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Crashers at Friends

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1Crashers at Friends Empty Crashers at Friends Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:26 pm

Caleb


Friend
Friend

So, a few weeks ago, we had a strung-out conversation via email about a specific person coming to spend a few nights at the house. None of us knew them, and the only connection we had was that someone in town had referred them to us as a potential place to stay.

Currently, Friends does not allow "crashers," meaning people staying at the house that aren't guests of one of the members. Other MCC houses do, and have certain policies guarding their rights and the crashers rights to things like food, how long they can stay before paying rent, and others.

We never really finished our conversation on crashers in emails. While I know this is probably something that will need to get brought up officially in a meeting, I thought we could use this forum to begin an open discussion of the subject. What are people's general feelings about crashers? If co-op houses are an example of a radical way of living outside the mass-marketed housing complex, should they or shouldn't they include other radical issues and stances on subjects like crashers, local food, community organizing?

(It'd be nice to have a more general discussion of radical issues house-wide, but here, mentioning them serves as an introduction to the specific issue of crashers and their ability to stay at Friends.)

Please participate in this discussion if you have an opinion on it...it'd be nice to get everyone's stance on this issue. Smile

2Crashers at Friends Empty Re: Crashers at Friends Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:57 pm

Will


Friend
Friend

cool, I think this is a good place to have an ongoing discussion like that.

Personally, I feel like I'd like to allow crashers, especially in keeping with the co op ethos. The problem is deciding who is trustworthy, since we obviously can't let anyone stay who gets a hold of our email. I think it would be alright if someone we trust can vouch for them, kind of like one of the current house members having a guest over that they can vouch for.

That said, allowing house members to have guests works because people have to take responsibility for their guests actions, which wouldn't necessarily work if it's just a former member saying something like "Oh yeah, he's cool, I trust him".

I dunno, I'd really like to allow some crashers, but unless we can figure out a good way to filter them I'm not sure how we could make it work.

3Crashers at Friends Empty Re: Crashers at Friends Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:37 pm

Josh


Friend
Friend

YAY CRASHERS

I totally think we should allow crashers. I know some houses make a current member vouch for a crasher as kind of step up to take responsibility. I dunno. We could also have like a short skype or phone interview with them with a couple members interested in vouching for the person to see if they seem cool on first glance.

Does this debate including non-human crashers like mice, i like them too! :-P..... of course i'm kidding, we aren't all fond of jainism.

"[A]ll breathing, existing, living sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away." — Acharanga Sutra (Jain) at 4.1.1.

4Crashers at Friends Empty Re: Crashers at Friends Mon Nov 01, 2010 12:43 pm

Caleb


Friend
Friend

I think having crashers fits right into the radical model of co-op living. However, having some form of safety system is important, especially because we are a mixed gender house. The initial interview system is good, along with vouching, and we should include something about any member being able to ask them to leave at any time if the crasher makes them uncomfortable.

I know Loth has a working system for crashers, and I can find out more about their system and what they do to prevent issues and things and such and so on.

Also, we could have a Couchsurfing page!

5Crashers at Friends Empty Re: Crashers at Friends Wed Nov 03, 2010 1:07 pm

Nnamhel


Friend
Friend

I'm definitely cool with crashers as long as, like Will said, we have some sort of filtering process to eliminate creepers... :/

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