After two and a quarter years after move in, my Durham Cohousing is considering how to address turnover, when one of our members leaves the community. For many, the thought of valuable members leaving is disconcerting, as is the question of how to ensure new members will fit into the community, but we recognize the importance and necessity of being prepared.

We have organized a “Turnover Working Group” to explore options. As part of our explorations, we examined approaches and policies from other communities – which are compiled in the attached, made possible by my good neighbor Carolyn Kroll. Many thanks to the established communities who have generously shared their experiences.

While our efforts will likely take several more months, our early work has identified these underlying thoughts

• Turnover is an opportunity to continually attract folks who are a good match for cohousing and our community

• Turnover can be a positive experience. While we are saying goodbye to a current member, we are also broadening the skills, talents, ideas and perspectives that are contributed to this community by a new member.

• The vision for this process of turnover is that each current member of DCPCC shares a commitment to being a good neighbor and being a seller that wants to help the Community “replace yourself” with the best new community member possible.

I would welcome other sharings, which can be added to this resource. Please email AliceCohoUS@gmail.com.