Common House Guidelines for Guests

Please accept a warm welcome to our Common House (CH).  We hope you find the CH as warm and inviting as we do. We think of the CH as our home and hope you can help us keep it that way. Thank you for taking the trouble to follow these requests. Note that during your event, TVC residents are likely to go through the CH to get mail, use other CH spaces, or to go upstairs.

Purpose:

  • These guidelines are for: 1) guests coming for an event or meeting and 2) guests staying in the guestrooms or in private homes and have occasion to use the CH.

Set up and Clean Up

  • Please keep the cork floor around the perimeter of the Dining Room clear of furniture to ensure accessibility for the residents.
  • In using your reserved room(s), please set up the tables and chairs as you wish. After their use, please put back tables and chairs and furniture/toys in the Children’s Room as directed by your TVC host.
  • At the end of the event, please wipe off all surfaces, sweep or vacuum the floor of the room used. Cleaning equipment and supplies are located in the Laundry Room closet or under the kitchen sink. If appropriate, ask your host to leave the vacuum in a convenient place for your use.
  • Remove trash, compost, and recyclables to the appropriate receptacles outside the CH back door.

Security and Safety

  • Hosts and guests must provide adequate adult supervision for their children (i.e., adult presence) when kids are playing in the Children’s Room, in any part of the Common House or anywhere on TVC’s grounds.
  • No children of residents or guests are permitted in the Workshop, Kitchen, Laundry, or Office except with adult supervision.
  • The Hot Tub and the Exercise Room are off limits to children.
  • Stairs and elevator, 2nd and 3rd floor indoor walkways and outdoor corridors are off limits to visiting adults and children unless your host gives specific approval.   Exception: visiting adults and children staying on the 2nd and 3rd floors.  Please keep the stairwell doors securely closed.

Event Noise:

  • Events that are loud (amplified music, large groups, etc.) require pre-approval from the membership and should be submitted to the Community Team by the host. TVC Bylaws state: “Unit Owners, residents and lessees shall exercise extreme care to avoid unnecessary noise or the use of musical instruments, radios, televisions and amplifiers that may disturb other Unit Owners.”

Privacy:

Audio and visual recordings taken by media, academics, or any other person may take place and be used, only with the permission of members and guests who are present. This restriction includes: display of photos of members and/or their children on the TVC official web page; display of photos of TVC residents that other co-housing groups may wish to take and use; publication in any form by guests of written details of TVC meetings.

Donations:

When space is reserved for non-resident events that charge admission, are revenue generating, or that use the CH facilities for an extended period of time, attendees are requested to make a contribution of either:

1)    $2.00 per person or a minimum of $25.00; or,

2)   Items from a suggested list of furniture, appliances, linens, etc. (Ask your host for a list); or,

3)    Time or labor for maintenance, TVC community workdays, or special projects.

The host is responsible for collecting any monetary donations and submitting these to the TVC Treasurer.

The examples cited below are offered to help clarify the issue of donations. We very much want the CH to be used as much as possible. Choosing to make a donation is a matter of your discretion.

No Donation Requested

Non-profit groups meetings, such as bike trails.

Middle Atlantic Cohousing (MAC) mtg.

Work-related groups using CH for a few hours

Occasional neighborhood association mtgs.

Donations Requested

MAC conference for which an attendance fee is charged.

Work-related group using CH for ½ day or more.

We welcome your comments and suggestions. Please give them to your host. Thank you!