Editing ELS/Norms (section)

== ELS is a cooperative living space ==

Every cooperative is different! In ELS, living cooperatively, means:

* We buy food and drink as a group and share them. We expect guests to participate in the cooperative by contributing to purchases of food and drink for the house and by consuming things that the house buys.
* We're rather informal about things. We ''don't'' do formal splitting of bills for groceries and house items. That means if you haven't purchased stuff for a while, maybe you should buy something written on the fridge! The details of the cooperative—in terms of payment, what is purchased, and special items that belong to one person, etc.—is always up for discussion.
* We have dinner together most nights and we'd really love it if you ate with us at least a few nights nights each week. We typically eat rather late (9-10:30pm most nights) but things are flexible and we try to work around each other's schedules. We typically start cooking—and drinking cocktails—closer to 8-8:30pm each night and we'd love it if you joined us for that too.
* Don't expect the same level of privacy that you would get in a hotel or apartment. The guest room leads to the sun room, and others may pass through to work from that space. The walls are fairly thin. We do respect closed doors.
* If folks are staying for a while, we expect them to help out with house chores and chip in for rent and utilities. Chores are also done in an informal way; tasks typically involve picking up dishes, cleaning up the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, wiping down the tables, taking out trash/compost and so on.