Most co-ops are run by a volunteers who look after
maintenance and serve on the co-op’s board of directors. As in most
organizations, a few people do more work than others. This can lead to friction
which can be especially hard to deal with when living in close proximity. At least our
co-op didn’t have to deal with living at close quarters. Our initial meetings
showed that our membership was made up of a few different factions. But I
believed we were all interested in one thing – affordable housing.
When we divided up the jobs necessary to run the co-op, the
male partner of the couple known to us became president and his wife was part
of the financial committee; my boyfriend was the head of the maintenance
committee and, as his partner, I kept the maintenance records so was also part
of the finance committee. The other finance committee member was the treasurer,
also a woman.
Under Construction: A
History of Co-operative Housing in Canada uses a quote from Alex Laidlaw
which I found particularly apropos. “It is as difficult as democracy itself. We
never say, and nobody should say, that co-operatives are automatically the
solution to housing problems. They are never any better than the people that
run them.” (p 69) This turned out to be especially true when it came to our
co-op.
The house on Prescott Street
Sources
Cole, Leslie. Under
Construction: A History of Co-operative Housing in Canada, Borealis Press,
Ottawa, Ontario, 2008.
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