Participation is an important aspect of living at Nyland that is different than living in a standard suburban neighborhood. It is through participation that you get to know your neighbors and create friendships. It is also how we get things done. Instead of paying a management company, landscapers, cleaning crews, etc. we all pitch-in and help out. While everyone finds their own way to help out, we expect every resident to:

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Land: A minimum of two 4-hour workdays per year or equivalent (8 hours). We find that the mornings spent together working create new relationships and foster old ones. These workdays focus on maintaining the land around Nyland and usually last from 9:00 to 1:00 on specific Saturdays or Sundays throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

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Common House: All adult residents are expected to attend two (2) kitchen cleaning days per year. They usually last about three hours. These workdays focus on keeping our community kitchen in good working order. They usually occur on designated Saturdays and Sundays through the year.

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WellBeing: Four 2-hour Community Meetings per year (8 hours).  At least one adult from every household is encouraged to come to all community meetings, especially since these meetings are the linchpin of our decision-making process.

 

CAG membership:  2 meetings per month or equivalent, for one of our Community Action Group (4 hours). These CAG's maintain all the different aspects of life at Nyland from upkeep of our land, to managing our common house, to dealing with conflict resolution. The amount of time varies from a few hours a month to many hours a week, depending on the seasonal nature of the work and available time of the involved individuals.

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Miscellaneous: Additional (ghost) work per month or equivalent (4 hours).

Attend “Skill Development” workshops:  (4 hours)

Average total contribution time = 2.5 hours per week

 

These participation guidelines reflect the principles and priorities of (1) long-term sustainability and enhancement of Nyland; (2) coming together as a whole community; (3) informed shared decision-making; (4) maintenance and development of common/shared areas; (5) and shared contribution and benefit. In general, contribution is expected, as is the fact that members will "opt out" occasionally for personal and/or family reasons.