All adults in your Mosaic Commons household should meet these requirements and plan to sign on at the same meeting. Household members added after the initial household sign-on should meet these requirements and sign on as soon as possible. (A 'household' is a group of people who will be sharing a single Mosaic Commons unit.)
Mosaic Commons welcomes the participation of households who qualify for 40b and plan to apply for the 40b lottery. Participation is not required in order to apply for the lottery, and we cannot influence the lottery or guarantee a 40b slot. Such households are welcome to join and participate in the group process and decision making as Associates of Mosaic Commons, and must meet all of the regular Associate requirements. They are not required to make an initial contribution and may pay reduced monthly dues of $20 per household.
Wondering how you can you fit involvement in Mosaic Commons into your life? Click here.
Requirements to become an Associate:
Actively participate in the group for at least 30 days. During that time:
- Become familiar with the history and process of creating cohousing. To do that, we recommend you review the cohousing.org website and that you read:
- Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett and
- The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community by Chris ScottHanson & Kelly ScottHanson.
- Attend meetings regularly and workshops as scheduled.
- Participate on teams and perform action items.
- Demonstrate the ability to work constructively within the Mosaic Commons community.
- Understand and agree to support our previous decisions, as well as our current contracts, budgets, legal documents, and policies, as well as the site, environmental, common house, and unit design programs.
- Inform the Coordinating team about your involvement with any other cohousing groups/organizations.
- Financial contribution: $50 initially, then monthly dues of $30 for the first, $20 for the second, and $15 for each additional participant from your household.
Once you and your mentor agree that you have met these requirements, you should state your intent to become an Associate during the "announcements" portion of the meeting. If the group agrees that you have met the requirements, you then sign this agreement: Associate Agreement.
Requirements to become an Equity Member
First, you must fulfill all of the requirements above for Associates in order to become an Equity Member. You may become an Equity Member without being an Associate first, but you must still fulfill all of the above requirements.
In addition, you should:
- Take part in at least one discussion outside of a General Meeting to learn more about the diversity, culture, and informal history of Mosaic. The informal gathering(s) should include at least the household's mentor and another equity member the household did not know prior to joining Mosaic.
- Contribute a minimum 5% of your unit cost (as shown here). Exceptions and payment plans may be made on a case-by-case basis with the finance team. You must also pre-qualify for the amount of the mortgage you will need on your unit. Being accepted for equity membership does not guarantee you a particular unit, just a specific unit type, contingent upon final ZBA approval of our site plan.
Once you and your mentor agree that you have met these requirements, you should announce your intention to become an Equity member during the "announcements" portion of a general meeting, or in email to the group at least two weeks before a general meeting.
The Current Associates and Equity Members will decide on the membership by consensus. For details on the group process for handling Equity Membership applications, click here.
Presuming the group comes to a favorable consensus, you sign this agreement: Equity Member Agreement and the Operating Agreement.
