The most organized method is to define the jobs the community needs along with the estimated number of hours required for each and have this approved as part of the budget process. The residents then agree to the total number of hours, the list of jobs, and the number of hours this will require of each member. If members will commit to fewer or more hours, the monthly fees will be increased or decreased adjusted accordingly.

Can Residents Pay Instead of Work?

When work is required or voluntary, residents are often allowed to pay an hourly rate instead of working. Some communities are concerned that this creates a two-tiered system, those who work and those who can afford to pay. This fear possibly arises from non-residential communities where some people do civic work while others do nothing. Or based on the experience of social activists who struggle for a cause while others who benefit from this work do nothing. The image evoked by the objectors is of one group laboring away mowing the lawn while another drinks sangria on the in the piazza.

In a self-managed and resident-governed community, there are so many other activities in which most if not all residents interact in social activities or governance that paying or working does not become a clear division. Whether one pays or works can vary from month to month, with the seasons, or with work cycles that may be more demanding in some months. Residents also struggle as equals with decisions about budget, broken boilers, and public behavior standards for children.

For people who live in communities where there is frequent interaction and shared concerns, the image of a poor working class and a rich leisure class has little relevance. And the truth is that the community needs money as much as it needs workers. Not all jobs can be done by residents. Money is needed to pay for of maintenance that can be dangerous for volunteers, repairs that require licensed and insured professionals, and major tasks that require specialized equipment like cleaning sewage pumps.

With the exception of communities that have made large commitments to be self-supporting, four hours is the usual monthly commitment, although some residents will contribute much more. Some communities keep the alternative payment rate so low all residents can afford it. They determine what the community believes is possible. Other standards used to determine the hourly rate is the local cost of unskilled labor or semi-skilled labor.

Should some jobs be worth more?

Does an accountant receive more credit for hours spent on community work than the person who vacuums the rug? Does the person doing childcare during meetings who also teaches the children music and story writing receive an amount between these two?

The argument in favor of valuing some resident's work higher than others is that the accountant is saving the community more money. Cleaning can easily be hired out. And childcare wouldn't be hired at all, certainly not music or creative writing lessons. Parents would be required to pay for this.

The argument against valuing some work more than others is that the amount of work required by the accountant is not more difficult or undesirable than cleaning floors. The person providing enriched childcare could not be replaced. Who would care as much for community children? And be available between lessons for questions or encouragement?

Perhaps the strongest argument against variable credit is that it creates a hierarchy and devalues the work of some even more than allowing some to pay rather than work. Just the conversations about which job is worth more or less will be divisive and emotionally difficult. Market rates could be used but even then there is a great range. Since residents might do a better job in some cases and a less skilled job in others, which range would be used?

An alternative is to treat the more specialized tasks that can be done by only one individual in the community differently. That accountant could be paid at the same rate the community would normally pay, and they would be expected to contribute work in addition. Or if the rate for community work is $15 with a 4 hour expectation, deduct $60 from the accountant's fee.

How do you record and credited? What If People Won't Report Hours?

Recording and counting hours is seems like a more complex task than it has to be.Just like computer programming is easy and "just logical" for some and writing a book is natural for others, recording and credited hours will be easy for others. And the hours spent doing it also counts as a job.

The easiest method is probably a simple spreadsheet with the names of residents down the side and the months of the year across the top. If residents are allowed to work more one month and less another, having an annual total is a good idea. With a monthly total for each person, it is easy to have a community total for the year. The community total is a number that the community can celebrate.

A database can be used if you have a member who can design one. It is also possible to use a program like Quicken by setting up budget accounts for each person and writing checks for each set of hours completed.

Reporting hours can be as simple as submitting a scrap of paper with the person's name, the name of the job, and the number of hours spent. If people can work for others, the name of the person to whom the hours should be credited. Reporting and recording hours can also be simplified by defining jobs so that not all jobs have to be reported every month.

Two methods used to ensure that people report their hours are to (1) automatically bill people at the end of the month or the quarter for any hours not reported or (2) charge a set amount each month and reimburse or credit those who report hours worked. Without one of these methods, communities report a lot of difficulty getting job reports.

What about defining jobs? What about jobs that take five minutes?

How jobs are defined affects the complexity of reporting. Many jobs are repetitive and performed by one person each month. Agreements to record these hours automatically can greatly simplify recording. But many people prefer to do different jobs each month, and not all jobs are respective so other methods are necessary.

For small jobs, like fixing the hinge on a door, workdays work wonders. One person receives work credit for keeping track of numerous small tasks, projects requiring several people, and those that need the supervision of one person. These are best done on scheduled monthly or bi-monthly workdays of 4-6 hours. Anyone who shows up can choose a job and their time credited as a chunk. Many people prefer to work this way because it requires no planning, is stress free, and means more interaction than working alone. (See Workdays for more information.)

Other jobs can be assigned a given number of hours, for example one hour for mowing the side lot, and be taken by initially a checklist on a bulletin board. This assignment of hours could be based on actual measurements over time or estimates that can be adjusted if they are too small or too large. Some people prefer these jobs because it means they can work faster than average but still fill their quota or take their time, even stop to have a conversation, without trying to remember how much time was spent working. And it is easier to work a variety of jobs each month.

Having jobs that can be done in a variety of ways will ensure that each resident can find one that fits their schedule. The bathrooms that can be cleaned at any time of day or night will fit a shift worker or someone with unpredictable work hours. Other will want a job that needs to be done every morning at 8:00 am or 11:00 pm.